NATIONAL LEADER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22805, 12 August 1937, Page 15

NATIONAL LEADER

HON. ADAM HAMILTON MR. F. W. DOIDGE'S TRIBUTE* PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS Warm tributes to the personal qualities of the Leader of; the National Party, the Hon. Adam Hamilton, were expressed by Mr. F. W. Doidge in speaking at a meeting held under the auspices of the party at Onowhero last night. " At last election an organised minority triumphed over an unorganised majority," said Mr. Doidgo. There could bo no confusion at the next general .election;, the fight would bo a straight-out issue between thoso who wanted Socialism and thoso who did not.

"Tn the past 20 years," said Mr. Doidge, " I have had the good fortune to know, more or less intimately, many of the great men of our time. In recent months I have boon closely associated with Adam Hamilton.' I have never met,a,man quite like liim. His thoroughness goes so deep that it is often disconcerting, even exasperating. His honesty is ingrained. At tho conference table, planning party policy, to every suggestion ho applies the samo acid test: 'ls that a promise we can perform?'

" Mr. Hamilton is ns well aware as any other man of the inexhaustible gullibility of the average elector. But ho will never be a party to its exploitation. Tho policy Mr. Hamilton produces will contain no spectacular array of glittering promises. Whatever that policy may be, rest assured it will be, like tho man himself, scrupulously and starkly honest. Mr. Hamilton is of tho fearless, upright type to whom the people will instinctively turn when they seek escape from the treacherous quicksands of Socialism.

" Cartoonists delight in caricaturing Mr. Hamilton as a dour fellow," continued Mr. Doidge. " They are wrong. He is the kindliest man, with the friendliest smile. .There, is within his nature a rich humanity. He believes that tho aim of . all" honest political endeavour should be the raising of the standard of life. Adam Hamilton, in power, will carry social legislation to the fullest limits compatible with national finances. He will make a New Zealand Prime Minister of the Stanley Baldwin typo. " The National Party has gathered into its ranks all those who lost their political bearings at tho. last election. The old political factions are as dead as the Wars of the Roses. Tho new National Party consolidates within its ranks all tho anti-Socialist forces. Before the end of next year Mr. Hamilton will be Prime Minister of New Zealand."