DEPUTY LEADER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23616, 28 March 1940, Page 15

DEPUTY LEADER

THE HON. P. FRASER SERVICE TO PARTY lABOURER' TO MINISTER CAREER IX PARLIAMENT Ponding the choice of a Primp Minister tn succeed Mr. Savage, tho duties of that office will be carried out tiv the Hon. P,eter Fraser, who was Mr. Savage's able deputy during nearly the whole of his illness. Born in the north of Scotland oo vears ago. 31 r. Fraser is a Now Zeainnder of nearly IU) years' standing, and so far as length of Parliamentary experience went, he-could claim a year's seniority over his late leader, having been elected in October, 1918, for ■Wellington Central, the seat which lie has .represented ever since. His birthplace is Foam. Ross-shire, a few miles from the Moray Firth. 110 attended the village school and after leaving it nt an early age to take up work lie attended a night school. In his own words, lie received "the usual education of a working-class child" in 19th-century Scotland. Genuine Love of Learning If his formal schooling was brief, it implanted i" him a genuine love of learning, and like many another Scot of humble origin he has been - a lifelong student, particularly of so iology. philosophy ami literature in the widest Bense of tbe t eriu. From the beginning Mr. Fraser took a keen interest in politics and became secretary of his villageiLiberal Association. Going south in search of wider opportunities. lu> abandoned Liberalism as "spent and dying," and while in London in 1908 he joined the Independent Labour/ Party. Start in Dominion Arriving in/,New Zealand two years later, he worked at first as a labourer and watcrsidor in Auckland, Wellington and other parts of the North island, and for -a period was president of the Auckland General Labourers' T'nioti. Hb also joined the Socialist Party jis an active propagandist. When the upsurge of the industrial Labour movement gathered strength after the . Beform Party's accession to power in 2911, lie joined in enthusiastically and was appointed to the executive of the newly-formed Federation of Labour. However, h|s true inclinations were more toward political than industrial action in the interests of the workers, and oft the formation of the Social Democratic Party, which --emerged from# the Unity Conference of 1913. he was elected its national secretary. Later, when it was reconstituted as the New Zealand Labour Party, he became an executive member and eventually vice-president and president. Election to Parliament During the. Great War. Mr. Fraser • joined other leaders of the Labour movement in opposing conscription, and. like a number of men who held similar views op war at that time, he had to answer charges under the war legislation in 1916 and served a term of imprisonment. « At a by-election in October. 1918, shortly before hostilities ceased, he / contested and won the Wellington Contra! seat bv a substantial absolute majority over three opponents. Returned again at tin? general election the following year, lie polled in 1922 more Tou'-' than anv other candidate in New Zealand f

Resourceful Debatei During the years that followed, Mr. Fraser became an able lieutenant of the late Mr. H. fc. Holland and a pillar of the steadily-growing Parliamentary Labour Party, which he served for a time as secretary. He was soon known as an able and resourceful, if not a polished, debater. His chief interest was social reform, and the needs of what ho and the Labour Party regarded as the under-privileged classes. Mr. Fraser also acquired an almost unequalled knowledge of Parliamentary procedure, arid used it with great tactical effect in the "stonewalls" which Labour continually raised against measures of the Massey and Coates Governments. When Mr. Holland died in 19.'5f he succeeded Mr. Savage as deputy-leader of the party. He found time to take part in local politics, sitting for two terms in the Wellington City Council and nearly winning the Mavoraltv in a contest with Mr. R, A. Wright in 1923. / Activities as Minister When Labour gained office in IJXVj. the portfolios of Kdueation and Health went to Mr. . Fraser as a matter of course, and almost of right. He was in the happy position of being able to terminate nearlv all the measures of retrenchment that had been introduced bv his predecessors in the depression and to embark upon a careful programme of evolutionary educational development. v It has gone on in an unspectacular but thorough fashion ever since, and h;is been marked by general public approval. His policy in regard to health lias laid special emphasis on the welfare of mothers and infants, schoolchildren and the Maori people. The Outbreak of War •Just before he became a Minister Mr. Fraser visited Kurope in J !)•'}•") as representative of the New Zealand workers at the International Labour Conference. «in<l attended a conference of the Km pin*' Parliamentary Union in London at the time of the silver jubilee of King George \ ■ When the Prime Minister, Mr. Savage, left in 19.57 to attend the Coronation Mr. I'raser carried out the duties of head of the Government for several months with evident efficiency, also holding the portfolio of Finance during the absence of the Hon. W. Nash. The illness of Mr. Savage last August made Mr. Fraser an obvious choice for the position of deputy-Prime Minister. Less than a month later he undertook lieavv responsibility for detail matters in the communications with the Imperial Government which brought New Zealand promptly into the war. He was then called upon to make an arduous journey to Britain by air in order to represent the Dominion at the Imperial War Council. Call to Maximum Effort Mr. Fraser met all the Allied war leaders, visited the Western Front and returned to toll a stirring tale of his experiences and sound a trumpet call to a maximum war effort. In his work for public health Mr. Fraser has received constant help from Ins wife, a Scots lady, who has an office of her own near his in Parliament Buildings. They have no family. Of late Mr. Fraser has come to be regarded as one of the strongest stabilising influences in t'lie Parliamentary labour Party, and ori personal grounds aas won an increasing measure of regard from New Zealanders of every Political creed.