LOFTY LEADER

NZ Truth, Issue 1127, 7 July 1927, Page 6

LOFTY LEADER

YOU might say of the Hon. Sir Heaton Rhodes, M.L.G., that his greatest hobbies m life are politics and flower gardens. Anyway, both need •watering. r The present Leader of the "Lards" Is of the undemonstrative, courteoua variety and if any attribute stands out more than another it is his intense loyalty to Reform's political flowerpatch. Indeed, m very many .ways he has "come to the aid of the party." Of erect, upright figure— the ineffaceable brand of the military days when he served m South Africa— Sir Heaton is . an ex-Oxford man and barrister-at-law. He has had a meritorious career m Parliament, standing up to the rigors of opposition as good as any of the political nine-pins m the hectic days of close divisions. „ „*"..: . He is not an orator. To be fair to him, we must say that he believes m his party and his party believes— or, rather, believed— in him. He never made a howling success of sponsoring a Bill through the commit- -v tee stages, but then not every politician does. . Probably his best piece of eloquence m the lower chamber was his rather touching— certainly . sincere *-t "farewell"; a last long farewell to hon. members before his - departure to "another place."