UNBROKEN RECORD.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 31433, 13 April 1923, Page 5

UNBROKEN RECORD.

MR MASSEY IN PARLIAMENT. The Prime Minister of New Zealand (the Rt. Hon. W. F. Massey has completed 29 years of uninterrupted Parliamentary service. His is the longest unbroken record possessed by any member of the present House. Mr Massey made a passing reference to his record in a speech he delivered at Levin. "It was 29 yearsi yesterday,” he said, ‘"since 1 was: first elected to Parliament. That is an unbroken period. 1 have not been defeated, though one never knows what may happen in the future. I have seen maa-vellous surprises at election time, but my Waterloo has not yet come. I don’t know whether I shall wait for it to come. That remains to be seen. 1 am the father of the House at present. There are .men in Parliament who were there before me, but their record is not unbrokn. Either I am up to Mr Seddon’s record or very- close to it. So far as his office was concerned, he was 13 years Prime Minister. Up to the presentI have been Prime Aiinister eleven years, or I shall have been by tbe time the House meets again.” Mr Massey added that for his long term in Parliament he had the loyalty of his supporters in the Franklin electorate to thank. They had a way of telling him at election time to devote only one or two nights to them;- and then leave to attend to affairs elsewhere. No man could stand on the quarter deck for so many years as he had done and escape the liability to err occasionally. He had made mistakes, and was ready to acknowledge it • but his mistakes had never been due to intention or neglect.