LONG SERVICE IN HOUSE

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 71, Issue 6144, 3 October 1945, Page 5

LONG SERVICE IN HOUSE

MR .FRASER ENTERS TWENTYEIGHTH YEAR OTHER LONG-TERM RECORDS When Parliament resumes to-day the Prime Minister, Mr P. Fraser, will have entered his twenty-eighth year as a member of the House of Representatives. He succeeded Sir Apirana Ngata after the elections in 1943 as “ father of the House, 0 having the longest period of continuous service. He is sixty-one years of age. The longest period of total service in the House of Representatives is held by Mr H. Atmore, member for Nelson, whose first term was from 1911 to 1914. He was again elected in 1919, giving him 28 years of service, of which 25 have been continuous. Two present Ministers, Mr W. E. Parry (Auckland) and Mr D. G. Sullivan (Avon) have also had 25 years’ continuous service. Next in length of service are Mr McKeen (Wellington South), 22 years’ continuous serv&e, and Mr Hamilton (Wallace), 22 years’ total service, of which 19 have been continuous. Mr Langstone (Waimarinp) has had 19 years’ total service, of •which 16 have been continuous; Mr J. O’Brien (Westland), Minister of Transport, 19 years’ continuous service; Mr H. G. R. Mason (Auckland Suburbs), Minister of Education, 18 years’ continuous service; Mr Robert Semple (Wellington East), Minister of Works, 17 years’ total service, of which 16 have been continuous; Mr P. C. Webb (Buller), Minister of Mines, 16 years’ total service, <of which 11 have been continuous; Mr Bodkin (Central Otago), Mr Broadfoot (Waitomo), Mr Carr (Timaru), Mr Chapman (Wellington North), and Mr Polson (Stratford) have had 16 years’ continuous service, and Mr Walter Nash (Hutt), Minister of Finance, 15 years’ continuous service.

In the group with 13 years’ continuous service are the Speaker (Mr F. W. Schramm), the two Government Whips, Messrs Richards (Roskill) and Coleman (Gisborne), and the Minister of Defence Mr F. Jones. Mr Massey (Franklin) has had 13 years’ total service, of which six have been continuous.

The representative of the Maori race on the Executive Council, Mr Tirikatene (Southern MaoriJ, has had 12 years’ continuous service. Next comes Mr Murdoch (Marsden), with 11 years’, total service.