MR MASSEY

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14764, 1 October 1921, Page 4

MR MASSEY

Hon. W. F. Massey, the Dominion Prime Minister, has returned to New Zealand, after attending one of the most arduous and at the same time the most important gatherings of Imperial statesmen in the annals of the Empire. He will be warmly welcomed home by all sections of the community and by those of all shades of political thought, for all recognise that in the person of the Premier the Dominion possesses a strong, a capable, a coiv scientious and loyal leader who has met great crises unflinchingly and guided the ship of State safely through troublous seas. Upon the occasion of his entering the tenth year of office as Prime Minister, the New Zealand Times, a journal which can in no sense be classified as a supporter of the Reform Party, penned a generous tribute to the great services he rendered to the Empire and Dominion during the war and subsequent thereto. From that tribute we extract the following, and we are sure one and all will endorse the sentiments therein expressed:—No Prime Minister of New Zealand has ever faced 'such vast responsibility; none had undertaken a task so complex and difficult. That he was equal to the responsibility and the demands of the complexities and difficulties is his title to the admiration of the people of the Dominion, who are ever proud to say that in their self-reliant country the trying occasion always finds the capable man. He will be the first to recognise that he did not stand alone to acknowledge the advantage of the political truce which joined all parties in the great struggle, and to give credit to the Liberal chief and his colleagues, who came into line with him, sharing the arduous work of the war, and solving the unexpected problems of the dark unknown that brooked no delay. But he was the Prime Minister at the head of all, and his broad .shoulders carried their due weight most worthily. Nothing escaped his vigilance. Weariness never diminished the energy or shortened the length of his industryNo consideration ever induced him to spare himself. ' Early and late, and always, he gave the very best that was in him to his country, and throughout he did his strenuous duty with a calmness that was never ruffled, with an evenness of temper that was nevedisturbed by sharp tone or harsh word, with an accessibility that was open to all who had petition to make or suggestion to bring forward. In Parliament be was ever the central figure. In every one of the many incurs of danger the country passed through his was the reassuring voice, and his was the face that always remained serene. From the dark days of the great retreat to the Marne, through the terrible lime of fcallipoli, the frightful casualty lists of the Somme and Passchendaele, through the great perils of the submarine war, and the last battle fluctuations right on to the triumphant mareh of the Allied armies to the Rhine—from first to last he was just what,.a leader should be of a brave people in a great crisis of their fate. Fully acknowledged by a grateful people at the centre of the Empire, he went several times as the leader of this Dominion, and there met appreciation as great as he had won from his own people. When the peace treaty was under discussion, at Paris he was given the chairmanship of an important committee of famous statesmen, and was cordially acknowledged to have presided wisely and well. On his prcsJht visit he was received with the honour he had won, and he represents his people on the Imperial'Conference with a voice that is listened to with attention and a judgment held in respect. Such is the career he has had: unexpected at first, reaching the greatest height ever attained by a Prime Minister of this Dominion, and now, after nine years, fully acknowledged at Home and abroad. What remains before him has but one certainty: It is the certainty of such trouble as no Prime Minister of ours has ever encountered- The work of reconstruction is before him, with the ruins of the world impeding the efforts of his people. It is a tremendous task for any man to undertake as head of a Government. He will have with him the sympathy of every man with the heart of a man in his breast."