Energy and Drive

Te Ao Hou, September 1965, Page 7

Energy and Drive Dedication to ideals lies at the heart of all he does. Astonishing, punishing, even frightening energy and drive is the secret of how he gets it done. An active, inquiring mind always open to suggestion, particularly when it stems from the United States which he knows well and admires, helps him to decide what to do. A morning I spent with him, caring for the sick, admonishing the wayward, encouraging the faint-hearted, arguing with the unconvinced, left me worn out. At one house it was pills and advice, at another it was a tin of paint and a direct order to put it on the laundry, at a third it was medicine and gentle, even tender, words of comfort, at the next a pane of glass and finger shaken at a broken window. At another place there was a discussion on educational policy in which his views were put forward with quite devastating bluntness. Then we climbed over a building project where men were working on a co-operative basis, ‘you help me build my place and I’ll help you with yours'. He left me to attend two meetings, four patients and a wedding. This is the pattern of all his days. He is the slave of his own high ideals and he is his own ruthless slave-driver. He charges at problems of economics, housing, education, health and equality with the same bounce and fire that drove him round a scrum in the good old days.