michael joseph savage

This house at 66 Harbour View Road, Northland, Wellington, was purchased by the government for the use of Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage in 1939, shortly before his death. Savage's successor, Peter Fraser, also lived there.

The alliance between the Rātana Church and the Labour Party was cemented at an historic meeting between Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana and Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage on 22 April 1936.

In 1928 T.W. Rātana announced his intention to enter politics, referring to the four Maori seats as the ‘four quarters’ of his body. He aimed to win these seats through the voting power of his followers, who were said to number 40,000 by 1934.

This portrait of Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage was taken in 1935, the year the Labour government he led swept into power. This government is best remembered for its landmark social welfare reforms, especially the Social Security Act of 1938 and the state housing scheme.

When New Zealand declared war on Germany on 3 September the Prime Minister, Michael Joseph Savage, was recovering from an operation forcolon cancer. Acting Prime Minister Peter Fraser issued a statement in his place. Two days later Savage addressed the public from his sickbed at his home in Northland, Wellington. The address was broadcast across the national radio network that evening, and was widely reported in newspapers in the days that followed.

A charismatic ex-soldier, orator and writer, John A. Lee had been active in the New Zealand Labour Party since shortly after the First World War. Following Labour’s landslide victory in 1935, he fully expected to be in Cabinet. But Prime Minister M.J. Savage no longer liked or trusted Lee, with whom he had clashed over both policy and tactics. Lee believed Savage was unnecessarily cautious; Savage thought Lee was too wild and unconventional.