New Zealand’s first Labour prime minister, Michael Joseph Savage, died in office on 27 March 1940. His body lay in state at Parliament for two days before his funeral cortège, which was more than 1.6 km long, set off for the railway station at 9 a.m. on 30 March.
Funerals
Events In History
10 June 1906
Known as 'King Dick', Seddon had dominated New Zealand politics since the early 1890s. His Liberal government established the tradition of state-supported welfare in this country.
Main image: Dealing with grief on the Western Front
In 1914 most New Zealanders made sense of the costs of war through the idea of the good Christian death. This form of consolation and ritual could not prepare people for the scale and manner of death experienced during the war, particularly in France and Belgium.
