Nordy: A Political Biography.

• Author: Brown, Bruce

NORDY A Political Biography

Author: Mary Logan

Published by: Steele Roberts, Wellington, 2008, 488pp, $52.99.

This book is subtitled d Political Biography, but its coverage of political events in New Zealand over much of the 20th century suggests that it might well be sub-titled His Life and Times. The book is very well researched, including interviews with Arnold Nordmeyer. The cover has a number of tributes to Nordmeyer from fellow parliamentarians, including his opponents, notably that from Robert Muldoon--'a remarkable politician and parliamentarian, as straight as they come--probably the most brilliant mind of any politician in my time'.

Nordmeyer was born in Dunedin in 1901, son of a German seaman and an Irish mother. As a schoolboy he was run over by a dray which fractured his skull, an injury which resulted in his being medically rejected when he volunteered for service in the Second World War. The opening chapters of the book describe his time at Otago University then Knox College and entry to the Presbyterian ministry. He was a strong and athletic man--a hockey representative for Otago BHS. He was also a skilful practical builder, who built his own house when posted as Presbyterian minister in Kurow (and many years later, again in Wellington).

The early chapters of the book deal at some length with his early political career after he had been elected Labour MP for Oamaru in the sweeping Labour victory in the 1935 general election. There is a lengthy description of his early support for John A. Lee in the battle of leftish Caucus rebels to induce Prime Minister Michael Savage to agree to allow Caucus to elect members of Cabinet, leaving the Prime Minister to allocate the portfolios. Savage resisted this, but Peter Fraser later conceded it.

There is much on Lee in these early chapters--more than on Nordmeyer in parts. Nordmeyer's association with Lee, which he later came to regret (he told me Lee was too vain and self-obsessed), had the effect of making leading trade unionists, notably F.P. Walsh, wary of him. Lee was expelled at the 1940 Labour Party Annual Conference--effected by a constitutional change which gave the trade unions a larger number of delegates to the conference. Nordmeyer did not defend Lee's action in writing a devastating criticism of Savage (who was dying of cancer) but argued that he had already been punished by being dismissed from his position as Under-Secretary for State Housing, under the overall...