Milestones, Sep. 16, 1974

Died. Norman Eric Kirk, 51, thunder-voiced politician who ended the New Zealand Labor Party's twelve-year exile from power and became Prime Minister after a 1972 electoral sweep; of a heart attack; in Wellington. A onetime manual laborer, 6-ft. 1-in., 250-lb.

"Big Norm " first went to Parliament in 1957 and climbed rapidly, rising to Labor Party chief when he was 42. As Prime Minister and also Foreign Minister, Kirk favored developing unindustrialized regions in his country's southern island, recalled New Zealand's troops from Southeast Asia and vociferously opposed French nuclear testing in the...

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