he thought that the majority wanted to have a new leader. By 1954 a majority of the caucus was in favour of leadership change but pressure from the unions and continued support from Party branches allowed Nash to survive the subsequent caucus vote. Second Labour government After Labour won the 1957 election, Mason returned to his previous roles of Attorney General and Minister of Justice. He was also made Minister of Health. In 1959 he introduced a bill proposing that men convicted of homosexual acts should be dealt with as merely indecent assaults and therefore carry a lighter penalty. Mason was unfairly and inaccurately accused of attempting to amend the law to legalise homosexual acts between consenting males and adopt the recommendations of the 1957 Wolfenden Report on homosexuality in England which was not the case. In 1961 National's deputy leader Jack Marshall was to retract much of his party's criticism claiming they had misunderstood the intention of the bill. Later career Mason eventually retired from politics at the 1966 election, under a certain amount of pressure from colleagues who wished to "rejuvenate" the Labour Party. Mason was now in his eighties. Two years earlier he had broken Āpirana Ngata's record for the longest consecutive service in parliament and Maurice O'Rorke's record for the longest overall service in parliament. He is the only person to have served as an MP for over 40 years. He was invited by new Prime Minister Norman Kirk as a guest of honour to the first meeting of caucus following Labour's victory in the 1972 election where he oversaw the election of the cabinet. In the 1967 New Year Honours, Mason was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, for public services. Death Mason died in Wellington on 2 April 1975, aged 89, and his ashes were buried in Karori Cemetery. Mason Street in his home electorate of New Lynn is named after him. Notes References |- |- |- |- |- |- |- |- |- |- |- 1885 births 1975 deaths People from Wellington City Attorneys-General of New Zealand People educated at Wellington College (New Zealand) Mayors of places in the Auckland Region Members of the Cabinet of New Zealand New Zealand Labour Party MPs 20th-century New Zealand lawyers Victoria University of Wellington alumni New Zealand education ministers Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives New Zealand MPs for