Former prime minister Norman Kirk. Photo: Peter Bush
On his way to St Peter's College in Palmerston North, prime minister Norman Kirk was so ill that his chauffeur-driven car had to pull over and wait while he relieved himself in bushes near the road.
At the school, he revealed a plaque to mark its opening.
He then delivered a speech described as pessimistic, decrying a focus on the "superficial benefits of the affluent age" as society turned away from a collective community toward evil.
The school opening on 18 August 1974 was Kirk's last public appearance.
Ten days later, he was famously pictured striding into the Home of Compassion Hospital in Island Bay, Wellington. He died on 31 August, aged 51.
His two years in office were frenetic on the home front and in foreign policy. His government recognised China, protested French nuclear testing in the Pacific, refused to allow a racially selected Springbok rugby team entry, and introduced a retirement savings scheme - although his social conservatism would not fit with the left wing of today.
His failing health was apparent for some time, but New Zealanders did not know the extent of his problems until shortly before his death. In April 1974 he had an operation to remove varicose veins. By mid-August he had taken a couple of days off, but was clearly struggling.
He was medically examined on 27 August and found to have an enlarged heart and a blood clot in his lungs, as well as a sore stomach due to a liver problem, among other ailments.
His private secretary Margaret Hayward, who wrote the detailed Diary of the Kirk Years, did not want Kirk to go to Palmerston North, but he insisted.
He wanted to do it for his friend, city MP Joe Walding, who had worked hard and well as minister of environment and overseas trade, and because he was interested in the school, she said.
The government had given the Catholic college a state advances loan for about a third of its $1 million cost to build.
Walding's electorate was also considered marginal and he lost to National's John Lithgow in the 1975 Muldoon landslide. Lithgow held the seat for only a term, and it has been in Labour hands since.
Hayward said Kirk had been worried about his health for some time, but despite asking, his doctor said he did not need to go to hospital. It was after seeking a second opinion that this happened.
"It seems to have been a clot that was never recognised and later he was fighting it all the time. He was very worried."
Hayward said she could not remember if she remonstrated with Kirk about the Palmerston North trip, but thought it was likely.
"I didn't think I was like that but people did say to me after he died that I was inclined to say what I thought, which I didn't realise because I would have been doing it out of concern."
Despite looking ill in TV coverage of his visit, Hayward wrote in her diary that newspaper reports did not mention Kirk's health.
"In those days people were much more discreet about what they wrote about people's personal lives, in particular," Hayward told RNZ.
"It was strange that they didn't mention that he looked ill, and it was a great effort on his part in my view ... he was the sort of person who would go the second or third mile for people, but not for himself."
In Palmerston North, Kirk stood in the rain for the opening ceremony.
The St Peter's board chair, Monsignor Tom Duffy, told TVNZ in 1985 about his memories of the day.
"Just before going to lunch [Kirk] said, 'Tom, did you mind if I spend a penny?' He was away for 20 minutes.
"When he came back to the table all he could have was a little bit of apple tart - no wine - and soon after that he disappeared again for a while."
Duffy walked the school's grounds with Kirk's wife, Ruth.
"She said, 'I'd like to tell you something very serious, but keep it to yourself. The prime minister is dying'."
Concern about his health was mounting, and one New Zealand journalist even wrote a story for the Guardian speculating Kirk had cancer.
Kirk returned from Palmerston North and chaired Cabinet the next day, but could not do the post-Cabinet press conference. His deputy, Hugh Watt, told reporters he had a bad flu.
Kirk's wife and daughter had gone to Christchurch, so a sick Kirk was alone at home. That night he kept receiving anonymous toll calls, saying: "I know you're dying, you bastard, and about time."
After his admission to hospital, and a public acknowledgement of his illness, people wrote in wishing Kirk a speedy recovery, but it was not to be.
He died on the evening of 31 August, while watching TV, a couple of nights after watching Ebony take the best band prize at the 1974 music awards for their song about Kirk, 'Big Norm'.
"He would never have believed that people cared for him so much, and if he'd seen the outpouring at his funeral..." Hayward said.
"He never thought anyone cared. He was just doing a job and doing his best."
On a grey early September day, there was a huge turnout for Kirk's funeral procession through Wellington.
In his book published in late 2023, We Need to Talk About Norman: New Zealand's lost leader, journalist Denis Welch described the strange phenomenon of Kirk's death - that it prompted a huge outpouring of grief followed by nothing. It was as if the nation forgot he existed.
Hayward agreed, saying everything changed as Bill Rowling took over as prime minister.
"Certainly, it was not really mentioned. It was not mentioned for quite good reason," she said of Kirk's death.
"I remember everyone wanted to present, in the Labour Party, Bill Rowling, so they didn't want to build anyone else up. They were trying to build him up."
Hayward said she was not sure if she would do anything to mark 50 years since Kirk's death, although she has one idea, focused on Palmerston North.
She said back then, Parliament did not keep and curate gifts to prime ministers, so Kirk would give them to staff, and she received a 3.5 metre by 2m tapa cloth from the Pacific.
A couple of months ago she gave it to Palmerston North MP Tangi Utikere.
"I know he's going to hang it in his office and I hope that he would do it around the time that Mr Kirk died, and he might invite me to come along and have a look at it.
"I think a little ceremony there would be nice.
"I don't know that anything else is happening. We're thinking of him, but most people connected with him have died."
Utikere said he planned to do something to mark the cloth's hanging, and it would be nice to involve Hayward around the time of the anniversary of Kirk's death.
Kirk was the fifth prime minister or premier to die in office in New Zealand, and the first since Michael Joseph Savage in 1940.
Colleagues recalled Kirk used to say, "I'll never make old bones". He was proven correct.
