\u201cMake no bones about it. My mother and father, [in their] first years of marriage, were living in a tent. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey finally got a small accommodation, just two rooms, and she cooked outside. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut let me tell you that we had 11 children, and we were an extraordinarily lucky family, because until just about four years ago, in this family of five generations, only mum and dad had died. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to be a super lucky family to be that, and so every time this happens, and it\u2019s only happened now in a family of 11 children, only two have died, the eldest and the second eldest. And so it\u2019s a bit of a shock to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Winston Peters and his older brother Jim Peters in 2015. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n
He said his family had been \u201cblessed\u201d and he felt \u201clucky\u201d to have been born poor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was looking around the marae the other day, and looking at the European and M\u0101ori who were there, at those families, and by comparison, we\u2019re a pretty blessed family. <\/p>\n
\u201cI never thought I\u2019d say this, we were lucky we were born poor. But poor meant we were on a great diet, and a great diet is the most critical thing New Zealanders need going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jim Peters served as an NZ First MP between 2002 and 2005, and was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2008 for services to local body affairs, education and the community.<\/p>\n
A renowned educator, he was head of department at Mount Albert Grammar School in Auckland and Northland College principal in Kaikohe. He also served as Pro Vice-Chancellor M\u0101ori at the University of Auckland.<\/p>\n
NZ First labelled Peters a \u201cfoundational figure\u201d within the party in a tribute on Facebook last Tuesday. <\/p>\n
\u201cJim dedicated his life to public service, education, and regional development,\u201d the tribute read. <\/p>\n
\u201cWithin New Zealand First, Jim was a foundational figure. A stalwart life member and long-serving electorate chairperson, he was revered across the party for his quiet wisdom, integrity and principled guidance.<\/p>\n
\u201cJim will be sorely missed and his legacy will long endure. We extend our heartfelt condolences to the Peters family, his colleagues, and all those whose lives he touched.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parliament held a moment of silence to honour Peters last Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Jim Peters previously described his brother Winston as one of the most \u201coutstanding politicians we\u2019ve ever had\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cPulpits aside, we should be proud of anyone who rises to that level, whoever it is.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cMake no bones about it. My mother and father, [in their] first years of marriage, were living in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,682,73031,31468,10748,634,2109,16081,111,43,139,69,6729,312,13744,61,6736,6728,1530],"class_list":["post-607663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-being","tag-blessed","tag-brother","tag-came","tag-death","tag-family","tag-jim","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-peters","tag-says","tag-shock","tag-to","tag-was","tag-winston","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}