Wartime Prime Minister Peter Fraser is our New Zealander of the Year, as much for his role in constructing the peace as in leading the country through the fighting.
Fraser succeeded to the top job when Michael Joseph Savage died a few months after the war began.
Despite his party's hatred of war and his own history of opposing conscription, said the Herald, Fraser never lost sight of the objective.
"Once war had been accepted, it had to be fought - and won."
It also praised him for achieving a presence on the world stage far beyond anything his predecessors had managed.
