* David Russell Lange, Prime Minister, lawyer, Companion of Honour, member of the Order of New Zealand. Died aged 63.

As Prime Minister, David Lange headed the Labour Government which radically altered the structure of New Zealand. It caused changes that swept away long-established notions of job security. And it carved up or quit large sections of the costly state sector, extinguishing or altering thousands of jobs.

As the head of that Government - and even in Opposition - Lange was a formidable presence in parliamentary debates, a man of quick wit with a gift for words. New Zealanders watched his 1985 televised debate at the Oxford Union in England with admiration.

His brief, after all, was to argue "that nuclear weapons are morally indefensible", a popular notion in this country.

"I can smell the uranium in your breath," he told one persistent pro-nuclear interjector. It was not his most spontaneous line but was one of his most memorable, and was said to a worldwide audience.

Lange became New Zealand's youngest Prime Minister last century when the fourth Labour Government was elected in the 1984 snap election. He was a few weeks shy of his 42nd birthday, tipping out the National Muldoon Government with a majority of 17 seats.

It was a pivotal moment, for the Labour Party and for the lawyer born and raised in Otahuhu.

Before the election he had undergone a physical transformation. Those who used to know him around the Auckland law courts had trouble reconciling this new Prime Minister with the very large lawyer they used to meet, with his long, lank hair hanging across his forehead, a shabby suit and small dark-rimmed glasses. And an inclination for defending impoverished clients for very economical fees.

Approaching the election, he wore prime-ministerially dark suits which, aided by his stomach reduction operation, helped him look taller and somewhat slimmer.

Designer glasses, wavy hair and a slightly unshaven appearance (to lend more shadows to his rounded face) produced an image which helped to complement his formidable verbal skills.

The Labour Party win had also been aided by Sir Robert Jones' New Zealand Party campaign against the Muldoon Government. But in the end Labour had won by more than the New Zealand Party margin.

And as television homed in on the victory, Lange confided that it felt "great" and that after years in Opposition it brought "a sense of power".

But what an unsuspecting electorate did not realise was that this was to be no "normal" Labour Government, with its socialist inclinations towards state intervention and support.