Gwen Howard at the Keys' old state house. Picture / John Mccombe
Gwen Howard at the Keys' old state house. Picture / John Mccombe
KEY POINTS:
It may not have been literally "rags" to riches, but a young John Key and his family did have to struggle to make ends meet, his former neighbours say.
The new National Party leader has risen to power with the image of the self-made multi-millionaire from poor beginnings.Those who knew him in his youth, living in a state house in the economically depressed Christchurch suburb of Bryndwr, say it is no beat-up.
Keith Howard lived next door to Mr Key, his widowed mother, Ruth, and his two sisters when they first moved into the small three-bedroom Christchurch house.
Without a father, it largely fell on Ruth Key to support her family with cleaning jobs. She squeezed boarders in to help pay the bills.
"It think it was very, very difficult for her. She had three kids, John was the youngest. I know she was doing a lot of night work. Obviously she would have been under some sort of welfare assistance," Mr Howard said.
"Christmas was no big deal because there simply wasn't money around for presents as such."
Mr Howard's mother, Gwen, said Mrs Key always had to try to keep things going.
"They arrived over here [Mr Key's mother was from Austria] with hardly a penny, she said, to her name. They had to struggle to start with. She was very pleased when she got the house next door."
Mr Howard said the family likely required some second-hand clothing, but Mrs Howard said Mrs Key always made sure her children dressed tidily.
Mrs Howard remembered Mr Key as a "good, quiet boy. No trouble."
She never heard him complain about his family's difficult financial situation.
"They just went about their things. They never acted like [they were] poor. They made the best of things. It seemed to do John good, didn't it?"
Mr Howard said that he used to come over regularly to play table tennis or mini-golf, with tin cups in the lawn, in the Howard family's backyard. He was always very competitive, and that had probably helped him get to where he was today, Mr Howard said.
Mrs Howard joked that Ruth Key was always a Labour woman, and her son a National man.
"She died a few years ago. She would have been so proud of him."
