Warren Freer became an Auckland Labour member of parliament in 1947, and recalled the Friday night comradeship in a sleeping compartment of the train to Auckland after a week in Parliament, when a bottle of whisky would be produced and incidents in the house or caucus recalled. Freer and Charles Petrie lived near the Otahuhu Station, and Petrie arranged via a sympathetic guard for the driver to slow the train after Middlemore Station so that they could save time by alighting there; the younger Freer first so Petrie could pass their bags to him and then alight; the train then speeded up towards Auckland. In 1949 air travel to Wellington was introduced for backbench MPs.