POLITICAL MEMORIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 151, 28 June 1928, Page 24

POLITICAL MEMORIES.

THROUGH SIX DECADES. LEADING N.Z. FIGURES. PROVINCIAL AND NATIONAL LEADERS.

(By S.S.)

(No. II.) My acquaintance with politicians, I am reminded by one of my precise contemporaries, did not begin with my casual meeting with John Bright and Benjamin Disraeli when but a few paces beyond the threshold of my teens. Two years before my introduction to the great Free Trade orator, on board the little channel packet plying between Holyhead and Dublin, 1 had been presented in my parents' home to Mr. William Sefton Moorhouse, the second superintendent of Canterbury, whose vision, courage and perseverance secured for the Wheat Province, at least, a decade earlier than otherwise would have been the case, the tunnel through the L\ Ltelt.oii hills which gave it easy access to the markets of the world in the very earliest stages of its agrarian dc\elopment.. Mr. Moofliouse, as superintendent of. Canterbury, was visiting my father, as superintendent of Nelson, the two viceroys having matters of importance concerning their adjoining provinces to discuss. The guest was an inveterate smoker; a devotes to the most pungent production of the fragrant weed, while his host was even more intolerant of tobacco than he was of beer. A compromise was reached by a chair being placed on the broad ver. ittidnh of the house and another in the shade of the trailing willows for the ii-c and enjoyment of the honoured visitor. On several occasions it was my great good fortune to be in waiting upon him during his devotions to Lady Nicotine at t>rie or the other of these improvised shrines. On the eve of his departure he deigned to inspect a child's effort at funnelling irt the stiff clay in a secluded part of the garden, which had been inspired by stories of his own great undertaking that had been overheard. iWncath hi-- rugged exterior lay a vast store of imagery and human kindness. The ciitics have made light of his pi'liticul career, implying that the conception of the f,yt tell on tunnel coii-

.••I it nted hi- only material service to the • s ta(e. Hut ( ,i iitcrburv knows better : ' < I, knowing, continues to honour liis 111 I llll'. For Thirty-three Years. Mr. .Imm.v- .MacAndrcw, v. liu was i» nn-mber of tin- lir.-t Iloii-c of I\epre*entritives elected under the I '(institution Act ot 18"i2, w«h one of the most reTviivkahln figures that ever entered the New Zealand Parliament. Though possessing none of the graces of the orator and lew of the wiles of the politician, having once seeiued a t=ent. in the House ?! " e held one up to the time of s death in ISB7. Duri*g t luit period he T<mn ot Unnedin, Bruce, Du,,,mUu Cit - V ' always, it IWk at bis biddinir t* J/ n P*tl»tic public at- his stou t , v<£el &

he first came into my circle of nodding acquaintances; but it was not until a year or two later, ehortlv before his death, that I began to understand- the "appeal" of the man. When the end came I happened to he in Dunedin and was commissioned by my paper to attend the last sad rites. Much had happened between 1854 and 1887, as was inevitable in 33 years of representative service, but the crowd that gathered at the graveside remembered only the good the man had done, his ready sympathy, his generous help and his own abounding faith and courage. Perhaps most of his shortcomings—which his critics have taken some pains to record—were the outcome of his defective sense of humour. Many stories were told of him in this respect. When the House laughed uproariously at his suggestion that New Zealfind should send frozen potatoes to England, he looked about the Chamber in bewilderment for an explanation of the members' merriment. On another occasion an executive officer burst into his room to find him engrossed in the contemplation of a huge bundle of Scotch thistles lying on his table, and stepped back with the apology that he did not know his chief was at lunch. It ultimately had to be explained to the chief that thistles were the favourite food of donkeys, and then he laughed heartily. Scots from time immemorial have been pilloried, rightly or wronslv, river the difficulty they experience, in. seeing ii joke; Imt onef found it is never forgotten. I hud this story from Mr. MacAndrew's own lips.

The Soldier Politician. So name is more widely scattered over tile records of the New Zealand Parliament than is that of Sir Harry Atkinson, l'irs t elected as member for (irev i.ud Bell in June, 1801. he remained continuously in the House of Representatives until January. IS9I, and then passed on to the Legislative Council. from which he was retired by death in the following year. He attained to Ministerial rank so early as 1804, becoming .Minister of Colonial Defence in the Weld Ministry, and subsequently serving in the first Vogel Ministry of 1873-7"». the Pollen Ministry of 1573-70, the Atkinson Ministry of 1870-77, the Hall Ministry of 1879-S2, the Wliitaker Ministry of 18H2-83. the Atkinson Ministry of I*B3-84, and the Atkinson Ministry of ISS7-01. to say nothing- of his own other two Ministries, which held office only for a few days while the parties were adjusting themselves. During fourteen of his last eighteen years in the House of Representatives he sat on the Treasury benches, and during this period held at one time or another practically every available portfolio. He brought to the House many of his mili-tary-qualities, which are well indicated bv Mr. William Gisborne in his "Rulers and Statesmen."

"Mis mind had not largeness of grasp and was not highly cultured," this authority savs, "but it had more than average ability, great tenacity of purpose and a wonderful power, of concentration in re-pe< - t of any subject with which it had to deal at the time." Sir Harry entered the [political arena with no knowledge of public finance, and apparently with little desire to acquire any, but when his opportunity came he showed himself so familiar with the intricacies of the subject that, whetlier styled Premier or Treasurer, he remained till the time of his retirement master of his party and of its destiny. Hrr' made few personal-friends; lie was taciturn in speech and dictatorial in manner, but lie bore no malice towards

his political opponents; and to the struggling journalists, as many .of them have reason to remember, ho was a ready help in time of need, whatever their party colour might happen to be. Of High Purpose. The imperfections of the present system of party- government never were more plainly demonstrated than they were by the political career of the Hon. William llolleston. Here was a big man—big in every settle —richly endowed by Nature, cultured, patriotic, discerning, enterprising anil punctilious almost to a fault, condemned to play but a minor part in the national affairs of the country simply because he could not think and act always in the grooves furrowed by smaller men. It was only as Minister of Lands, first, in the Hall Ministry, then in the Wliitaker Ministry, and finally in the third Atkinson Ministry, then he was allowed anything approaching latitude in the administration of any of his departments. He made go good a use of this solitai'y opportunity that when Mr. fiallance came into office six years later he stated publicly that he would have been "glad indeed'' to include Mr. llolleston in his Cabinet as Minister of Lands with "autocratic authority." Numbers of other party opponents of this sane and ardent land reformer would have gladly welcomed his presence in their midst. But with William llolleston party loyalty, irksome as it might be on. occasions.' was an obsession. The politician, in this respect, was a reflection of the man. Though his colleagues at timc« may have been a little perturbed bv bis "radical proclivities" as one of them-from the platform described his land settlement activities, and may have frowned upon his concern for Sir George Grey's "unborn millions." never a word ever fell from bin lips that might have suggested a waning of loyalty on his part. That was his way. Thirty years* close jiersonal association with Mr. llolleston, chiefly as a party opponent, leave the memory of a public servant of inflexible integrity, of a politician without guile and of a friend that never failed. What he would have achieved had he been freed from the tangle of party obligations may be conjectured. What he accomplished remains as a fitting monument to a ,aan of high purpose and abiding ideals.

A Friend Indeed. Sir William Fox. who has been well described by .Mr. William Gisborne as "the Ilot>pur of Opposition," was "a friend of the family" from tlic early days of settlement in Nelson down to the time of his death in On my father's head rests the reproach—in the eves of a large section of the comrnunity—of having converted Sir William to tenets of teetotalisni, the forerunner of prohibition. According to the story told to me by Sir William himseif some forty years" later, it happened in this way. r l he two young men, travelling from Wellington to Nelson by t.he first steamer making this trip, were prostrated by seasickness. On reacirng their destination my father was the lir.-t to recover, and, assuming a jaunty air of indifference to the incident, he persuaded Sir William that it was the "tome" he had taken as a safeguard against the perils of the voyage that had done all the harm. Sir William, still mistrusting his legs, wa« easily per."i ::dcd to sign the '"pledge'' proffered to l'im, and from that time oil preached the gospel of temperance with nyen greater for.our than his friend haa drme. Many years later my father recanted to the*length of admitting that if tlij Dominion must have iermented

and spirituous liquors xt was less harmful that they should be produced from home-grown material;; under State supervision than that they should be imported from overseas without any guarantee of purity, and Sir William "was summoned from Wanganui to Christchurch to denounce his heresy. That this was done effectively, in the eyes or a rot altogether impartial audience, goes without saying, but the two old comrades, now both w.'.i on in their rtvci ties, remained as fast friends as ever, and as bellicose. Perhaps here, rather 'lan dilating U|;»a the virtues of Sir WiMinm myself, I r.iay be permitted to quote a dozen lines from the tribute my father paid to our tri'-nd on h:s death being otlicially re]i'.>rted to the Horse. of Representative;. "I have felt it my duty to ditl'er fr.mi him, and to oppose him as strongly as I could, he said, but he made me love and admire him «|iiitc as much when I opposed him as I did when I worked with him. As a friend I have never known anything more sweetly reliable than his friendship."

The very gentlest of all human natures. He joined to courage strong, And love, out reaching unto all God's creature*". With sturdy hate of wrong.