PASSING OF A PIONEER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 238, 8 October 1930, Page 6

PASSING OF A PIONEER.

Xot many men knew pioneer life as did the late Campbell Johnstone, who died at Whatawhata, Waikato, last week. He was a very big man, and perhaps one of the strongest men. that ever lived in the Waikato. He could do with ease what smaller men could only do after much effort. It was my privilege to stay at the same hotel with him in a South Island city only a short time ago, and what impressed me was the rugged characteristics of the man and how unassuming he was about his exploits. He told us how in his young days Hie and a 'brother took on a contract to build a bridge. There was very little money about, hut they were determined to get a start in life and got a very low price for the job. They worked fourteen hours a day, which was about the limit, day.after day, of human endurance, and after many weeks of work they reckoned up and found that they -had just averaged 4/6 per day. - Their "tucker" bill was small, because food was cheap. . The proceeds of their contract was the first step up the ladder of progress and made them ibold enough to take on further contracts. They had not enough money yet to buy a draught horse and cart, but they took on a gravelling job and used an old pair of 'buggy wheels to make a conveyance which their old riding horse could pull in which to cart the metal. Again they only took time enough off .for sleep and completed their task well within the specified time and were able to add a few pounds to their capital. The pioneers, he always ■said, had no other way of gaining success than by building stone upon stone after hewing it out of the block ;by the sweat of their brows. He told how they advanced step "by step,'which led the way to something better. Campbell Johnstone, although he occupied many prominent positions and mixed with men in varied walks of life never laid any claim to the possession of suavity of manner which led to temporising _or / conciliation. He often said he believed in calling "a spade a spade," and was just a "rough diamond" trying to serve his fellows in the best way known to him. At a conference, for instance, his impressive figure and loud voice, full of deep conviction, would often overshadow a smaller and not less able man.

His funeral was a very fine tribute to his memory. Scores and scores of motor cars, including some from Auckland, wended their way along the tortuous road leading from his honm at Whatawhata to the cemetery at Hamilton East. He had gone far in the esteem of his fellow men and the clergyman who conducted the funeral service, while admitting that he had no personal acquaintance with the deceased, paid a warm tribute to his memory because he knew of his many fine qualities. Clergymen of several denominations were at the graveside, not because Campbell Johnstone was a religious man in the accepted or orthodox war of churchman ship, but because he was a man, apart from Ml else, wliose word was his bond and who when once f he set his hand to a task saw it through. He shirked no duty. His attendances at meetings over a very long period of years continued without a break and constituted a record. When we drove down to the house to follow his remains to the grave, and we realised how far he lived from the centre of his public duties, it was easy to visualise the man of rugged strength and determination that we knew him to be plugging along the road on horseback in all kinds of weather to overtake and never be absent from his public duties. What hours he must have spent going to and from his work. The horse which carried him was no mean, animal, and how he loved his faithful hack and got the best out of it. When the motor car came into vogue it became easier for hi'm to travel, but by this time the years were taking toll of him and lie liked to hark back to the memory of the days when men walked and rode and were ready to lie down at night, tired with the work of the day, and sleep soundly, to awake to fresh tasks on the morrow. —'W.K.H.