LOOKING BACK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 307, 28 December 1935, Page 12

LOOKING BACK.

NOTABLE EVENTS.

LIFE OF GLADSTONE.

NEXT WEEK'S ANNIVERSARIES

(By M.P.W.)

One hundred and twenty-six years ago to-morrow there was born in Liverpool William Ewart Gladstone, the great Liberal statesman of last century. Probably no other British Prime Minister is so clearly remembered by succeeding generations. He was not only a political force but a moral force, and he strove to use all the powers of his own genius and the powers of the State for high purposes.

Gladstone was first elected to Parliament in 1832. In 1834, he was made a Lord of the Treasury under Peel, and in the following year, Under-Secretary for the Colonies. Stage by stage he passed upwards in political life, until on the death of Lord Palmerston, he became leader of the House of Commons under Earl Russell. In 1808 he was appointed Premier for the first time and there followed a period of wise and progressive legislation inspired by his leadership. After 1874 he was in temporary retirement for a short period, but stirred to indignation by the "Bulgarian atrocities," he commenced a campaign of denunciation in which he carried the country with him, and in 1880 he was returned to power with an overwhelming majority. He was Premier for a third time in 1886, but was defeated on his famous Home Rule Bill, and it was not until 1892 that he.was again in power. His second Home Rule Bill passed the Commons, but was thrown out by the Lords. After that he resigned and took no further part in Parliamentary life. He died, on May 19, 1898, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. His body layin state in Westminster Hall for two days when it was viewed by 250,000 people. Rudyard Kipling/ The birthday of another famous Englishman, but one who is happily still with us, will fall on Monday, when Mr. Rudyard Kipling will be seventy years of age. Mr. Kipling has made for himself his own particular niche in the world of letters, and is celebrated as poet, novelist and essayist.

Kipling was still a youth when he first compelled public attention by some exceedingly clever and characteristic sketches of Indian life, written for the most part while performing journalistic duties in India. He subsequently settled in London and over a long period of years has produced a remarkable succession of stories, sketches, ballads and poems, all marked by intense vigour. His prose is clear, firm and terse, and the shaping of his best stories admirable.

Kipling is an original and underived writer. He has noticeably added to the public stock of quotations, and to the select number of poems known to everybody. Few writers have found such a largo body of sincere admirers in so many regions, ranks and callings of the British people. A Great British Soldier. December 31, 1910, marked one of the outstanding events of the great military career, .of . Field-Marshal Earl Haig, of Bemersyde, for on that date he received his promotion to the rank of FieldMarshal. |'' ' This deserved .promotion was in recognition of Earl Haig's great services during the first half of 1910 c particularly. It was in those trying months, when he was in .command of the First Army of the British Expeditionary Force, that he was of such great assistance to the French during the German attack on Verdun. He assisted the French by relieving their troops in the front, and by preparing for the battle of the 'Somme.

In 1917 he opened a campaign in Flanders which began with Plumer's victory at Messines and was followed by Passchendaele. It was with difficulty that he won the consent of the British Government to this campaign. In 1918 he met the great German offensive with calm determination, and throughout those critical days, he was the strength of the allied forces, and it was his persuasion of Foch to agree to an; extension of the battle of Amiens northwards that led to the breaking of the Hindenburg line. Abolition of Slavery. The. civil war - which rent America between 1801 and 1805 flamed out over the vexed issue of the rights of the Southern States to secede. The rejection by the South of the principle of Federal Union precipitated - the struggle, but, in the course of the war, the cause of emancipation became an instrument of victory in. the hands of the North.

This new aspect of the war was first in evidence in the second year of the struggle when in September, 1802, President Lincoln issued the proclamation announcing that all slaves in any State which should be in rebellion at the New Year would then be declared free. On January 1, 1803, the Emancipation Proclamation was duly sent forth. The North was irretrievably committed to the emancipation issue.

To Lincoln, intensely as he hated slavery, the Union, not slavery, was the issue, and he committed himself and the North to emancipation only when it presented itself as a means to victory in the struggle against disintegration. It served that purpose because it consolidated foreign sentiment in favour of the North, and because it created for the South an enemy within its own gates, complicating for it the problem of defence by the distraction of an internal danger which had to be guarded against. Graving Dock Opened. Fifty-two years ago on Thursday, Lyttelton was decked with flags and the streets of the little port were thronged with more than half .the population of Christchurch.' The "occasion was the opening of the graving dock which pro-

vided Lyttelton wltli facilities for cleaning, painting and repairing ships equal to any in the Colonies.

This dock was a part of the great scheme of public works on which Canterbury was swept along in the early days of the settlement. The first railway in New Zealand, the opening of the Lyttelton tunnel, the building of this great dock —these and many more works were a result of the progressive spirit of the times. The opening of the dock, which followed the entry of the first ship, the Xew Zealand Shipping Company's vessel, Htirunui, was the prelude to one of those formal luncheons in which our forefathers found such enjoyment. The acting-Governor (Sir James Prcnder. gast) and Sir Julius Vogel were among the seven hundred guests present. There were 34 speeches, most of them long and weighty addresses, at the function — truly the people of those days had a stamina and endurance that is unknown to-day. Early Administrator. Upon the retirement of Sir George Grey from the Governorship of New Zealand the Colony was administered by Lieutenant-Colonel Wynyard, commander of the 58th Regiment, whose brief term in office was remarkable for his tactful handling of a very difficult political situation, which was satisfactorily settled with the formation of a responsible Government. LieutenantColonel Wynyard assumed office on January 3, 1854.

The acting-Governor called together the House of Representatives on May 24, 1854, and after three days' debate an address was agreed to asking him to establish a responsible Government. His response was to prorogue the Assembly for a fortnight. The House met again on August 31, but was again prorogued on September 10, although a mixed responsible Government had in the meantime been established. Colonel Wynyard's administration ' ended on September 0, 1855, when he was superseded by Colonel Gore Browne, the newly appointed Governor. Famous French Soldier. The victor of the Marne and com-mander-in-chief of the French armies in the Great War, Marshal Joseph Jacques Cesaire Joffre, was born on January 4, 1852, in a little town in the shelter of the Pyrenees.

He was early marked out for the army, but his studies were interrupted by the Franco-German War. He took part in the defence of Paris in 1870. There followed extensive experience in the colonies—lndo-China, Senegal, Timbtictoo and Madagascar being among the scenes of his activity.

Germany declared war on France on August 3, 1914, and Joffre took up the post of commander-in-chief on August 5. From this day on the history of his life for more than two years was the history of the war itself. His greatest achievement was the victory of the Marne, which checked the German advance, throwing the enemy back to the Aisne and frustrating the German attempt for a speedy capture of Paris and the conclusion of the war. Marshal Joffre died in 1931.