IN MEMORIAM.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19986, 22 July 1930, Page 13

IN MEMORIAM.

WILLIAM REECE. .[Contributed.] In William Reece. Christchurch ha» lost a citizen wli&se placo will long wait to be filled. Seldom in our young country do we find one who has occupied a position so integral, so at one with the growth of a town, so manifoldly competent and ready to direct its expanding ' energies. ll© owed this City his birth, his education in the fine old proto-High School at West Christchurch, and his inherited place in the dawn of its mercantile enterprise; save for the first six vears, its life covered his. He paid it with the active service of more than half a century, service which, faithful to the business founded by his family, inevitabW flowed over to enrich the common store. Free of every ostentation, as ho was free of cant, he would have laughed off the idea of being and remaining first citizen even after he laid down the honour which the town conferred upon him in her proudest hour. But, for the thousands touched "oy his personal and civic influence, it would not be possible to indicate another so worthy of the name. _ •' First in tht» essentials of leadership ranks the element of personal magnetism. In form, in address, in the bonhomie of a good heart and a quick, strong intelligence, all marked him as one born to take command/ His personality would have carried through hiszh schemes of public ambition. But of that he \yas strangely devoid. He preferred the true earnest. of , power | which, radiating from "Jus own centr* of /business activity, met the. common weal at a thousand • points «f warm human contact. Himself, supremely happy in home, relations, h© had the gift of raising: the standard of manhood and home-keepm"wherever his influence extended. The boys who » grew up in his employ naturally hired off to wholesome enterprises of their own. When : develonine the resources of the West Coast, -he was ever ready to smooth the rough track pf the miner, 1 and bring hope, amelioration,:' and: ,opjPortunity to the humble homes . set in Nature's wildernesses., He. had a thought, for. the Gordon boys, a helping hand to give the 6i tlie Y.M.C.A., and. maintained hearty- 'co-opera-tion with such agencies of civic compassion, as the District Nurses3"Association. • ;' • v :: , Perhaps his unique personality at last found fullest 1 scope when,- as a member of the Prisons Board,, he came in close touch with the outcast , and 1 broken population not' of Christchurch o,nly,i but of 'the country. Pity, patience, faith in .ultimate goody; even the saving salt of humour—all these go to- this work for frail humianity. All these gifts"he had; as ; many asoulstruggling upward out of' the depths had reason to know. ' " . • In his practical, many-sided : nature, the cultural element was curiously strong. An omnivorous reader, ha knew what good, books, meant to'a community. He. pleased himself in heading associations to promote the best in music and the pictorial arts. ''These keen intuitional impulses towards the conservation of the beautiful' above all, perhaps, testified to that fusion of strong races which was' embodied in him. The home-conserving and. colonising gifts of the Anglo-Saxon, £ the solidarity and integrity of the Scot,\ the mercurial - spontaneity Of the Welshman—all these met in him, compounded with a strangely winning eclecticism. , Men were strongly attracted .to .become his friends; women sought ; his counsel with confiding readiness. . Erom • the least of his employees. to the greatest magnates who co-operated with him in the financial concerns of the Dominion, all felt the force of that breezy, healthy magnetism- ■ ; ~ As he had fought the perils and adversities besetting such. a. manly career, so, with the same uncomplaining'valour, • did he fight the pain and ill-health of . his latter years. Inch by inch the struggle told upon his worn frame.; Now, after life's long adventure, he sleeps well. Home is the sailor, home from th e «ea, And the hunter home from the hill. Sympathy with the relatives of the late Mr William Eeece was expressed at the meeting yesterday of the Christchurch Tramway Board. Mr Reece was the first chairman of the Board, and did particularly good work on it in the early days. . . - flie. death of Mr Wm. Reece, who was Mayor of Christchurch in 1900, was referred to at last night's meeting of the City Council which, on the motion of the Mayor (Mr J. K. Archer), passed a resolution of sincere sympathy with the family. Seconding the resolution, Cr A. W. Beaven said that Mr Reece had given Very valuable serpices to the community generally, and in tramway matters especially he had accomplished great work for the City. He was respected as a liberal and generous man. ! • i ii - -