LATE SIR FRANCIS BELL

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21734, 17 March 1936, Page 12

LATE SIR FRANCIS BELL

♦ TRIBUTES PAID TO HIS MEMORY NOTED STATESMAN AND LAWYER FI NEK.U. AT WELLINGTON sw.lUDO* TKLKt'iBAM.j ! WELLINGTON. March 111. Tributes to the memory of the Rt. Hon. Sir Francis Bell were voiced by speakers at a large gathering of the bench and bar in the Supreme Court this afternoon. The Chief Justice (the Rt. Hon. Sir Michael Myers) presided, and there was a notable gathering of the legal profession The Attorney-General (the Hon. H. G, R. Mason), who was making Lis first public appearance in his official capacity, said that the legal profession always fell that its standard of honour was in safe keeping in the hands of Sir Francis Bell, who had rendered signal service to lus country, and whose devotion to the service of his fellows extended far beyond an interest in his professional activities. Mr H. F. O'Leary, K.C., president of the New Zealand Law Society, and Mr David Perry, president of the Wellington District Law Society, also paid eloquent tributes to the life and character of one who had always been an inspiration and a guide to those whom he had always delighted to call his brothers of the bar. The Chief Justice said there was no position Sir Francis Bell ever occupied that he did not adorn. His merits were known and recognised everywhere, and his ability as a statesman and draughtsman was recognised in the councils of the League of Nations. He had performed most valuable service for his sovereign, his country, and the Empire, and he had left an imperishable name in New Zealand's history. *T charge you to cherish the memory of our departed friend and leader, as you mourn his Joss, for you will never look upon his like again,” concluded the Chief Justice. Service at Pro-Cathedral The funeral of Sir Francis Bell took place to-day. St. Paul's ProCathedral was crowded by one of the largest and most representative congregations ever seen in Wellington. Practically every section of the community and all shades of political thought were represented. Those present included Major Purvis, representing the GovernorGeneral (Viscount Galway), the Hon. M. J. Savage (Prime Minister), ihe Attorney-General (the Hon. H. G. R. Mason), the Hon. W. E. Parry, the Hon. F. Langstone and the Hon. Mark Fagan (Ministers of the Crown). Mr Justice Reed, Mr Justice Ostler, Mr Justice Blair, Mr Justice Kennedy, and prominent members, of both Houses of the Legislature, including the Rt. Hon. J G. Coates. The legal profession was well represented, also public bodies. Government departments, civic authorities. commercial and other interests. The chief mourners were his son, Mr Cheviot Bell, and Mrs Bell; (laughters and sons-in-law —Mr Justice Johnston and Mrs Johnston, Mrs G. H. F. Rolleston. Miss Bell. Mr and Mrs J. G. Denniston: Mrs Warwick Blundell, granddaughter. and Mr Blundell; Mr Nigel Johnston, grandion; Mr E. D. Bell, brother; Mr A. K. S. Mackenzie, nephew, and Mr: - , Mackenzie, The pall-bcnrers were relatives, Mr Charles Gill, his personal servant. and members of the staff of Sir Francis Bell's firm for more than 40 years. Long Term of Public Service The service was conducted by the Bishop of Wellington, the Rt. Rev. Dr. T. If. Sprott. and Canon Pcrcival James preached a panegyric, and also officiated at the Karon crematorium. In his panegyric, Canon James referred to the breaking of a link with colonisation days in New Zealand, and also to Sir Francis Bell’s long term of public service, both in civic and political life. He paid tribute to Sir Francis Bell as a leader of the legal pro-

fession for half a century in New Zealand. He was a lover of men and loved all men. He was remembered particularly in St. Paul’s Pro-Cathedral, where a Toe H lamp was dedicated to his son who fell in the war. Members of Toe H participated in the cathedral service. FORMER COLLEAGUE’S TRIBUTE GATHERING AT OTAGO BOYS’ HIGH SCHOOL i : 1 [TISE PRESS special Service.] DUNEDIN, March 16. A memorial gathering as a tribute to the Ht. Hon. Sir Francis Bell was held to-day at the Otago Boys’ High School, of which Sir Francis was a former dux. The principal address was delivered by the Hon. W. Downie* Stewart, who was for many years an intimate friend of Sir Francis. “I had the good fortune,” Mr Downie Stewart said “to be one of Sir Francis Bell’s colleagues in the Cabinet for some years, and I had the privilege of enjoying his personal friendship, both while we were in office and out of office. It is a remarkable fact that the combined careers of Sir Francis Bell and his distinguished father cover practically the whole period of our political history. The father was a member of the Legislative Council in 1848 before responsible government had been granted, and the first Ministry under responsible government in 1856 was known as the Bell-Sewell Ministry. But not only did Sir Francis and his father occupy many posts of distinction in the government of the country. The third generation was also represented in Parliament by a son of Sir Francis, William Henry Dillon Bell, who showed every promise of repeating the brilliant career of his father and grandfather; but he left Parliament in 1914 to serve in the Great War and was killed in action in France. Sir Francis Bell was the last survivor of the elder statesmen who were in the Cabinet \%hen I joined it in 1921. Mr Massey, Sir William Herries, and Sir William Fraser all predeceased him. “If you ask me the secret of his groat success, apart from his natural gifts,” continued Mr Downie Stewart, “I would say it was his astonishing powers of concentration. Once his mind was directed to a particular problem, he focused on :t with such intense energy that for the time being everything else was excluded. On one occasion he listened for some hours to the conflicting views of a group of men who placed before him a complicated series of facts, and wanted a bill drawn for legislation. They assumed that he would take some weeks to draft the legislation; but to their'astonishment he said, T see what you want,’ called in a typist, and dictated a complete bill of many pages. When it was finished no one wished to alter a word. “But he was not only a great lawyer. He was a fine scholar. I rarely got a letter from him which did not contain some apt quotation from Horace or Virgil.” ; The executive of the Christchurch Returned Soldiers’ Association, at its meeting last evening, expressed its respect for Sir Francis Bell, who died recently, and its sympathy with his relatives. It was stated that Sir Francis had always been interested in the atlairs of returned soldiers. .