TRIBUTE TO MINISTER

Press, Volume C, Issue 29508, 9 May 1961, Page 14

TRIBUTE TO MINISTER

Service For Mr Gillespie

(From Our Own Reporter i WELLINGTON, May 8. A tribute to the late Mr W. H. Gillespie was paid by the Dean of Wellington (the Very Rev. D. J. Davies) in a memorial service at St. Paul’s Cathedral this afternoon. “He was a man of wide experience and sound judgment, but above all a man of absolute integrity,” said Dean Davies. Giving the main address to a gathering which included all members of the Cabinet, representatives of the diplomatic corps, and many who had travelled from Hurunui to be present at the service, Dean Davies said that the whole essence of the system of Government of this country was based on service. “It is significant that the meaning of the words Prime Minister is literally ‘first servant’ and that the Prime Minister's helpers are known as *ministers,’” he said. “In selecting his Cabinet the Prime Minister picks out those among his people who can offer the best service to him and to the country.” It was unfortunate, said Dean Davies, that Mr Gillespie was not destined to administer for long the important portfolio of agriculture. Had he done so, he would have given this important position the same service as he had given in other fields. “Farmers are notoriously hard-headed,” said Dean Davies, “but Mr Gillespie’s interests extended far nore widely than the land and the immediate future. He took a gre&t interest in Lincoln Agricultural college, and worked to see that it and its graduates had heir chance to add to our standard of living." Of the Gillespie family, he said: “As a family they have done well by New Zealand."