Bishop’s tribute to Sir Robert

Press, 5 December 1981, Page 3

Bishop’s tribute to Sir Robert

If ever a man deserved the title of Robert of Christchurch, it was Sir Robert Macfarlane, said the Bishop of Christchurch (the Rt Rev. W. A. Pyatt) at Sir Robert’s funeral service yesterday. Bishop Pyatt conducted the service in a crowded St Nicholas’ Anglican Church in Barrington Street. He said that “Bob Macfarlane and his associates were seeking a new heaven and a new Earth” in their political work, referring to a later

reading from Revelation by the Mayor of Christchurch, Mr Hamish Hay. Not everyone might have agreed with Sir Robert’s politics, but he and his fellow legislators had been determined to set up a New' Zealand society that was better not just for themselves, but for the people. Sir Robert, a Labour Party member who was the long-est-serving Mayor and city councillor in the city’s history, was still an active

councillor at his death at the age of 80 this week. “They wanted to see the Kingdom of God realised here,” Bishop Pyatt said, “to make it seen in the lives of ordinary people, in the way people were permitted to live.” Because of the nature of real life, they were often let down by the very people that new heaven was aimed at, but they worked out their vision in Parliament, local bodies, and party manifestos. “We remember him as a

person, and his hope and his vision,” Bishop Pyatt said. “He goes on what must be a fearsome journey to meet his God, supported by us.” After the service, Sir Robert’s body was taken to the Ruru Lawn Cemetery for interment. His pallbearers were Mr Hay, Mr J. H. Gray, the City Council’s general manager and Town Clerk; Cr C. E. Manning; Mr M. A. Connelly, the member of Parliament for Yaldhurst; Mr Laurie Ferguson, chairman of the

Labour Electorate Committee; Mr Alan Boot, a Gold Badge member of the Labour Party, and Mr A. P. Millthorpe, the Chief City Health Inspector. Christchurch area members of Parliament, local body leaders, and Labour Party stalwarts were among a large number of family and friends who attended the service. A former Mayor, Mr N. G. Pickering, who had Sir Robert as his Deputy Mayor from 1971 to 1974, also attended.