HIGH TRIBUTES FROM HIS FRIENDS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24, 28 July 1911, Page 3

HIGH TRIBUTES FROM HIS FRIENDS.

tmi •lELVGC&PU -SfK'JIAL to IH£ l'OS'J* } CfIKKirMCRCtt. This D»y. T!i? Times pubiwilierf a lai'^p number of tribute? iiwti personal i'Heilds yiid M!i*av workeiy. ONE At.M: THE BENEFIT OF MANKIND, Mr. Cole, who was Mr. I\\lor'K firet pji'tner, and reiuu'iitd with him in busU lio-w until thf eii'i. spake In a i'epoitel' mo«{ iiiipri'v.'ivoly "t his dead friend. "Through all my l"ng experience with him." phkl Mr. Cole. "I h;-.vc always found that his mie ami was for the benefit of mankind and hi^ fellows generally, Although he was misjudged, and although ho may have mispidged his opponent*, I can truthfully say that he had always « go«l word for* them. Many peoplr thought that he was bitter, iinrl so he often seomed, hut no one who did nc>t know him h?d any idea, of the suffering he u*cti! through. He nap ill years ago. He often said that his n«wfl were tipwt. Hf told me ori r>tw occasion that he would never look more f,haii «• few years ahead, and I know thai he was suffering hi such a

manner that he never expected to reach forty years of age. Since he wae twenty j he was sure that he could not live for a great many years, and he was always calmly prepared for death. His great pride wae in his home, and hia great love was for his own people. He loved all people around him with almost as intense a fervour, and hie work wad always- for those who were worthy. Mr. Taylor was a personal friend who wa« full of that immense quality that can only be defined as brotherlinees, and ile had a fund of humour and anecdota that was refreshing and delightful. . . ." FAR GREATER MAN THAN IS REALISED. . "New Zealand by the death of T. E. Taylor has lost a greater man than ninetenths of the people will 1 realise," eaid Mr. L. M. Isitt. Mr. isi'tt laboured besid© Mr. Taylor in tho early days of tho late Mayor's career as a reformer and a politician, and the acquaintance between the two men ripened into an intimate friendship. "Underlying our pride of country, and the self-assertive-ness common to young nations," contin-'i ued Mr. Isitt, "is the conviction that nothing h«ro equals the standard of the Motherland. The bare suspicion then ] that the man we have lost, the man whom the people have called lovingly or scornfully aa they were friends or enemies, 'Tommy Taylor,' was truly a. great man, has never entered their minds. For l«i years it was my privilege to tra-vel Ureat Bfiuin, to hear piactically all, and to meet privately many of the leaders in thought, statesmanship, and oratory. I only say now what 1 have said to many, whik he was living, that I did not meet three ( nien who were his equals in platform ability, j or a dozen his superioia ir. native genius j and iivce. In . private life I have lis- j tened to some brilliant conversations with men who could draw upon stores \ of scholarship accumulated through long j years of study and wide experience. Al- j ways 1 found myself comparing theee with Taylor, and never to his disadvantage or to the lessening of my estimate of hie mental scope. When he was in 'Britain ten years ago he was very ill, I 'afflicted with the trouble that has ended his life so tragically, and it was with difficulty that- 1 persuaded him to speak at two meetings.' Neither'was he in his true form but - at both meetings he took the people by> storm and at one— a garden party at Christchurch— l was besieged with enquiries 'from prominent Liberals as" to the man- and his history." ; ' ''Let your- readers believe it or not. I am Certain that, given the larger platform •of British politics, in six months T. E.. Taylor would have •■ stood shoulder to shoulder with Lloyd George, John Burns, Winston Churchill, and the like, and his opponents would havu winced tinder the fiery invective or logitt ; that became so familiar to its here. But I think it is n6t so much his ability 1 as his individual worth that looms large j to-day. 'I have tried,' he said in fare- j well. 'I have made many mistakes, but | I have tried to Jive an unselfish lif« j for the good of the. many.' The Words I were said humbly, pleadingly, but what man at the end of tho journey can make a nobler clairti, arid who that is familiar v/ith the whole life, 'boy and man, lived j here in Chrietchurch, will not testify i that Taylor did not try. in vain? ''From 1 the very outset he was a reforms? and the ,friend of the erring arid j intemperate. At an age when most lads j think only of football and cricket, t he was hunting the 'Sydenham and Adding* ton liquor bars for derelicts,' pleading with them to sign 'the pledge for the | sake of their wives and families, and j oftert- helping them out of his wages—; ! the scanty . wages of . an office boy— to J make a new start.'-; 'Faults?' Yes, he had faults. In. , his life, as in ours, there were times -when he swerved' from his own high ideals, and did ?nd said things for which Me' sorrowed ;• but those who were in his closest confidence know how true was the course he laid and "followed', how persistently and earnestly he strove to fashion hie' life oti noble lines. A keen fighter, himself the victim of constant and cruel misrepresentation and wrong, in the heat of the moment, his retorts were not al« i ways measured, but he • was swift • to i fol'get and forgive, • and 'anyone who ; imputed to him tho capacity for cold j hatred and malice did not know the ' man. "His physicians testify what a strain , ,pn 'iterye and self-control his illiwes dur* ' ihg tH6 pas'- ten year* has involved, aiid marvel how he could bear the. burden and Dtill do the wo»k he 'had dorfe.' Now he has gone, and the Bormv? ' of tens of thousands is the s'ireat evidence of his moral worth. . ." v '\