THE PASSING OF T. E. TAYLOR.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24, 28 July 1911, Page 6

THE PASSING OF T. E. TAYLOR.

In Mr. T. E. Taylor death has claimed at the very climax ot his activity and power one of the- mo9t striking personalities of our public life. He was less than fifty years old; he had. been less than twenty years before the public; he bad never held high office of any kind. Ycb the tragic news of his sudden, illness and death has attracted an intense and wide, spread sympathy which the loss of few men in New Zealand would have caused. This fact testifies to the depth of tho impression which Mr. Taylor had made upon the people of New Zealand without the help of titular power or any otherof the adventitious aids of fortune, He had to fight every inch of the way to the position which he held, in public life, and it is as a tireless, fearless, disinterested, incorruptible fighter on behalf of causes which he valued immeasurably beyond personal advancement that he made hia deepest mark and will be longest remenv bered. The philosopher, eaid Bacon, must conqtier nature by obeying her. The majority of out politicians have so completely mastered the application of this maxim to the treatment of human nature that backbone, independence, and unswerving adherence to principle eeem to be going out of fashion in public life. The bitterest of Mr. Taylor's enemies— and his character and methods were such that the hostility of his opponents was often as intense as the devotion of his friends— would not deny to him the possession of all thsse rare and priceless attributes. A man with such qualifications was bound to exercise a tonic and bracing (influence on public life if they; did not prevent his ever getting a foot, ing there. j That Mr. Taylor, despite the handicap of these inconvenient virtues, was able to command so large a measure of the public confidence and affection was mainly due to the sanguine and contagious vigour of his personality and his extraordinary gift of natural eloquence. The phlegmatic British temperament is apt to look with suspicion upon oratory i and to associate- it with elaboration and posing. But Mr. Taylor was on© of those rare speakers who are born and not made. He shone equally on the platform, in Parliament, and in a conversational debate; and wherever he spoke his eloquence was to the last as fresh, as spontaneous, and as natural as when he began. His oratory, which was thus of the essence of his personality, and no mere accomplishment or artificial excrescence, had necessarily the defect of his qualities. Like the great Lord Derby, Mr. Taylor might well have been styled "the Rupert of debate." He was brilliant, fearless, and often irresistible in attack, but he was sometimes reckless and erratic. It wo* doubtless owing partly to his oratorical temperament and partfy to constitutional weakness that he was unable to exercise that continuous and detailed attention to the business of Parliament which, if combined with the aJmost unequalkd power of his setond reading speeches, would have made him a Parliamentary lmUr of the first rank. As it was. he remained to the end rather a formidable fren lance, fighting as the spirit moved him For this of that of the causes that he loved, than n. constructive statesman or a leader of men. In hifi very first session, and if We remember rightly by his very first speech, Mr. Taylor .«ecured the appointment of tta Royal Commission which overhauled

which ha* rarely, if ever, been equalled by a new member. In his last Parliament his brilliant and successful championship of th© leasehold should never be forgotten. Hut for him we should probably have had a 1-eactionary Land Bill put through, and who is to take np his running? His chief sphere of activity was, however, oulmde tho House, and especially on the Prohibition platform. Widely ac we differ from him on tho liquor question, we have never lost sight of the courage, the energy, and the honesty of his advocacy, and we ca,n fully appreciate what a stunning blow his loss is to the enuee of Prohibition. But ac a. fearless champion of clean politics and social wform, and as a, witness to the fact that thers is still room for men of courage a-nd high principle in public life, he will be still more widely mourned,