IN TRUE PERSPECTIVE

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 71, 20 September 1930, Page 8

IN TRUE PERSPECTIVE

Few statesmen have their work correctly ■ assessed in their own time. To those who agree with them they seem as giants, and their opponents are equally prone to magnify their failings. It needs the passage of a few years to set them in correct perspective. The five years that have elapsed since the death of Mr. Massey have served to set his work in true perspective. As his memorial stands out on the promontory, clear, strong, and with bold simplicity of outline, so his character can be seen in the passage of years as that of a man with a clear purpose, a strong will, and a simple faith. As his memorial is the better for the absence of meretricious decoration, so his character was stronger for the absence of subtlety. He served his generation well because he held to a simple faith tenaciously. He believedJn the great destiny of the British Empire, and in the part which New Zealand should play in the purpose of the Empire. All political parties and classes can now agree that he achieved greatness by the steadfastness with which he pursued a straight course for an unselfish purpose.