MOVING SCENES

Evening Star, Issue 22882, 14 February 1938, Page 15

MOVING SCENES

BURIAL OF SIR TRUBY KING BISHOP'S ELOQUENT TRIBUTE GREAT HUMANITARIAN LAID TO REST [Pee United Press Association.] WELLINGTON, February 13. Wellington yesterday paid its tribute to a great man. The many hundreds who attended the service at St. Paul’s Pro-Cathedral for Sir Truby King, founder of the Plunket Society, who died on Thursday, and the many thousands who lined the streets as the cortege passed on its way to Mount Melrose showed plainly how deeply they appreciated the wonderful work carried out by Sir Truby oyer a long period of years. The funeral, which was a -State one, was attended by a representative of His Excellency the Governor-General, members of the Legislature, the City Council, Government departments, and many other bodies. For three. hours yesterday morning the body of Sir Truby lay in state in St. Paul’s Pro-Cathedral, and all morning there was a steady flow of visitors to the church. Plunket nurses, members of the Dominion Council of the Plunket Society, and matrons of Karitane hospitals stood guard at the coffin four at a time. Three wreaths covered the coffin and remained on it during the funeral, one from the Government, one from Miss Mary King, and one from the president and executive of the Plunket Society. The north-west-tern porch was filled with wreaths, and more wreaths were laid outside. . CATHEDRAL SERVICE. The church service at St. Paul’s was conducted by the Bishop of Wellington (the Right Rev. H. St. Barbe Holland), assisted by the Rev. Gordon M'Kenzie. “Is is the man rather than his achievements to which our thoughts should turn as to-day we stand in the presence of his mortal remains and go forth from this cathedral reverently to lay his tired body to rest,” said the Bishop in the course of an eloquent panegyric. “ Few who saw him in his later years would guess that that little wizened body housed and sheltered one of the great creative, dynamic minds of the last generation. “ Ever since the day that, as a man of 22 years of age, he flouted the advice of the doyen of New Zealand bankers, Mr Tolhurst, and turned his back on certain success in the banking world to go to Edinburgh and equip himself- to become one of the servants of humanity, he revealed to those who knew him one' of those rare personalities in which imaginative genius is allied to immense practical, capacity. His eyes were those of a visionary, almost of the fanatic. He was a lonely man, as great visionaries always are, but the blazing passion to achieve that vision, the inner driving force within him, made him, as well as a great visionary, a great _ realist. He impoverished himself in his service to the mothers and infants of New Zealand. He devoted all he had of spirit. Intellect, and material goods to-the service of humanity. “ The Home to Which Sir Truby has been called will indeed be a home to him, a home where his love of children, his love of beauty, as seen in those wonderful rhododendrons in the lovely Karitane gardens, his love of truth in science and medicine will find perfect completion and fulfilment,” PASSAGE THROUGH CITY. The ’passage of the cortege through the city was witnessed by thousands of people, hundreds of whom had taken up places 'of vantage an hour before the service at St.. Paul’s. The pallbearers were the Minister of Health (the Hon. P. Fraser), the Minister of Finance (the Hon. W. Nash), Mr Justice Blair, Dr M. B. Tweed, Dr T. G. Gray, Dr M. H. Watt, Sir William Hunt, Sir Alexander Roberts, Mr P. F. Pattrick, and Mr C. Scott. The funeral'passed the Basin Reserve just after 4 p.m., and the cricket matches between Karori and Midland, Institute and University, and the women’s match, New Zealand v. Wellington, were adjourned for lOmin. SIMPLE BURIAL PLACE. •' It was half-past 4 when Sir Truby King was laid to rest in the bosom of the hilltop garden that he himself created. Those who went there before the cortege had to wait longer than they had expected, but, when it did arrive, good organisation to overcome the difficulties of handling the large number of care in the narrow drives reduced the delay to a minimum. There was little rain at Melrose, and the light, humid, northerly hardly disturbed the foliage. The last of the mourners arrived lOmin after the hearse. The coffin was removed by the casket carriers, eight members of the staff of the Porirua Mental Hospital, and, preceded by Bishop St.' Barhe Holland, the acting-vicar of St. Paul’s (the Rev. G. M'Kenzie), and bishop chaplain (the Rev. H. E. K. Fry), of the Lower Hutt, and followed by as many mourners as could go, it was home up a few brick steps, along a short, narrow path, and into tne tomb. Loud-speakers allowed mourners far away in the grounds and even in the street to hear Bishop Holland’s voice in the words of committal reverberating in the concrete chamber.

CROWDS wait patiently. When the official mourners had left some hundreds of the public, many of whom had waited patiently outside the gates for several hours, visited the tomb. Each was allowed to do a small service of an almost symbolic character while they paid their last respects Wreaths, which had been carried on one of the lorries behind the hearse, were given to the pilgrims to the tomb to carry from the vehicle up the path to the vault, and they were laid on its roof, which is level with the ground. Another lorry load of flowers was taken to the grave of Lady King at Porirua. IN SIGHT OF KARITANE HOSPITAL. The vault in which Sir Truhy King is, laid to rest is not conspicuous, and it will not be noticeable even to the visitor in the grounds until it is marked by a monument. It lies in the centre of the group of buildings that have arisen under Sir Truby King’s direction at Melrose Karitane Hospital, the factory of the Karitane Products Society, and his own home, bub nearest to the last. It is in the northern slope of the saddle that separates Sir Truhy’s home from the hospital, and looks out across Lyall Bay to the horizon. Few buildings are in sight except the Karitane Hospital and the closely-packed houses of Wellington, hundreds of feet below, and all about are the trees, shrubs, and flowers of his garden.