EMPIRE STATESMAN.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 11 May 1925, Page 5

EMPIRE STATESMAN.

A COLLEAGUE’S TRIBUTE,

WELLINGTON, May 10,

Sir Erancis BeR, the acting-Prime Minister, said to-night: “Though for many days I have known that the death of my friend and leader was near, the actual end has brought sorrow which is too great to leave me capable of writing of him as he deserves from me. Year by year during his long leadership of the Opposition, and then throughout the thirteen years of office as Prime Minister, Mr Massey has grown greater in the estimation of the people of New Zealand and won more and more the affection of those who have been privileged to serve under him. The -value of his strong and patient sense of public duty will be more keenly felt now that his wise and prudent control of'the public affairs has ended.

“The whole Empire will mourn his loss with us, for among Empire statesmen he had long since advanced to the foremost rank. Real. and lasting tribute to his memory is the unanimity of all classes and sections' of our political and social life in expressions of personal affection and anxiety since the serious nature of his illness became known. The country had come to know the worth of its leader in Parliament, blit even more to understand how just and upright he was in all his dealings, and his happy, unaffected consideration to all alike had disarmed many opponents and attached to him more firmly his hosts of friends,”