LATE HON. W. PEMBER REEVES

Hawera Star, Volume LI, 24 May 1932, Page 6

LATE HON. W. PEMBER REEVES

A GREAT NEAT ZEALANDER If every New Zealander who Las benefited by the legislation framed and piloted through Parliament by William Pember Reeves subscribed even a trifle in his honour, what a monument could be erected to his memory (states the “Auckland Star” in a leading article). Yet to thousands in the classes for whose benefit he specially laboured, men and women who by his efforts have enjoyed higher wages, better conditions and stronger security of employment, ,he is only a name, if that. It is nearly forty years since he closed his political career in New Zealand to j begin another fruitful career in England, and in that period, despite ■ Ins official connection with New Zealand, despite “The Long White Cloud” and other books connected with this country, and his keen and active interest in all our doings, it was inevitable that the figure of the man and his achievements should become blurred to his countrymen. His passing reminds us what' an extraordinarily gifted and versatile man he was, and what this young country owes to his intellect and culture, his energy and his ideals. A statesman with a greater range of accomplishments and interests is not to be found in our annals. He was the scholar-athlete —he represented Canterbury in football and cricket —< and the statesman-philosopher, who brought principles to bear upon problems and could write with charming and witty detachment about matters in which he had been intimately concerned. He was a member of the strongest and ablest Cabinet New Zealand lias known, and his record is written in capital letters right across our industrial and social life. The best tribute to his pioneering work as Minister of Labour is that of Professor CondliffeI—that 1 —that within five years he placed on the Statute Book a complete code of Labour legislation, without having accepted a single hostile amendment of major, importance, and that in all essentials this has remained the New Zealand code ever since. In England he mixed with the best intellectual company on equal terms, and it was a great compliment to himself and his native country when lie was chosen to direct the London School of Economies. New Zealand was justly proud of him as a fine flower of culture grown in a pioneering society. Among his literary gifts to his native' country “The Long White Cloud” ranks first. It is our best historical work, and would that all histories written in older communities had its charm of style! Of his slender output of verse, two or three poems—notably ‘The Passing of the Forest” —are classics of our small literature. His countrymen will take grateful and affectionate farewell of a very distinguished New Zealander who served his country so' well in so many fields.