A TRIBUTE TO MR G. S. BRIDGE

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 8095, 26 September 1904, Page 2

A TRIBUTE TO MR G. S. BRIDGE

(Manawatu Standard.) It is difficult tq explain in cold print the extent of the loss to education the said news' about the illness of the Chairman of the Wanganui Education l3oard a h'- dr

nreans to this istrict. For it is only of late 'ypars, that the public has begun to realise ins rugged honesty, th.c unswerving uprightness, and the exceptional Ability of tha man who has for years filled the titlo role of educational administrator for the large district comprised within the limits of the Wanganui Education District. Those who have been privileged to be associated with him in his public work have all recognised the valuable qualifications he possesses for the work he has carried on so successfully — for there has been nothing superficial about Mr Bridge, he has never been satisfied unless he has got to the bottom of things, and once he has been convinced of the justness of the view he has taken, no consideration would influence him to the contrary. But what has endfarod him to those who have worked with iiim in public life has been the good-natured manner with which he has worked to perfect schemes which the majority of those on the Board have carried when he sided with the minority Of hi« unfailing' tn,ausr.yV hjs. marvfeljous capacity for marshalling facts arid figures 1 , his unswerving loyalty to the best traditions of public life, and his self-sacrifice in devoting so much of his time to imblic affairs, we cannot speak too highy, but one little matter will give as good an indication as volumes of eulogy. He returned to Wanganui ten days ago after a consultation with medical men, which plainly told him that the one chance of finding out whether his case was hopeless was an immediate operation, and he set his' affairs in order preliminary to the great test. Even then his first thought was his public work, and Jig carefully prepared everything for the £'n£<Hi?K Board meeting, 'wenf, minutely flitpugp the teachers*? staffing work', 1 prepared motions on matters of importance &nd went tq mest his fate with a' stoicism worthy of snoh a man. lfrjr he had lived his life nobly, and the only regrets must be those of the public at the laying aside of one of those strenuous men who are the salt of real life.