The Star. Delivered every evening by 6 o'clock in Hawera, Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, OpunaKe, Otakeaho, Manukahi, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, and Waverley. MONDAY, JUNE 24, 1912. THE PASSING OF A PIONEER.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue LXVIII, 24 June 1912, Page 4

The Star. Delivered every evening by 6 o'clock in Hawera, Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, OpunaKe, Otakeaho, Manukahi, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, and Waverley. MONDAY, JUNE 24, 1912. THE PASSING OF A PIONEER.

By the death of Sir John Logan ouiiipiKMi, vvxio was born at Edinburgh on .lovtjjiibor 3, JttiV", and pasaod away at AutKianu on tne morning of the ■22nd instant, New Zealand has lost one of the ino-st remarkable of her citizens and one of her earliest pioneers. He was the only son of Dr John Campbell, of Edinburgh, and a grandson of Sir Alexander Campbell, of Aberuchill and Kilbryde, Portnahiie, Scotland— the fourth baronet of the line—a line which went back to the beginning of the fifteenth century, and included in its members the Campbells of Loudo an, the earldom of which was held at the beginning of last century by an heiress, who married her cousin General Mure-Campbell, who became Gover-nor-General of India and the first Marquis of Hastings. At Edinburgh University, he took degrees and diplomas in both medicine and surgery, but practised his profession for only a year or two; for when he came to New Zealand at the end of 1839 3 he almost at once entered business' with a fellow Scot, and together they founded the firm of Brown and Campbell, which became, one of the largest and most successful commercial concerns of the country. While prospering themselves, the proprietors did good, too, m innumerable ways to others. The younger partner entered public life, and became a prominent figure in both provincial and colonial politics As Superintendent of Auckland, he acted with the insight and energy of an Imperial statesman, and anticipated all other public men in the Empire by providing for the establishment of a volunteer force, before Great Britain herself. As students of the subject know, volunteering in England was formally initiated as far back as the year 1537, in the time of Henry the Eighth, and, after a long period of non-existence, was revived again in 1779. It again fell into neglect, however; but on the 12th day of May, 1859, after two or three years of strenuous advocacy on the platform and in the press, the Secretary of State for War issued a circular to Lord-Lieutenants and others, authorising them to form volunteer corns. But as Superintendent of Auckland, Dr John Logan Campbell had anticipated this important movement, for as early as 1858 he recommended the Provincial Council to place £1000 on the Estimates for rifles for a volunteer force, which, through the agency of Dr Campbell's public authority, and with the encouragement of his personal influence and private purse, was ready for public service by the middle of 1858, a year before the British War Office had taken action in the matter. But, after all, it is Cornwall Park that is the outstanding and continuing expression of Sir John Logan Campbell's life and character, and there is romance as well as public spirit connected with its history. The One Tree Hill Estate, as originally owned by him, had an area of over 1100 acres, and in a will which he had drawn up while he was travelling in Italy, and which he signed at Rome in the year 1880, he—in fulfilment of a long-cherished wish—bequeathed the whole property to the people of New Zealand. The district, it may be stated, had been so much admired and prized by the Maoris long before the country was discovered by Europeans that they called it Tamaki Makarau—Tamaki of a hundred lovers; a place so lovely that all admired it; and —after the old primitive human fashion —much blood was shed and many fierce wars were waged for its possession. And it happened that vicissitude was still to attend it, and the intention of its patriotic owner. For unforeseen changes and unexpected contingencies arose, which made the realisation of his original intention impossible; but he still clung to the idea of presenting a perpetual park to his countrymen, and so applied his great knowledge, his splendid energy and unselfish enthusiasm that adverse conditions had so far to yield to his purpose that he was able, on the 26th of August, 1903, to make a free gift of the 230 acres of Cqrnwall Park to the people of New Zealand. In view of all the circumstances, this was assuredly a very noble thing to do—a thing worthy of being held in perpetual remembrance. But to the people of this country—and to people of other countries—has he not made another not less admirable present? Surely he has. in the refreshing spectacle of blended romance and reality exhibited by his life, and in the elevating example of an unselfish purpose cherished through long years of vicissitude to an unselfish end. This is an asset added to the country's spiritual stock, and perhaps its influence, too, will remain as long as Cornwall Park is a joy to the people of Auckland and a treasure to New Zealand, and the name of Sir John Logan Campbell lives in the memories of men.