A NOTABLE SERVICE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXIII, Issue 15920, 4 May 1912, Page 10

A NOTABLE SERVICE.

Or the many tributes that have been paid to retiring members' of Parliament during the last month or two none has been better deserved than the one with which the electors of Oamaru honoured Mr T. Y. Duncan and themselves on Thursday night. Mr Duncan is not a brilliant orator, nor a great statesman, but the House of Representatives has contained few men who have given more faithful service to their constituents than he did to his during the long years he sat within its ■walls. His most notable service to the country as a whole, though he did admirable work .while Minister of Lands, seems to have escaped the attention of his friends at Oamaru altogether. It was mainly due to the strong support he gave to Sir John M'Kenzie when the acquisition of the Cheviot Estate was under consideration by the Ministry in 1893, that his predecessor in office was able to persuade his colleagues to make this first big experiment in closer settlement. He had gone over the country some time before on business connected with the rabbit' fences, and his testimony to the quality of the land and its suitability for sub-division turned the scale in favour of the bolder spirits in the Cabinet. It was a service to the country that should keep his memory green with the man on the land for many years to comei