THE LATE LORD WEMYSS.

Mataura Ensign, 3 July 1914, Page 3

THE LATE LORD WEMYSS.

s~* Tf t-l:e title of""Grand Old Man" ofi politics be not extinct the late Earl Wernyss could lay strong claim to' it. 1 When at the age of 00 he recalled, the fact, "I have been 67 years in one or other of the Houses of Parliament continually, save for a break of six months," he was careful to add that snice the days of Lord Palmerston ha had never been in receipt of a party wliip. He assisted Peel to reform the Corn ILauvs, and half a century later, in "another place," he set all the political world chuckling 'by gravely introducing a Land and' Property Transfer Bill,, which .was a trenchant little satire on a Liberal Government's licensing legislation. _ It. enacted that "property of all kinds" should be transferred 'to the State at the expiration of 14 years. Political Burlesque. His lordship was rather partial to jokes of this order, for a little earlier he had burlesqued the Small Holdings Bill with a. measure to set up in life every shop assistant who aspired to possess his own small shop. .His parliamentary career brought him many adventures and experiences. In the course of one impassioned speech in the House of Lords' he knocked the hat of King Edward (then Prince of AY ales) over ,his eves. The Prince, who -was in a- seat immediately in .front of the perfervid Scottish peer, smilingly 'withdrew from the danger zone. At the close of a long campaign directed towards the introduction of a compulsory sys'teto of military training Lord Wemyss knew the sorrow of having to. .publish a pamphlet with the title, "A Record of 37 Years' Vain "Work." He was the patriarch of the volunteer movement in the days whan he. was Lo,rd Elclio, and recollections of his service are kept perenniallv green 'by the competition each year for the Elcho Shield. His cottage at Wimlbledon was the scene of many .brilliant social when, the m®etinn r s of tne National Rifle Association, Were held there before the days of Bisley. It too, who started the'golf cuiib on u imibledon Coniinion yoursi wo but he rebelled! when an order was made directing that all the golfers were to wear a red coat.