Manawatu Evening Standard. THURSDAY, JULY 24, 1924. A PIONEER’S PASSING.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIV, Issue 1076, 24 July 1924, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. THURSDAY, JULY 24, 1924. A PIONEER’S PASSING.

It a it ely in the history of the Dominion have such profound marks of respect been paid to the memory of a deceased pioneer and legislator, as were observed in connection with the passing of the late Sir Walter Buchanan, whose remains were followed to their last resting place at Clareville on Tuesday, by such a large concourse of people, including the leading members oi the Government and of both branches of the Legislature. Although his death occurred with tragic suddenness, Sir Walter Buchanan had reached such a ripe old age that ho could not have been expected to have lived much longer, and his friends, while regretting his removal from the scene oi his life’s activities, must recognise that he has paid the inevitable debt to Nature, which is required of all men, and that his passing was, as he himself would probably have wished, without suitering or under circumstance of prolonged illness. Few men who have lived to the late Sir Walter Buchanan’s age can claim to have enjoyed better health or to have remained in such complete possession of their faculties up to the very last. A man of .outstanding personality, ho was the true type of pioneer and it may be said of him that he lived for the good of his adopted country, while retaining a very real love for his native land to which he was very warmly attached, and with which lie remained in communication through friends in Scotland, and “brither” Scots in this Dominion. Sixtv-eigbt years of his always strenuous life were spent in Australia and this country. He came to New Zealand from Australia in the rush to the Otago goldfields, in 186-1. after following the occupation of a stockman in Victoria for some six years, but, eschewing the somewhat illusory life of the gold miner, entered upon farming first in Canterbury and later on in the Wairarapa where the greater part of his life was spent. No man has done more to deserve the love and confidence of the Wairarapa people than the deceased pion®: settler, whose passing is so generally mourned, not merely in the Wairarapa but in every other district where he was known. He was a man of high principle and one whose benefactions made his name almost a household word in the district in which he lived. A keen business man, he was nevertheless of a kindly andi generous disposition and took an active part, in both the local and general government of the country. He was one of the pioneers of the frozen meat industry, the export of the dairy produce and the establishment of stud flocks and herds. He was also one of the founders of the Wellington Meat Export Company, of which he remained a director until the last. A staunch memmbor of tho old Conservative Party, and later a keen supporter of the Reform Party, he represented Wairarapa in the House of Representatives, with only two breaks of three years each, from ] 831 down to 1914, when ho was defeated by the late Mr J. T. M. Hornsby, who had held the seat on two previous

occasions. Subsequently be was pointed to the Legislative Council and continued to take an active interest in the political life of the community, and did much to advance the cause of agriculture and the producing interests generally. No man in Parliamemnt had a higher reputation for honesty and fixity of purpose to fight for his beliefs. The late Hon. W. D. S. MacDonald, in speaking of Sir Walter at a social function held just after the short session of 1912, said “1 have known him since 1 was a boy, and I am satisfied he is the ‘whitest’ man in Parliament.” 1 All that the late Sir Walter Buchanan held in the shape of wealth he earned by his steady, tireless industry and energy, intelligently directed in fields where the winning of something for the individual as a reward of patience and perseverance was necessarily of advantage to the whole community. He gave of his time, his talents, his 'energy' and his means freely to advance the interests of the district in which he lived. He served on the South Wairarapa County Council ; on the Wellington Education Board; on the Wairarapa A. and P. Association, and other bodies. His benefactions were numerous. He founded a Home for Incurables at Carterton at a cost of £6000; he also built a church at Gladstone out of his own private funds, and his private benefactions would be seen to have reached a very large figure were it possible for them to be made known. He was a generous contributor to patriotic funds, during the war, and his generous gift of £IO,OOO to establish a Chair of Agriculture, to which he had expressed his intention of adding several more thousands, gave further evidence, were such needed, of his public spirit. Apart from his generous attributes, it has been well said that “what most impressed those who knew him best was his tenacity of purpose and his tenacity of life.” He died as he lived, in harness, doing what he believed to be his duty, to the very last, and the many tributes which have been paid to his memory show him to have been an outstanding figure in the life of the country, whose passing leaves us all the poorer and whose example may well be emulated by those who remain.