ESTABLISHED 1875. The Oldest Manawatu Journal. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. TUESDAY, SEPT. 4. 1908. A GREAT IRISHMAN.

Manawatu Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 833, 4 September 1906, Page 2

ESTABLISHED 1875. The Oldest Manawatu Journal. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. TUESDAY, SEPT. 4. 1908. A GREAT IRISHMAN.

Bib Robert Hart, whose retirement from the control of the Chinese Customs was announced recently, is one of the most remarkable Irishmen of his time. He has been called the " Wizard of the East" for his creation of the splendidly organised Chinese Customs service out of nothing, and he is declared by an American biographer to have for nearly half a century wielded an influence not even second to that of the DoTager-Empress of China, or the Mikado. Becoming head of the Customs in the early sixties, he " built up a machine that collected the revenues, governed the municipalities along 4000 miles of coast, maintained a fleet of ships and gunboats for the protection of trade, regulated a magnifioent chain of coast lights, and controlled all the commerce linking the Empire with the rest of the world." He found the service manned mostly by adventurers ; he made the employees the most exclusive and best-educated class employed by any vast system in the world. It is said that his authority was well-nigh absolute, and that he knew the vast service from end to end. The reforms he carried out, suoh as coast lights, ship building, and postal service, he planned himself in the midst of an immense amount of routine work. In a little office in Pekin, removed from the limelight's glare, he watched over bis 6000 employees, most of whom knew him only by notices of approval of good work, or reprimands when things weto done whioh ought to have been left undone. His seoret service was as wonderful aB the Russian third section, and it used to be said that a little white bird always hovered over the wrongdoer and carried news of his delinquencies to Pekin. His instructions to his men filled forty volumes, all of which were written by Sir Robert himself. Sir Robert was perhaps moro Chinaman than Briton. He refused an oiler, twenty years ago, of the post of British Ambassador to Pekin, he wore Chinese costume, he was decorated with the highest Chinese honours, and his ancestors were ennobled by Imperial decree unto the third generation. In the bygone days, the highest honour a European visitor to Pekin could receive wag an invitation to one of Sir Robert's entertainments given by his Chinese orchestra. Lastly, he was distinguished for his moderation and modesty. Out of the allowance granted to him for the maintenance of his service he might have amassed the greatest fortune in existence, but he preferred to be liberal to his men, and to build up a perfect system rather than to accumulate a vast private estate.