FUNERAL OF THE LATE MB. D. B. CRUICKSHANK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9817, 11 May 1895, Page 5

FUNERAL OF THE LATE MB. D. B. CRUICKSHANK.

Tub funeral of tho late Mr. D. B. Cruickshank, of Hemuera, chairman of directors of the Northern Steamship Company, who died suddenly on Wednesday night, took place yesterday afternoon from his lato residence, and his remains were followed to their last resting place by a very large number of old colonists, the gathering being of the most representative character of all classes in the community, showing the great esteem in which the deceased gentleman was held. Flags were flying half-mast at villa residences in tho district. The coffin, covered wibh wreaths, having been borne to the hearse, the cortege moved off for St. Mark's cemetery, where tho interment was to take place. In the first carriage were tho chief mourners Mr. George Cruickshank (brother), and the three sons of deceased ; 2nd, Messrs. Graham Cruickshank, and W. Cruickshank (nephews), Hov. W. Beatty (incumbent of St. Mark's), and Mr. John Taylor; 3rd, Messrs. Thomas Russell (accountant), and W. C. Somers (of office staff of deceased's firm of Cruickshank and Co.); 4bh, Messrs. James Macfarlane and W. S. Wilson (directors), and Charles Hanson (manager), Northern Steamship Company ; sth, Mr. John Coutta (superintendent engineer), Captain Farquhar (s.s. Clansman); Captain Stevenson (s.s. Wellington), F. F. Ker (secretary); 6th, Messrs. W. Laird (chief engineer Clansman), T. E. Brewer (chief engineer Wellington), C. Fox (wharf office clerk), A. Barnes (Onehunga agent); 7th, Captain Smith, Messrs. Markwick, Seagar Brothers, and Woodhouse. All other captains and engineers of the company's fleet would have attended, but were out of port) ab the time of the funeral; Bth, directors of the New Zea-

land Accidonb Insurance Company, Messrs. Thomas Huddle, R. C. Carr, C. B. Stone, F. Battley, P. A. Edmiston (general manager); 9th, H. A. Marriner, N. Waddell (of office staff) ; 10th, National Insurance Company, by Win. 'fait (local manager) and Mr. Robinson ; 11th, Mutual

Assurance Society of Victoria, by Mr. E. T. Gould, district agent; 12th, Harbour Board, by Mr. M. Niccol; 13th, 14th, and 15th, Auckland Savings Bank, by Messrs. 0. G. McMillan, T. Peacock, W. S. Cochrane, W. S. Laurie, J. H. Upton, A. Boardman, T. Paton, J. Reid, J. T. Boylan (trustees), and R. Cameron (manager) ; Thomas Henderson (local manager Union Steamship Company), C. V. Houghton (Now Zealand Shipping Company), N. A. Nathan (of L. J). Nathan and (Jo.), and Sanderson

(representing Shaw, Savill, and Albion Company); Jobson (Government Inspector of Machinery), C. J. Pirio (Amalgamated Engineers' Society). In the cortego we also ■ noticed Monsignor McDonald, Canon Nelson, Ven. Archdeacon Dudley, Rev. Shirley Baker, Hon. I'). Mitehelson, M.H. Mr. W. Crowthor, M.H.R., Mr. Cairns, Dr. Haines, Dr. King, Major Pirie, Captains Ware, Nearing, Braund, llorrold, Steinmann(of Wolverene), Perry, and Neale (chief officer Forfarshire), Lieutenant H. Archer, Messrs. James Miller (Cruickshank and Miller),.!. Homo, Carrollo,

lose, Collector of H.M. Customs; T. Fin

layaon and H. C. Tewsley (Sargood, Son, and Ewen), L. A. Bachelder (Arnold, Cheney, and Co.), H. Johnston (Garr, Johnston, and Co.), G. Fraser (Fraser and Son), McGruor (of Cassel's Company), Seegner (of Seegner, Langguth, and Co.), Arch. Clark, M. Clark, C. I. Eller, H. Rees George, J. G. Ward, A. Kidd, Hellaby Brothers, Thomas Thompson, Bassett, W. J. Parker, T. Frost, Thomas Morrin,

W. Somerville, Thomas Hill, Alfred Buckland, Adam Brock, E. Withy, J. Hardie, W. Aitkon, Nolan (of Hunter and Nolan), J. M. Dargaville, H. Campbell, R. Carter, F. C. Carter, Jas. Baber, M. Lacon, H. P. Naughbon, G. McCaul, F. R. Claude, J. H. M. Carpenter, J. M. Lennox, J. S. Lennox, J. R. Gray, Andrew Holden, E. Hesketh, S. Heakoth, C. Motion, J. Motion, C. E. Rnapp, Pearco, Lambert, J. Koach, A. Heather, H. 1». Heather, D. Lundon, Charles Canning, P. Darby, J. J. Craig, E. Ford, W. Winstone, V. B. Winstone, S. Jackson, J. H. Jackson, Thornton Jackson, T. J. Stoelo, E. Lewis, Gabriel Lewis, Gilfillan, D. Dingwall, Thorpe (3), J. Owen, 11. Owen, R. Garlick, J.' T. Gar-

lick, W. T. J. 8011, W. A. Ryan, A. P. Wilson, Walker, W. McLaughlin, J. G. Dalton, If. Probert, A. Eaton, W. Shera, Prothoroe, VV. Dinnison, K. B. Heriot, J. Kirkwood, D. Rosa, M. Bureau, D. Gouk, W. E. Anderson, W. Brigham, C. A. Stubbs, H. Hewson, B. C. Roberts, Minetti, L. Ehrenfriod, L. Calder, \V. S. Whitley, Slnnell, and others whoso names we were unable to obtain.

On the cortege reaching the entrance to St. Mark's Church the coffin was met at the gate by the Rev. W. Beatty, in his robes of office (the church bell meanwhile tolling), who recited the opening sentences of the burial service as the coffin was borne into the church and placed before the altar. He then read Psalm xc. and I. Corinthians, xv.

At the close of the reading of the Scripi tures, Mr. Beatfcy delivered tho following impressive address :'Your labour is not in vain. Tho sad occasion, my friends, which brings us together to-day, ought to force tho least thoughtful of us to consider the meaning of these words. A man in the prime of life, seemingly full of vigour and activity, with mental and bodily powers unimpaired, is suddenly called away—his work hero is interrupted, his plans frustrated, the home ties which he had formed, and which had rilled so great a part of his life, are snapped. Was his labour in this world in vain ? Not vain. If our little lifo is rounded with a sloop, if wo came from nothingness and into nothingness depart; if death ends all, then his labour was vain, and ours is vain also. But if the life which we live in the flesh, under the often painful and always repressive conditions of mortality, is bub the beginning of a larger, deeper, fuller, more perfect life; if our work and thought and suffering, our joy and sorrow here, tho relationships into which wo are born or which we form for ourselves, are but moans of training and schooling as for a sphoro in which all our true human capacities, powers, affections will be enlarged and developed, in which we shall have infinitely greater scope for their activity, then, solemn and startling as must always be the sound of such a trumpet call as summoned our departed friend from our midst, wo can be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord ; for we know that our labours, whether it be for our family, our Church, our nation, or for mankind, our labour is not in vain in tho Lord. To St. Paul, who was an earnest worker, if ever there was one, the hope of a better lifo after death was tho nocessary condition to faithful and persevering work in this. To him the thought that when man's frail body dies, tho man himself, with all his divine capabilities of hope, of love, of reverence, of imagination, of reason, perishes, utterly, would have paralysed all effort—if that hideous doctrine, against which tho heart of man, Jew, Christian, or heathen, has always revolted, were true — tho only rational philosophy of life was, lob us eat and drink, for to-morrow wo die. Why work to make others happier, why seek to leave the world better than wo found it, why devise plans for lessening the misery and promoting the moral and physical health of others, why labour for the benefit of those to come after us, why let the tendrils of our heart twine round

the person of wife or child, of father, brother, sisters, friend, only that death might mako cruel havoc of all. My friends, the assurance of life and immortality, of a perfect and abiding home with God, of the permanence of human relationship, of the renewing and elevating of ties which death seems to tear asunder for ever, is one of the things which have made tho Gospol, in spite of the human corruptions which have overlaid it, the Christian Church in spito of tho human superstitions which have disfigured and degraded it, a power ovor tho hearts of men and women for eighteen hundred yoirs. So long as sickness, agony, death, bereavement remain, so long as widows weep and fatherless children are desolate, so long the words of tho Son of God and Son of Man, the conqueror of death —I am the Resurrection and tho Life

—will never lose their power, lie, whoso mortal remains wo commit to earth to-day,

lived those words, and lived as if be believed thorn. With the deep roverenco for the Bible which is characteristic of his countrymen, with tho strong faith in the righteous will of God which has produced in the Scottish character its noblest element of steadfastness and courage, he lived in his home and in his business, the quiet, simple, modest life of a good man. To thoso nearest to him, his loss is irreparable, though we pray and believe- that God will give them

the comfort, guidance, and guardianship that thoy need. The community at largo will mips his business activity and his practical wisdom; they will miss, even more, his unpretending consistent Christian example. It is easy to talk, my friends, it is hard to live. And those, and those only, who are daily endeavouring to do their duty to God, and their duty to their neighbour, are the salt of the earth — that which keeps family life, Church life, commercial life, national life, pure and sweet and wholesome, and redeems them from corruption and decay. The remaining- portion of the burial service was then impressively road by Mr. Beatty at the grave. The casket was of polished kauri with silver mountings, and the beautiful floral wreaths having been deposited, upon it, tho assemblage slowly broke up, mourning the loss of a pood citizen. Some of those present who had enjoyed deeeasod's friendship for over a quarter of a century, were deeply affected during the burial service. Wreaths were sont by the office staff of the Northern Steamship Company, the manager (Mr. Hanson), and Mrs. Hanson, Captain Anderson (one of the directors, at present in Wellington, and who was represented by his son, Mr. Anderson, at the funeral), New Zealand Accident Insurance Company, National Fire Insurance Company, Mutual Assurance Society of Victoria, of which institutions deceased was either a local director or chairman of director*, and Captain Babot (Wellington), marine superintendent for the North Island for Shaw, Saville, and Albion Company, also a number were sent by private friends, and some woro placed upon the coffin through instructions sent by cable from deceased's friends and acquaintances in Sydney and Melbourne. The Conn tons of Glasgow also sent a. letter of condolence to the widow, expressing sympathy with her and her family in their bereavement. Mr. Hanson, manager of the Northern Steamship Company, has also received numerous telegrams from all parts of the colony, expressive of regret at Mr. Cruickshank's sudden decease, one of thorn being from Mr. James Mills, managing director of the Union Steamship Company. Messrs. Winks and Hall, undertakers, of Shortland-streeb, supervised the whole of the funeral arrangements.