TIE LATE DR. BEDFORD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16783, 25 February 1918, Page 4

TIE LATE DR. BEDFORD.

SOLEMN MEMORIAL SERVICE.

TRIBUTES OF CHURCH AND PUBLIC

A solemn and impressive service in memory of the late Dr. H. D. Bedford, professor of economics and history at Otago University, who was accidentally drowned at Whangarei on February 17, was held yesterday afternoon at the Pitt Street Methodist Church. The esteem vin which the deceased gentleman was held, and the wide scope of his activities were Indicated by a representative attendance of all sections of the community, including graduates and students of £he university, and chairman and members of the University College Council, and other educational bodies, representatives of the legal profession, labour and business men. The church was filled.

■ The Rev. P. S. Smallfield, president of the New Zealand Alliance, in a brief opening address, referred to Dr. Bedford's Christian work, his value as a citizen, his zeal as a reformer, and his high intellectual qualifications. An impressive eulogy was voiced bv the Rev. A. B. Chappell, registrar of the Auckland University, on behalf of the friends of the late professor, his university associates, and the Methodist Church, of •which he was a prominent member. Dr. Bedford, he saJ, had made the common good his end. So signally had he served his fellows that, even at this time of national bereavement, all shared the sorrow of his loss. The speaker read letters expressing appreciation of Dr. Bedford's work and sense of loss at his death, received from Sir Robert Stout, chancellor of the University of New Zealand, and the Rev. A. Cameron, chancellor of Otago University. In conclusion, Mr. Chappell referred to the brilliant scholastic achievements of the late Dr. Bedford, and said that university life had suffered an immense loss by his death. Other addresses were delivered by MrE. Rush, president of the Auckland Y.M.C.A., who referred to Dr. Bedford's ■work as a field secretary of the association in camp and on the transports for several months, and by Mr. C. H. Poole, M.P.. who touched on Dr. Bedford's striking personality and his powerful mentality, and said that Now Zealand had lost one of its most powerful fighters in the battle of sane democracy. . A resolution deploring the loss that Dr. Bedford's death had occasioned the Dominion, was carried in silence. At the conclusion of the service the " Dead March " in " Saul " was played by the organist, Mr. Edgar Randall.