THE LATE SIR ARTHUR MYERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19459, 15 October 1926, Page 8

THE LATE SIR ARTHUR MYERS.

•Sir,—As private secretary to Sir Arthur Myers during the whole of his mayoralty and hia first two sessions in Parliament I enjoyed a large measure of his confidence, and had .exceptional opportunities of forming an estimate of his character. In common, I believe, with all who served him in any capacity, I learned to regard him not only with respect, but also with affection; and the longer our association continued the more highly I esteemed him. He was an ideal employer, tactful, courteous, considerate and inspiring; never unduly exacting, leaving to the employes a wide discretion as to the details of his work, but at the same time expect'ng —and getting—the best of which a man was capable. As a public man he was uniformly public-spirited and disinterested; and in his public activities, as in everything that he undertook, a feeling analogous to that expressed by the saying 'art for art's sake" entered largely into his attitude toward his work; he could not be satisfied unles3 anything he took in hand wa!> done as well as it possibly could be done. He had extraordinary gifts as an administrator and a manager of men: emphatically he was a man who got things done. In many respects I* take it that he was one of the ablest public men this country has known, and his _departure from New Zealand was a serious loss to our public life; but behind his ability there was the upright, kindly, generous, lovable personality; and those who knew him, while regretting his untimely death on public grounds, will feel it still more as a personal bereavement. Morton Aldis.