OBITUARY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20823, 16 March 1931, Page 9

OBITUARY.

MR. VERNON HARTSHORN.

WORK FOR LABOUR PARTY.

(Received March 16, 5.5 p.m.) British Wireless. RUGBY, March 14. The sudden death occurred yesterday of Mr. Vernon Hartshorn, Lord Privy Seal, at his home in South Wales. In his official capacity Mr. Hartshorn was entrusted with the task of co-ordinat-ing Government measures in connection witli unemployment, and in recent weeks he had felt the strain of the heavy work this had entailed. He was 58 years old. Ho had played an important part in building up the Labour Party.

Mr. Hartshorn entered Parliament in 1918 and on the formation of the first Labour Government in 1924 was appointed Postmaster-General. He was a member of the Simon Commission on India.

The late Mr. Vernon Hartshorn was an underground worker from Jiis boyhood until he became a clerk in a colliery company's office at Cardiff. a check-weighter and a miners' agent. Mr. Hartshorn accepted, during the war, an invitation to. join the Coal Controllers' Advisory Committee and the Coal Trade Organisation Committee. A critic of him said: "Ho is as able with his pen as with his tongue, and his regular articles on labour topics are among (lie best things of their kind. Among the influences that helped to make, Mr. Hartshorn the man lie is must be mentioned religion (ho wis for seven years a local preacher), the earlier writings of Mr. Blatcbford (who is still his intimate friend), and a happy marriage. He has said that he owes everything he has achieved to his wife."

Deceased was president of the South Wales Miners' Federation. He had been member for the Ogmojje division of Glamorganshire since 1918. Ho was appointed a member of the Indian Commission in December, 1927, in place of the late Mr. Stephen Walsh, who became ill. Mr. Hartshorn was an advocate of the independent representation of Labour. He sprang into prominence by his criticisms of Liberal-Labour leaders of tho miners. As a member of the South Wale# miners' executive and of th« national executive of the Miners' Federation, he was a power in the dispute of 1920, but resigned from both executives at the close of the strike. It was claimed that it was Mr. Hartshorn who killed the Government's Coal Profits Bill. With an intimate knowledge of the coal industry he combined a knack of presenting facts and figures. His speech on tho Coal Milling (Reorganisation) Bill in 1926, when ho urged a round table conference, was described by an opponent as "the speech of a statesman."

MR. J. H. CHAPMAN. (Received March 35, G. 45 p.m.)

ADELAIDE, March 55.

Tho death has occurred of Mr. 'John Hedley Chapman, Country Party member of the Federal Senate for South Australia.

Mr. John Hedley Chapman was born in 1879 and educated at Prince Alfred Collego, Adelaide. Ho entered the service of the National Bank and later became a farmer. Ho was returned for Flinders in 1918 as the first representative of the Country Party in the House of Representatives. He was elected to the Senate in 1925.