ROBERT GLENDINING.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17039, 25 June 1917, Page 4

ROBERT GLENDINING.

The names of few private citizens have become more familiar and have been more generally esteemed in Otago than that of Robert Glendining, and the death of the man who played so important a part as he did in building up an industry of which the provincial district, and, indeed, the dominion have every reason to be proud, and whose whole conception of his personal obligation to the public was founded upon the truest appreciation of the duty of the wealthy, involves this city in a severe loss. The service that was rendered by Mr Glendining to the community with which he was associated for a great many years in an active and useful life was such that it is difficult to place any estimate upon it which would not involve the use of terms that would havo been deprecated by himself, modest and. averse to praise as he was. Wβ cannot, however, refrain from emphasising, in particular, the fact that, while he consistently avoided publicity, and sought no honours in public life, except upon the occasion when he was elected one of the first members of the Drainage Board— a public position which may be said to have been thrust upon him, for he offered himself as a candidate only upon the urgent solicitations of a large number of citizens, and to which he was elected at the head of the poll—Mr Glendining furnished an example of public-spiritedness in the use of his means which merits grateful recognition, (and has, perhaps, not been surpassed in this community. Not altogether inappropriately may it be said in the words of the epitaph of a great architect—"Si monumentum requiris, circumspice." Mr Glendining's generosity was proverbial, and although instances of his munificence whereby the community as a whole has greatly benefited are public property, these things represented but a small measure of the sum total of his helpful and practical large-heartedness. There was no object on behalf of which an appeal might be made in the name of humanity that did not find in Mr Glendining a true friend, and the quality in him which responded to such appeals found still more active exercise in private than in public. A staunch supporter of the Presbyterian Church, Mr Glendining specially used the organisation of the influential denomination to which he belonged as an avemie for assisting the promotion of schemes for the public welfare. The fine institution at Anderson Bay known as the Glendining Home owes its existence to his ready appreciation of the purposes, it would serve and to his generous provision of the meaus to cany the project into execution, and no* man need desire a better monument to perpetuate his name. The Winter Gardens, a civic asset of great attractiveness and value represent a gift to his fellow-townsmen of a , peculiarly happy character, and one by which he will not be least remembered. Successful through his capacity and energy in.his business enterprises, Mr experienced a personal satisfaction in aiding, out of his abundance and in his. characteristically way, the cause that needed assistance. A man of marked individuality of character, Mr Glendining belonged to a type which rarely fails to leave its impress on its environment. The city was the richer for his presence, and will be distinctly the poorer now that it is called upon to mourn him.