SIR JAMES CARROLL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18764, 18 January 1923, Page 5

SIR JAMES CARROLL

ORATOR. STATESMAN, AND SPORTSMAN. (By Akim, in The Norlhlondor). Have you ever as a writer found yourself immeasurably beneath your theme? I have the humility of such a consideration upon me til the present moment, for to do justice to such n knight and statesman as Sir .fames Carroll would lax the powers of a brilliant writer, to say nothing of those of a mere journalist, yet impelled by what is no less than veneration. I inscribe what cornea to mo through the knowledge of close association. Recently in a London letter to an influential journal in Now Zealand it was remarked that Sir James's superb oratory was still a matter of remark in the great city where he met so many distinguished men from all countries of the earth, and lost nothing by comparison. lie was there classed, not only

with the .statesmen of the country but also with the Academicians, as a man of classic knowledge, faultless in expression, wise in history and traditional lore, and illumining all his knowledge by the genius of a ready wit and vivid imagination. All the qualities and virtues that go to make the statesman are embodied in (his man. He is Celtic on the paternal, and Maori on the .mother side. It sounds like a benediction to hear him say ’’my mother s people.” ’Phis is no catch phrase of easy expression that has not its burden of responsibilities. for no single man in this dominion bus been, indeed, such a father to the fatherless as he. Several of those adopted sons of ‘ - ms mother’s people” have laid down their lives for our country and the Empire. Some arc growing tip, from childhood to boyhood os his boon companions—notably “logo” and “The Field Marshal,” whoso names have been fantastically bestowed but are serving their purpose of creating a dignity that is impossible by tradition and an imagination that may be of incalculable value. Even “Darkle,” the black retriever, appears to have acquired dignity- and self-control from association with his loved master. No one who knows him can doubt Sir James s deep and invariable love for animals. Sir James taker, one back to the Arthurian Legends. He was surely in some former incarnation seated at* the Round Fable. Ho is. of all men 1 have met. the best interpreter of Burns's poetry and songs, so that there appears to be a subtle affinity between the knightly Maori and the immortal Soot. The same intensity of patriotism

nmrks the sentiments nnd expressions ot both, the same attitude towards labour, wealth, poverty, religion, and the same pity and love for the animal kingdom. When first I heard Sir James repeat (he docs not recite) the linos— When o’er the hills the Eastern star Tells blightin’ time is near, my Jo. And Tnvscn frae the furrowed field Return sae douf and weary O! I realised him as one of the triumvirate with Burns and Ilomcr. Amongst oilier things that have a connection with sport he is the "ariki,” or chief over all chiefs, of a local bowling club founded on land presented to members by Lady Carroll and himself, and which is named “Kahutia ,? after the presiding "emus whose domicile is. and has ever been, beyond the clouds and beyond “Ra, the lord of Day. m the mild and exalted heaven. The Ariki’s home overlooks the field of play, and al(.hough there is little that escapes the keenness of his unaverted eye, the proximity makes for mutual enjoyment. No man ever appealed to Si* James Carroll witnout receiving a sympathetic hearing and a sound judgment. He never to any claim for charity turned a deaf ear. T challenge anyone to name an occasion when anger against

any individual took possession op him. Anger he may have felt against principles, but such auger' had no personal applications. He recognises (hat politics are a party game for Um nresont. and that this demands loyalty oil the part of adherents, and no rancorous individual criticism. There is no other historical record or an aboriginal native like Sir James _ rising to the highest legislative and administrative position his country had iu gift, for he was made Acting Prime Minister by bir tToseph Ward during the absence of the latter in Britain. For cool judgment, resource, ability, knowledge of parliamentary procedure, and fine diplomacy no Cabinet Minister was ins equal. I desire to place before readers of this journal the grave face and grand phrenology of tho Maori knight. He always carries a walking-cane, heavily headed with silver, fittingly inscribed, the gift of bis Royal Highness the Prince of W ales. Imagine him now, leading, with the literature ot the day hold between his teeth. “Togo” on one side and the “Field Marshal’'’ on the other, both elpquent with comment on the day s happenings, returning homo through “the evening grey. Somehow, and I don’t know why, unless it be that he once dignified me injpsl with a nrent Homan name, I think of him as the greatest Carsar of them all.