THE LATE MR C. SPEIGHT.

Otago Witness, Issue 3859, 28 February 1928, Page 67

THE LATE MR C. SPEIGHT.

A COMMUNITY TRIBUTE.

No greater monument to the esteem of t city for a citizen and a gentlemen could b i conceived than that which was paid by Dunedin to Mr C. Speight, whose remains were laid to rest m the Northern Cemetery on Tuesday. At the funeral all classes of the community were represented. To those whose connection with the deceased gentleman was not such as to cause personal mourning, scores of half-masted flags and the closed doors of hotels from 9.30 to 10.30 a.m. came as a reminder that one whom the city could ill afford to lose had passed away. Over 150 motor ears were required to convey mourners, and the tokens of respect in the form of wreaths that made up pne of the most impressive funeral corteges that Dunedin city has witnessed in many years. The wide manifestation of feeling and grief which the death of Mr Speight occasioned was quite sufficient to demonstrate to the unitiated that a citizen and a man hao passed . i- c wc l e of all classes in Dunedin who, having partaken of his bounty, could not forbear to pay the last sad rites to his memory that the funeral obsequies allow of. P r E; N. M errln gton, of First Church, _ conducted the services at the residence in Upper York place and at the graveside, and had associated with him the Revs Professor Davies, Dr Cumming, V. G. Bryan King, and Mr F. G. Cumming. toe paimeamis were th e deceased’s four D it Norman C. Speight and Messrs Wlf n " gl ?’. and S Ol ’> n . Speight—also Mr Walter Speight and his sons, Eric and Bruce, and the deceased’s cousin Mr A H. lokinson.

lhe Arthur Street School was closed, and the senior boys lined each side of the hearse until reaching Pitt street, where they dropped behind and allowed the cortege to pass through. „, Iu Procession were the Mayor (Mr W. B. Taverner), the Deputy-mayor (Mr J. S. Douglas), Crs Scott and Larnach, an I Mr J Hanson (cousin of the deceased) Sir John Rooert.s was close behind Parliamsr.t was represented by Sir ' Charles Statham, Messrs J Horn, and J. M. DickvrT Clark was associated with Mr 11, M. Grace and other members of the Patriotic Association. The directors of New Zealand Breweries included Messrs R. M. Greenslade. Hugh Adam, and J. A. Amge Mr J. Sutherland Ross (chairman) and other Exhibition directors were there W - Spottce (secretary). Dr W. Marshall Macdonald, Mr Bpeight’s medical adviser, attended at the house and followed. Air L. D. Ritchie (vicepresident) represented the Otago Expansion League. lhe Harbour Board members present were the chairman (Mr J. M. Dickson) Mr J. Loudon, anj the secretary (Mr Bardsley). The New Zealand Express Company was represented by Mr James Brown, Mr R. Duthie, and other directors. Mr 1. Somerville (chairman of the Manufacturers’ Association) had with him several leading members of that body. The employees of Speight’s brewery" attended to a man, and the maimed and sick soldiers now in the Montecillo Home sent as many of their number as could leave their beds. Every class of employee and employer in the city was represented. The professions of the Church, law-, medicine aJid politics had their representatives, and the working classes of Dunedin stnod with them shoulder’ to shoulder in the common grief.