MR KEIR HARDIE'S LEGACY

Southland Times, Issue 17619, 6 April 1914, Page 2

MR KEIR HARDIE'S LEGACY

ROMANOK OK TUK LADIKS' KIPPKX. LABOUR LEADER'S RKITSAL OK i!;; 0 0 A YIOA K. Not without humour anti pathos is the story which (says the Daily Chronicle) lies behind the recent legacy of £IO,OOO which the .Misses Klizaheth and .lane Klppcn. of Bdinburgh, bequeathed to Air Keir Hardie, and Mr .John Redmond, to he divided lor the benefit of their respective parties. The story is told in the Hahour header by -Mr Keir .Hardie, “Elizabeth and .lane Kippen," he says, were sisters who never married. They inherited ;t good bit of money from their father, who was, I think, an Tuasl Jndian trader, and they added to the amount by judicious investments in this country and the foiled States of America. They travelled it great ileal, and for the last twenty years of their livet had no settled home of their own. "I was elected in duly, 1X!)l’, and on gott mg home was told that two quaintly dressed old ladies had spent a week in the village making very exhaustive inquiries about my Hie and i diameter. Hater in the year we were spending a few days with my wife's mother itt Hamilton. and learned they had hen there also, amt had visited my wile's mother. "They told her frankly her errand. They knew that its a working man 1 would be none too flush of money, and they were anxious to help me in this respect, provided I hey were satisfied that i was dependable. 'Their enquiries into my public record were assuring, but—was I it good husband ? A mother-in-law was the best authority on that." The upshot was that Mr Keir Hardie was invited to Kdinburgh. The two ladies said they had been helping to finance the Parneliite section of the Irish party, and also wanted to help .Socialism, believing that Nationalism and Socialism would one day be working together. They therefore proposed by written agreement to pity him f.'iOtl a year so long as he remained in Parliament, and to make nrovisifin for it being continued after they had gone. Air Keir Hardie says that to a man without a shilling and the prospect of having to earn his living for some time the offer had its practical advantages. But after thinking it over he declined the proposal, and sugegsled that the money should be given to the Scotish Habour party, hut this gave the ladies "mighty offence." Continuing his narrative, Mr Keir Hardie says ; Years passed ere I heard from them again, and then it took the form of a small Christmas gift. Jn the autumn of IS9T they sent me £)00 as 'a g'ift.' to be disposed of as I pleased. I sent p-art of it to the engineers' Hoekout Kami, part to the Washington Miners' Strike I’uiuJ, and the balance to the I.H.P. The next donation was £IOOO, sent through the Header of the Irish party, and which I passed on to the I.H.P. Then they made me the channel of sending a very large sum to the funds of the Irish party. it was their way of doing things. This was followed by another gift of £"000 to the I.H.P. funds." Kinally canto the bequests under the will. “The Misses; Kippen (adds Hie Habour leader) belonged to a generation which has passed away. Quaint in dress, and full of an old-world courtesy, they must have felt strangely cut off from the modern whirlpool of life. But instinctively they loved the common people and the cause of human freedom."