VALEDICTORY

Southland Times, Issue 17786, 15 July 1916, Page 5

VALEDICTORY

MR W. G. COMPTON. No better indication of the popularity of Mr W. G. Compton could have been furnished than when more than twenty friends gathered to bid him farewell at the Grand Hotel yesterday afternoon. Most of those present were connected with fire insurance companies in Invercargill, and for once in a while the strenuous order of business was thrown aside by men who had for a long time been, in a commercial sense, fighting tooth and nail against each other. The chairman (Mr K. B. Pilcher), in proposing Mr Compton’s health, made clear what the object of the gathering was. He said, in effect, that Mr Compton was a jolly fine opponent, who fought the fight fairly and well. They liked to lose him, because he was hot in competition, but as a friend they were sorry to lose him. Mr Compton had always been keen on business, and the speaker predicted that he would add to his store of Insurance knowledge in Dunedin. ~ Meffflks S. B. McDonald, C. Jones, H. J. Drewe, C. W. Wilson, B. G. Spi««, and Dr Ritchie Crawford also told Mr Compton what a fine chap he was, how they were pleased with his promotion, and how they would be pleased to meet him any time he accidentally ran against them. • _ . _ Mr D. M. Adams also said that, as an insurance man, he was pleased to be at the celebration of Mr Compton’s departure. Mr Compton made a modest response, and indicated that he would go on in the way he had been doing in the past. Going to Dunedin did not frighten him. As a business centre Southland had no equal. Another toast enthusiastically honour, ed was that of Mr Miller Mr Comptons successor, proposed by Mr S. A. Giller, and a most popular proposal was the toast of the health of the chairman (Mr E. B. Pilcher), proposed by Mr G. v\. Woods, who described Mr Pilcher as the father of insurance in Invercargill. Mr D A. Mitchell said a good deal mors than Mr Woods did, and the toast was enthusiastically honoured. To continue how a very pleasant evening was spent under a tactful chairman would absorb too much space. But suffice it to say that the fighting men m the Insurance companies in Invercargill each declared that the other fellow was a jolly fine chap; if he left Invercargill to meet him again would be an enjoyment, and, altogether, the inference was transparently conveyed that all the men engaged in insurance work were good fellows; that no one knew that better than the insurance men themselves, and that the world being reasonably observant must have assimilated that idea. During the proceedings, “* or He s a Jolly Good Fellow” was a common occurrence.