HIGHLY HONOURED

Stratford Evening Post, Volume III, Issue 360, 17 June 1935, Page 5

HIGHLY HONOURED

MRS. ELLEN BALLANCE

VIGOROUS PERSONALITYFORMER PREMIER’S WIDOW

Mrs. Ellen Enhance, widow of the late John Enhance, a former Premier of New Zealand, died at Wanganui on Friday night, after a short illness,

aged 88 years. The passing of one so highly honoured and beloved will

leave a great gap in the ranks of the city’s oldest and best-known residents, not only in Wanganui, but m New Zealand generally.

Mrs. Ballance possessed a strong and vigorous personality, taking a keen interest in the affairs of the Dominion and her home city. During her long life she was closely connected with social and philanthropic work, but preferred to avoid all publicity. She was a staunch and generous adherent of the Church of England, and gave , the site on St. John’s Hill for the church, also one as an adjunct to the Girls’ Friendly Lodge. The Plunkejt Society also received support from her, as indeed did any worthy object coming under her notice Pew Parliamentarians had a firmer grasp of politics than Mrs. Ballance, and during the whole of her husband’s active public and political life she proved an able and willing helpmate and wise counsellor. In the great struggles of his political life, battling as he did against the great minds of bis day, against those opposed to the reforms he advocated, Mrs. Ballance was in close touch with him. She shared his joys and sorrows, his triumphs and disappointments, and during the perod of his severe and protracted illness nursed him with rare

devotion.

For years after her husband’s death Mrs. Ballance continued to keep in close touch with political movement!. She was held in highest esteem by

leaders of all shades of political opinion, and with her husband could count among her most intimate friends such great minds as Sir George Grey, Sir

Robert Stout, Sir Julius Vogel, Sir

i Harry Atkinson, John Bryce, William j Rolleston, Sir Frederick Whitaker, and others. | Mrs. Ballance was a great lover of j flowers, and cultivated these extenI sively in her garden.