The Stratford Evening Post With which is Incorporated "THE EGMONT SETTLER" (Established 1890) MONDAY, JANUARY 27, 1936. CHURCHES PAY TRIBUTE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume IV, Issue 40, 27 January 1936, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post With which is Incorporated "THE EGMONT SETTLER" (Established 1890) MONDAY, JANUARY 27, 1936. CHURCHES PAY TRIBUTE.

CHURCHES throughout New Zealand, in marking the passing of King George V by holding memorial services yesterday, gave the people of New Zealand an opportunity to demonstrate quietly but with reverence and feeling, their sorrow at the loss of a great ruler and their deep respect for a man of worth. Preachers in every church, whether in hamlet or city, paid sincere tributes to a King and a Man and the tenor of those tributes could not find better expression than in the address of Bishop Sprott at St. Paul's, Wellington. He said: "His late Majesty King George conceived that his life should be one of service. He occupied the highest place that any man could occupy in this world, as head of the greatest Empire the world had ever seen. But he did not regard it as a means of self-aggrandisement, nor as a means of ease and pleasure. Instead, he devoted himself to the service of his people. This was the Christian humility that King George had shown throughout his life. We should follow the example our late King has set, and not regard ourselves as people of the British Empire as the centre of the world. We are in this world to render service.

"There was another trait in King George's character, or rather a part of his inborn humility, which elevated him in the esteem of his people—his love of simplicity. "I think," the Bishop proceeded, "that sometimes we have regarded our kings exclusively from the official point of view. It is true that they hold great office, and it is right and proper that they should be so regarded; but i think it has led us rather to overlook the fact that they are simple human beings. We have been inclined to think of their lives as artificial, but we should remember that they are human beings.

"The late King George was at pains to dispel the idea of artificiality among his fellows. I have heard on the highest authority that the King had a dislike of elaborate ceremonial. The funeral of the King of a great Empire cannot be likened to the funeral of a private citizen. There must be some pomp and something of the pageantry of death, but we know that Queen Mary has requested, at the wish of King George, a simplification of the ceremonial attaching to his burial. We ought to get back to.the realisation that our kings are human beings, and this was the secret of the late King George's world-wide influence. Even in this sophisticated age we are capable of appreciating simplicity as a virtue."