THE LATE MR MASSEY

Te Aroha News, Volume XLI, Issue 6600, 16 May 1925, Page 5

THE LATE MR MASSEY

LAID TO REST. FUNERAL CEREMONY (From Auckland Star.) Mourned by the Sovereign he served with such loyalty, mourned by the leaders of Empire with whom he took his seat as a compeer, mourned by the Dominion he loved so well, and in whose service he wore himself out, the mortal remains of William Ferguson Massey were laid to rest to-day amid every manifestation of affection from a sorrowing people. After life’s fitful fever he sleeps well. If anything can assuage the grief of those to whom he was nearest and dearest, it is the knowledge that they do not grieve alone.

He had high ideals; and after he has passed away it is fitting that his resting-place should remind us of this fine trait in his character. Like a city set on a hill, that cannot be hid, Mr Massey’s monument will stand out as a beacon to generations of busy wayfarers yet to come. Aucklanders would naturally have wished that the last resting-place of the bluff farmer Premier, who always retained a special corner in his heart for his home in the North, while being strictly fair to every part of the Dominion, could have been somewhere withing sight of the fields he tilled and the scenes of his early manhood.

He was always an open-air man, and one likes to think of him resting on some eyri that looks down on the busy affairs of men. Every ship that swings in and out of Wellington port will pass the bare Point Halswell where he was to-day laid with reverent sorrow. From the thronged city, on the west, right round to the east, his mounment will stand out clear anl inspiring. It is fitting that our great men should rest thus. “His Monarch and his native land were nobly served.”