THE LATE MAJOR HOULKER.

Colonist, Volume LVII, Issue 14165, 16 August 1916, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE LATE MAJOR HOULKER.

MEMORIAL TABLET UNVEILED

(E'roin "Tlie Colonist," August .4.)

A brass tablet in memory of the late Major James Iloulkor was unveiled in the Cathedral yesterday evening in the presence of a large congregation. Tho ceremony was performed by the Bishop of Nelson, at .tho request "of the vicar (Rev. Dr. Weeks) on "behalf of the Cathedral authorities. .After tho unveiling, the hymn, "For all the saints who from their labours rest," was sung. ■ The tablet bears tho following inscription :— •In Memory of l .Tames IJcmlker, 8..\., LL.B., Major, Canterbury Infantry, Now Zealand Expeditionary Fores. Died 10th August, 3910, from wounds received in action at Gallipoli. All power and honour we ascribe To Thee, who only makost brave. This tablet is placed hero by his friends as a Listing remembrance of -a good citizen and gallant soldier. The jiishop. in the course of a short address, said that at tho dose of a day njemcrable in our history as an Empire, and fittingly observed within the walls of that Cathedral as a day of unbroken pra3*er. they had low met to unveil a tablet, in memory of one of their fellow-Churchmen and fellow-citizens. It was necessary to remind themselves of the personality of the man in memory pi whom the tablet was erected. As a boy he grew up in this city, «nd attended Nelson College. In all their intercourse with him he was found to be always ready to'speak- and always ready to act on behalf of the1 (boyhood of their ■country. As a ptiblic school boy he was proud of his .school. Moreover, his school took a prido in uini, and it was not the least part of the memorial, which'was unveiled that evening, nor was it the least pleasurable, part, to know that his memory would be handed down by means of a prize which had been founded by his friends in memory •of him.' As he pas'sod from sdifcol to ~the University of "New' Zealand to prepare for his professional life, Major Houlkor made a great decision. It was "possible for a man in those days to i qualify for a profession and to.do noth-| sng more, lii.it. he determined, in his ideal of the calling which he had chosen, to bring to its practice a cultivated mind and an education which would enable him, if God so permitted, to realise his highest ideals. And so from school he passed to Canterbury College and graduated in the arts school and then passed on to the law school, >and obtained his degrees in both. As Tae settled down to the'life of a citizen be foresaw what it could be wished that more of their young men had foreseen —that the day might come when' God would call him to defend his country1 with his life, and as he prepared for years beforehand for the practice of a noble profession, so he prepared 'beforehand for the call that eventually came to him as a soldier. Ho was full of. enthusiasm for his country, and some them would remember that when the ■ vrn broke o\it He wns anxious to plae^ bis services at the disposal of the Empiro. There was sonio delay and some •disappointment, but overyone sympta--thised with him in the desire of ' his lieart. The time came when ho wan -called'tip, and he passed on to a battlefield which would 'live in the annals of "British history, arid there lie received the wounds from which he subsequently died. There was a dearth of news about him for -a, time, but when it came' it told that James Houlker had died as a Christian and as a soldier. 'There was an aspect of his life which lie did not obtrude on tho notice of his •fellow-men, but those who were more intimately'associated with the religious life of tliis city know how. deep and bow sincere wore his convictions as a Ohui'-hmaii He \vn- ;rv attendant at the Cathedral; he devoted his gift of music to the service of God in the choir, and for many v.jirs he. was'the treasii>-i»r of o«<> of tlieii- OlnvcH soci"ties. Religion di'tl not make him any the less a."man..- Was it not really the ■completion of. his manhood? He was titie of the most lovable of men, and whilst they mourned their own personal loss and sympathised with bis kindred in their bereavement, they could not help but feel that ho bad left them all a noble example as a professional man, fcis a soldier, and as "a Christian, in everything filled with high ideals, and T.ever allowing anything to stop him in the working out of those ideals. In his •closing years, the Bishop added, Ruskin rgave utterance to some of tbe most profound 'truths that had ever been "in the English language. One K>f his writings contained these strange1y propbHic words:—"The great 'mystery of tlfe idea of Sacrifice itself, whicli luis been manifested as one united anc

solemn instinct by all thoughtful and affectionate races, since the world oecarae peopled, is founded on the secret •truth of benevolent energy which all men who have tried to gain it hare learned —that you charnot ssve men from death but by facing it i'or them, nor from sin but by resisting it for them. . . . Some day or other— probably now very soon, too probably hy heavy afflictions of the State, we shall be "taught. . . : ' that all trut> .-good and glory even of this world, not to speak of any that-is to come, must his bought still, as it always has teen, "with our toil and with our tears." That •was the lesson which impressed them Ttiore to-day than it did a yet-r ago, Hhat at the basis of _ everything that Tva,s good there lay vicarious sacrifice. Let who would reject it, let who would -deny the fact by living a. life contrary to it, but the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, which exhibited to them th<3 Eternal Sacrifice for others, because on ore real to them when they sa>v it shadowed forth in the life of a man like Major Houlker.. And the closer i;hey got to the Cross of Jesus, thecloser they would get to that secret which he had learnt and which ho demonstrated "in his life. Before the congregation left the organist (Mr N. 11. "Williams) played Mailly's "Marche Solcneile."