WIDE PUBLIC SYMPATHY

Taranaki Daily News, 18 October 1933, Page 9

WIDE PUBLIC SYMPATHY

FUNERAL OF JAMES H. BLAIR MURDERED AUCKLAND TAXI-MAN. LONGEST CORTEGE SEEN IN YEARS. VERY IMPRESSIVE TRIBUTE PAID. By Tele staph—Press Association. Auckland, Last Night. Over 200 taxi-cabs and private motorcars, constituting the longest cortege seen in Auckland for many years, took part in the funeral of Mr. James Hunter Blair, who was murdered in his taxicab on Sunday. His colleagues on the taxi ranks and the general public united in paying a most impressive tribute to the memory of Mr. Blair. Hundreds stood bare-headed and silent as the coffin, draped in the Union Jack and adorned with wreaths, was borne from his. residence. Long lines of taxicabs disposed along the neighbouring streets moved quietly, into, the procession as the hearse turned into the new North Road, vehicles being grouped according to the -organisation to which they belonged. On the radiator cap of each cab fluttered, a strip of- black silk ribbon. It is estimated that the procession was two miles long. At all the main-points along the route crowds had collected to pay their respects to the victim of a murder, the brutality of which has aroused wide public indignation. At the cemetery there Was another large assemblage. Mt. Blair was buried in the soldiers’ section of the cemetery. The service was conducted by the Rev. Evan R.

Harries, of St. James’ Presbyterian Church, who. in the course of an eloquent graveside prayer referred to the tragic nature of Mr. Blair’s passing. “Thou knowest, O Lord, how our hearts are stirred to sympathy and to indignation,” he said. “We are mindful of the frailty of life, of its subjection not only to disease but also to hatred and even to crime; air enemy hath sown tares where thou hast sown wheat: we remember that the devil was a s murderer from the beginning. We thank thee for the magnificent tribute paid to our > brother at this graveside; have compassion upon his wife' and daughters. We pray that bur minds niay be freed froita thoughts of personal revenge; help us to commit our cause to him who judges righteously; give us grace to pray even for him whose hand has done this foul deed, that he may be brought to penitence.”

Representatives of the Returned Soldiers’ Association stepped forward and cast into, the open grave replicas of the red poppies of Flanders.