OBITUARY,

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1910, 16 February 1875, Page 2

OBITUARY,

JOHN WILLIAMSON, ESQ.

We are quite sure that a general feeling of unfeigned regret will prevail at the news conveyed in our telegraphic columns of the death of His Honor the Superintendent, John Williamson, Esq. Although not entirely unexpected, owing to the unfavorable chtnge which has taken place in Mr Williamson's illness lately, when the news.-that the end had come was|

received it came with a shoek —a painful, sudden blow. Thero are many cause 3 which operate to this end. Mr Williamson has been personally known to many on the Thames for years. He has been looked up to as, the father of provincial institutions in Auckland; his name has been associated with its history for more than a generation ; and by friend and foe—by political adherents and opponents, Mr Williamson has always been regarded as the personification of high-minded conscientiousness. His death comes with tenfold suddenness, as but a week ago Mr Williamson was the guest of the Thames people at the Representatives Ball; and, although at the timo suffering from the illness which has resulted in death, he rallied himself at the festive board, and, in a brief but characteristic speech, replied in the old strain to the toast of his health. One week from that night he was no more. The illness which was then fast coming upon him worked its course, and the thread is broken* The energies which, during an arduous canvas for the last Superintendehcy seemed to have been renewed, have given way suddenly; and the gifted speaker—the experienced politician has succumbed to the King of Terrors; not after a long and wasting sickness, but in a brief struggle. The spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak. It may be said of Mr Williamson that " he died in harness."

. Naturally some account of the life of such a iv an as the late Superintendent would be interesting to general readers ; to those, even, who knew least of him and his eventful life ; of his early history and the growth of his political principles and convictions ; of his self-abnegation and personal devotion to the cause which he had espoused—to the colony he had made his home. Unfortunately the materials at our haud are very scanty from which to compile anything like a sketch calculated to do justice to the memory of him whom this day the Province is mourning. We give, however, as full a resume of Mr Williamson's life as can be gathered here, and these particulars will no doubt be supplemented by other pens, and in other directions in the future.

: Mr Williamson was from the North of, Ireland, and by profession a printer. He came to New Zealand in the year 1841— one year after the foundation of the Province and Colony—under engagement to the New Zealand Printing Company. In 1845 he started the New Zealander newspaper, which, under his guidance and direction, attained to a first-class position, both literary and commercial. In this enterprise he was associated with Mr W. C. Wilson, the founder and proprietor of the New Zealand Herald. The latter gentleman parted from Mr Williamson in consequence of a disagreement in the policy to be advocated, the latter being attached to what was known in 1862-63 as the peace-at-any-price party —a conscientious adherence to which lost Mr Williamson a moderate fortune.

From the first Mr Williamson; jfcoolc an actirt and leading part in the loical and colonial politics. He was a member of every Provincial Council excepting the last one, and those during which he was Superintendent of the Province. He has represented an Auckland electorate in the Assembly since 1856; was five times elected Superintendent of the Province ; and was'once a member of the Colonial Ministry. "~ On the granting of the Constitution, Mr Williamson became one of the founders and leaders of what was known as the Constitutional party. This party nominated Colonel Wynyard for the superintendency, and was successful. On the retirement" of Colonel Wynyard, Mr Williamson supported the candidature of Mr Whitaker against Mr William Brown. Mr Whitaker was beaten, and on ihe retirement of Mr Brown, Dr Campbell took his place, and then was succeeded by Mr Williamson, who held the office (with only the exceptions of Mr E. Graham and Mr Gillies' terms, and the year of Mr Whitaker's tenure) down to the present time.

He was from the first a consistent supporter of liberal and popular Government, and the first measure of local self-govern-ment in this Province, the Highway Boards' .Act, became law under his [auspices. He also advocated liberal land ilaws, and the throwing open the country iovbondjide settlement. The forty acre system was his own independent idea, 1 and by its means settlement in the Pro vinee of Auckland received an enormous impetus. Upwards of 11,000 people were [brought into the Province in the course, ■of a few years, at a merely nominal expense, for they paid their own passages. The bulk of these were settled on waste lands. Many hare since come into the

■town and gone into business, and the forty •acre settlers form afc the present day a .large, active, and well-to-do part of our ! population. In colonial politics Mr Williamson was advocate for pacific treatment of the |natives, and the maintenance of, the ? Queen's pre-emptive right of purchase [of native lands as against the direct purchase system. When in 1862-63 the majority of the Assembly declared themselves in Javor of a war with the Natives, Mr Williamson worked steadily and actively in favor of a peace policy. He might readily have gone in with the war party, for it included a great number of his own friends, and his accession would have been welcomed eagerly. But it was his best characteristic, that when he had determined upon what he believed to be the right course, he kept to that course regardless of consequences. Popular feeling had been so much excited in favor of war, that the war party were enabled to disposses him of bis position as Superintendent at the next election. Those who remember the maaner in which a league was got up to destroy his paper, the Hew Zealander, will also recollect that the war party were powerful enough to bring about the destruction of his private fortune, which was at the time considerable. The loss of political position and private means, however, did not deter him from the path which lie had voluntarily chosen; and, although crippled in means and shorn of his former influence, he still fought on. He lived to see his policy on both those, questions adopted and approved. No settler of the Province will deny that the Waikato war was disastrous to the ProTince; and the direct purchase system, after having been tried for some years (to satisfy the greed of land sharks and speculators), has now reached its end, and there can be no doubt that the time is not far distant when only the Colony will purchase the native lands, and for the people of the Colony. The termination of Mr Bobert Graham's termi'^of office brought Mr Williamson again to the front as a Member of the Executive of Mr Whitaker; and, on Mr Whitaker's retirement, he was again returned unopposed as Superintendent. Just at that time the Thames Goldfields were discovered, and he bent himself vigorously to the task of opening and developing the field. His confidence in the future of the Thames, and the true manner in which he exemplified it by undertaking large public works upon tkis field, were large contributory causes to its ultimate success. On the expiration of his term of office, he contested the position with Mr Gillies, and was defeated, (mainly through the intemperate zeaj of his own friends) by a small majority. On Mr Gillies' retirement he again came forward as a candidate, and was returned for the fifth time, defeating Messrs ipargaville and Lnsk by a considerable majority. Mr Williamson was throughout life a staunch Provincialist. His commanding position in the Assembly for many years marked him as one of those who made and unmade ministries, and he might often have entered office as a Colonial Minister, but he preferred his office of Superintendent of the Province to any other honor or distinction.

W« have referred to his conductin regard to the opening of the Thames. He was (alto,."as all Thames people well know, \& strong advocate for the opening of Ohinemuri, and we do not hesitate to say that if he had been left unfettered he would long ago have solved that difficulty. It is a subject for even greater regret that he should have been taken away on the eve of the opening of that district for which he fought so hard. The Colony has. possessed few public men of the standing and ability of Mr Williamson.:.. His honesty was proverbial. IJowever much the policy which he pursued might be opposed to popular feeling—-no matter how eagerly or warmly his political opponents fought with him— from all sides there always was but one jtestimony, that his hands were clean, |and his political party unsullied. Theinifluence of the sacrifice which he made in j1863 of political position and private forjtune, in preference to abandoning his conjscientious convictions, has. had here, and | will in future have a wholesome influence on Colonial politics. He was essentially a [poor man's friend—not one who proclaimed himself to be so, but one who was so in principle and in practice. His ! generosity and kindly feeling irere exercised quietly and unostentatiously to hundreds, who remember him with gratitude, and who will hear with unfeigned regret of his decease. It is idle for us to waste words—we can sum him up as an honest politician and an honest private man; a staunch supporter of; the party with which he acted; the friend and sympathiser of the poor and distressed; and it will be long before the Province of Auckland will be able to boast of a man more thoroughly devoted to her interests, and whose personal private life was so thoroughly |" Sanmpeur et saris reproche."