DEATH OF SIR COURTENAY BOYLE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7142, 5 July 1901, Page 2

DEATH OF SIR COURTENAY BOYLE.

AN ADMINISTRATOR OF COMMONSENSE METHODS. You sever hear the Board of Trade «- Starr nm d TSinoS»^ "Board of Trad," sum up Sir dourWs life "W- d g ems born an Jamaica in IWJ3, ana waf thTeldl «m of Cavendish |P^ ■Rovle He was fiTst cousin to Lady -ten aytn an! to Captain Cecil. Boyle -ho was kiUed atout a year ago in Soiifo At ric* ffie delivery of tihe «M»uol. Latin s]£cb at Charterhouse led. to a ■*««**£ w^. Thackeray that lasted' yd £• »£ velist's death. After taking Oxford he beoaine private secretary to Lord Spencer, an<J »td that position g°^°™; 7$ and front 188*85, when Lord Spencer was Viceroy of Ireland. Those wet* the troublous times of the Invincible conspiracy, and <» Boyle Evolved the melancholy duty of identifydng the bodies of the victLs of the Phoenix Park murder and of breaking the news to W Spencer. His tact aJ business-like ways ; letT to • g«jt chamge in the regime ti» Castle, and smoothed over many difficulties b°* Jjg the irascible officiate and the suceptible people. In consequence 'he was given charge of tho visit of the Prince end Prmcess of Wales **> Ireland in 1885, and although the country was stoU seething with the excitement of the agjnurian fcgitaltwa, !he piloted them safely through the country with only on© or two hostile incidents due to misconception. , ■ From 1875-1885 he was Local Government Board Inspector, and when he left Ireland in 1886 foe became Assistant-Secre-tary in the Bailway Department of tbe Board! of Brocfo, and seven years later Permanant Secretory to the Board 1 -of Trade. He detenmned to run the Board of Trade on business lines, and did so, upset the musty offioaal tradiiioins, revolutionised the admiJßStratdott, and: let on, the invigorating breeee of common sense* In short, She made the Board of Trade » real live office, destined not to hamper tout to encourage the commercial industry of the country. The Board of .Trade has charge of railways, canals, trams, shipping and seamen, fisheries and •harbours, patent*, «as and' water oaoujanies, electricity, copyright, commerce, statistics, standard weights and measures, and bankruptcy, and ib dS no exaggeration to say *hat Sir Oourtenay Boyle's work was colossal. With Lord Balfousr of Burleigh, he revised the rates, -tolls wndi charges of railway companies in tihe limited Kingdom, a gigantic undertaking, involving the grasping of millions of details* as to goods of all kinds. Various *ther Railway Acts, designed for tihe protection of the railway men, and tra-veHing public were, so to speak, clothed with flesh aind' blood by Sir Oourtenay. At his direction* too, the numerous statutes dealing ! with Merchant Shipping Acts were consolidated. When the Conciliation Act of 1896 became law, empowering the Board of Trade to pour oil on the troubled waters of labour disputes, Sir Courtenay Boyle had the task of deciding "the precise psychological moment" at which to t offer his mediation. In 1890-1 he served ' on tbe Electrical Standards Committee; in 1893 he was a member of the committee winch extended the scheme far the transmission of seamen's wages to foreign ports ; in 1897 he acted' on the Commercial Intelligence Committee ; from 1896 to 1898 h-e served, on tbe Old' Ag» Pensions Committee. In 1898 he was an active -member of tihe committee which 1 considered the desirability of forming a National Physical Laboratory, and' his tact did' much to render successful the negotiations between the electric tramway companies land) thte K«w and Royal Society authorities, which finally led to the adoption of Busbey House, Hampton Court, as a site, and! the settlement of the terms of compensation lor the removal of the magnetic apparatus from the Old Deer Park institution. Eighteen months ago he presided! over the in*ercfopartntentrj! committee on the expediency of establishing electrical eammnmotiaions between lighthouses and tihe shore. Only a few days before Ms death he was giving evtdtenoa before the Parliamentary Committee on- Metropolita.n Undergrpunid 1 Railways. He was one of the few business men who valued science at its proper worth:. He was keenly alive to the necessity of technical and commercial education, and lost no opportunity of urging it on every possible occasion, and of impressing on <tihe rising generation the necessity of business-like ways avid habits. He published his advice last year in the form of a book entitled ■ " Hints on the Conduct of Business,'* in which he related the following instance of the tendency of Government officials to * " fire off " lithographed forms without close .enquiry into the circumstances: — I "When t was private secretary fa* Dublin I received a lithographed form, from the Post Office demanding payment for a long telegram addressed to the Viceregal Lodge on the previous day. As I expected! to see the Secretary of -the Post Office in a few hours I put the demand not© in my basket^ of papers in action. Next morning I received a more peremptory form, and on the saMe day a third form, aJ«o Htih'ogpaphed, saying that if -payment were not effected at once reference would be made to the gender of the te&egram. I despatched a semi-official express to tihe head! of- the Post Office, pointing out that the telegram was on important public business, tih© recipient the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland', and the sendier •the Queen." Siagutely enough, Sir Courtenay was one -of those who believed -that the twentieth century opened at the begami»g of the year 1900. He achieved some fame as a cricketer, and played three years for Oxford against Cambridge. He was the author of tfoe recent . articles in the "Times" on cricket reform signed! "Old Blue." He -was also a keen golfer and fisherman, and helped Queen Alexandra to land) her first salmon. As a writer he Would hare made scone mark had he adopted literature as -his profession. 'He wrote not lnfrequeutfy for the reviews, and n\ Ms earlier days turned out some neat verse. A poem inspired by the love of an aide-<le« camp of the Lord Lieutenant for ft pretty Imh semipstress, and beginning "I, in a lovely palace; I Sue, in ■& lonely room." was seb to music and enjoyed considerable popxslarity some thirty years ago. Sir CouTt«niay > '3 brother, Sit Cavendish Boyfc, ihas just been, appointed Governor of Newfoundland.