SPEAKER LOWTHER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9212, 15 April 1908, Page 2

SPEAKER LOWTHER.

A PERSONAL STUDY.

("Daily News.")

The Speaker of the Houee of Commons stamps his own personality inevitably upon the House. If he is acrid, the temper of the House will be acrid; if he is stiff and formal, the House will be stiff and formal j if he is jolly, the House will be jolly.

To-day it is jolly. Mr Peel ruled by awe, Mr Gully by law, Mr Lowther rules by a certain bluff oommon-seneo and good humour which communicates itself to the members. He makes them feel at home. He is one of themselves. He is not a chill, rebuking figure that, sits up there in a wig and gown, ready to pounce upon you and send you to the Clock Tower. It is a man and a brother.

If ho raps you across the knuckles, he does it with' co much, geniality that you feel that you ought to thank him. Ho kicks you downstairs with such infinite

graoe; You might think he was handing you up. " Grace " is perhaps not the word for that heavy voice and solid manner. It is rather the heavy goodwill of a jovial companion who really loves you in spite of your frailties, and scourges you for your own good". Mr Lowther's success is comforting to the plain man, for it ie the success of his own. russet-coated virtues. It is the success of one like himself— of a. plain man without a touch ot genius, almost without a touch of bmlia.ney, but with all the qualities of the average man in perfect equilibrium. He has culture, loves paihtmg always, as much as stalking the deer, has— since the Cambridge days when as Mr Loivthian R. Cade he used to sharo the theatrical exploits of .Lord. Crewe, Mr Alfred Lyttelton, and others —retained hie interest in the _ drama, tells a good story, enjoys a good book. But he is essentially the ordinary degree, his mind full of daylight, the range of his thought limited by tne daylight vision, his instinct for justice sound, his spirit firm and masculine as the strong, well-tended hand that he rests upon the arm of the Speakers chair. , , . He is not one of those who bring new light into the thought of men or add to the sum of human effort. Me is the type of the practical man who does his task honestly, firmly, and good-humouredly. , , . That is why, taken all in all, he is the greatest Speaker of our time. For the office of Speaker does not demand rare qualities." It demands common qualities in a rare degree.