THE LATE MRS H. COLE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10781, 29 May 1913, Page 4

THE LATE MRS H. COLE.

THE funeral; The funeral of the late Mrs Herbert Cole, National President of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, took place yesterday afternoon at the Linwood cemetery. The cortege.was a long one, and amongst those attending the funeral were representatives of temperance organisations from all parts of the province. The City Council and other public bodies were also represented. The members of various Canterbury branches of the Women's Christian Temperance Union marched in procession, each wearing a white badge on the left arm. The service at the graveside was conducted by the Rev D. J. Murray, of Feilding, brother-in-law of the deceased, assisted by the Rev C. H. Laws and'the Rev A. N. Scotter. The attendance at the cemetery was very large. After the burial service had been read, Mr L. M. Isitt, M.P., delivered a brief address. "It is as a friend and long-time fellow-worker of Mrs Cole that I address you," he said. "I first knew her twenty-two years ago, as Minister of the Methodist East Belt Church, of which Mr and Mrs Cole were members. At that date we had just won the Sydenham licensing election, and throughout the whole dominion a broader prohibition movement was in initiation. Mr and Mrs Cole indent!-, tied themselves with that movement, and became very firm friends of the late Mr T. E. Taylor. I think that from that time we commenced the development that gradually led Mrs Cole into wider and wider fields of public service, until at last she became president of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, and certainly was one of the wisest and ablest leaders that Society has ever possessed. I have been asking myself this morning what were the characteristics in Mrs Cole's public work that ensured her success and the influence which she undoubtedly possessed and wielded, and I should place first her sane balance of enthusiastic temperament, of quick and keen sympathies, and ardent impulse always in the front line of the fighting forces. There was no element of bitterness, or of fanaticism in her character. She was always womanly, always kind, always tender.

''Thinking back in that .twenty-two years I remember hearing not ono hard or unkind criticism from her lips. She seems to me to have solved the difficult problem of carrying the spirit of Christ into aggressive reform work. She possessed absolute faith in the righteousness of her cause and in. the certainty of its ultimate victc -y. She- looked far ahead, and was spendidly confident in her position and in her principles because she was definitely sure of coming triumph. She was never cast clown by present reverses. She might be bitterly disappointed, but the iciea that a good" cause was a hopeless cause never occurred in her mind. There, was nothing spasmodic about her faith. She knew her road and she knew her destination, and was sure whatever might betide that God in His own <?ood time would lead the people to it. " So far as her private and home life was concerned I do not want to say much, but I will nay this: Some men and a few women are steadily reiterat-

mg the statement that woman cannot play her part as a citizen or play her oart in the national life of her country without sacrificing her womanhood, without forgetting her duties in that area which constitutes Woman's chief field. The answer to that is found in the life of our departed sister. As wife and mother and mistress of her home she was all that woman could be, and a-jl her public work neVevi Feitft* a. taint of masculinity, never brushed away the bloom of refinement and womanliness which was her great charm. To-day Ave sorrow for her loss, but in the midst of grief we realise that the summons to her, as to all who strive to follow Christ on earth,. is a summons to the wider work, greater development and greater happiness of the eternal years." The hymn "0 God our Help in Ages Past" was then sung, terminating the ceremony. Amongst those present were the Mayor (Mr H. Holland), and Councillor J. M'Cullough, Mrs Don, of Dunedin (acting-president of the "Women's Christian Temperance Union for New Zealand), Mrs Mitchell (national > treasurer, Women's Christian Temperance Union), Miss C. K. Henderson (national secretary ; Women's Christian Temperance Union), the Rev J. Dawson, of Wellington (secretary of the New Zealand Alliance), Mr J. M'Combs (president of the Canterbury No-license Council), Mr H. G. Ell, M.P. (president of the Christchurch Prohibition League), Mrs J. M'Combs (provincial, president of the Women's Christian Temperance Union for Canterbury), representatives of the Tima-ru, Ashburton, Lytteltqn, Rangiora, Kaiapoi, Oxford, Belfast and New Brighton branches of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, and Messrs M. Murphy, H. S. Batchelor, F. L. Murray and C. C. Derrett.

The pall bearers were Messrs Rainton Murray, E. Johnston and H. Harry (nepbews of the deceased), and Messrs 0. H. Lewis, Field and F. B. Sapsford. The New Zealand Women's Christian Temperance Union, sent a wreath inscribed, "In loving remembrance of our beloved president. 'Of those immortal dead who live again in lives made bettor by their presence.'" Floral tributes were also sent by Mr Wesley Spragg (president- New Zealand Alliance) and Mrs Spragg; Christchurch, Ashburton, Timaru, Lyttelton, Rangiora, Dunedin, Kaiapoi and New Brighton branches of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, Christchurch Women's Christian- Temperance Union, Rev J. Dawson (Wellington), Rev F. W. Isitt and family, Rev C. H. Laws, Mr and Mrs L. M. Isitt and family, Mrs'Mitchell, Mrs T. E. Taylor and family, Mrs and Miss Wise, Messrs Peacock Brothers, Mrs Marriner. sen., and family, Miss Borrows and Mr E. J. Johnson, Mr and Mrs A. T. Langford (Winchester), Mr and Mrs J. H. Peek, Mrs and Miss Ruby Billens, Mr C. H. Lewis, Mrs Macgibbon and family, -Young Women's National Prohibition Guild, Mr and Mrs C. C. Derrett, Miss B. E. Baughan, Mr and Mrs J. M'Combs and Miss Henderson, Mr and Mrs W. H. Seed, Mr and Mrs J. A. Lummis, Mr and Mrs F. B. Sapsford, Miss Lovell-Smith, Papanui Nolicense League, New Zealand Alliance Executive, Mrs Arlow and family, Mr o,nd Mrs H. Lovell-Smith, Mrs and Miss Wise.