Western Star WALLACE COUNTY GAZETTE. Published TUESDAY, AUGUST 19, 1924. A LINK WITH THE PAST.

Western Star, 19 August 1924, Page 2

Western Star WALLACE COUNTY GAZETTE. Published TUESDAY, AUGUST 19, 1924. A LINK WITH THE PAST.

The death in London of Edward Wakefield at the age of seventy-nine years recalls the greatest family that ever had part in the history of -New Zealand, and an age of politics journalism, and development widely different from the present. Of his family Jio himself wrote: "I am a nephew of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, a statesman to whom the modern British Empire owes its existence, founder of United Canada, Free Australia, and New Zealand; whose brothers —Colonel William Wakefield, and Colonel Felix Wakefield (my father)—were the chief agents in the actual colonisation of Wellington, Taranaki, Nelson, Canterbury, and Otago." Edward Gibbon was only the greatest star in that constellation. In I the- actual politics of New Zealand, (after a Constitution had been granted Ito the colony he took little part. Elected to its first Parliament by the Hutt i district, he sat only in the first session of 1854. which was held at Auckland, (being unable through illness, to attend ito parliamentary work. William Wake- ! field led the first settlers to Welling l Iton. Arthur Wakefield was killed in the Wairau massacre. Edward Jerningham, the only son of Edward Gibbon, wrote one of the brightest of all books on early settlement days, 'Adventures in New Zealand.' Edward Wakefield was less famous than those members of his family whose 'records we have particularly 'referred to, but. as a survivor till this ilate time of their period, and by virItne also of the talents and the energy which he shared with them, ho has. his own title to remembrance. £i© came (out to Canterbury with hi* father at the age of six. and saw the very beginnings of Ohristchureh. He had close associations with' some of the greatest men of his day. After a year with Edward Gibbon Wakefield at Wellington— at that time a fortified town in groat danger from the Maorishe returned to England with his father, j returning as a young man to accept a position in tbo Civil iSkjrvice at Wellington under the Minister whom, in (advanced years, he recalled a*; "the «icJgNMplis%*s aid'lovabla Alfred .Domett,

the friend of Browning, and hardly his inferior in poetic genius." In his own words again he " had the happiness to gain the entire confidence of both Kir Frederick Weld and 'Mr Domett, with the result that T got a rare familarity with the affairs of the colony at a most critical peorid of its history—the period of the famous 'Self-reliant Policy.'" This, knowledge was increased when, during eight years, he was confidential secretary to successive Ministries, and by studies of Native affairs which he made under -vir George Grey. He had seen something of journalism in ISngland as "a very humble assistant of the famous George Augustus Sala," and when, in 1874, he became the editor of the Timaru 1 Herald' the sources of information he was able to tap made that journal, during the ten years that he hold the position, ono of the most heeded political authorities in New Zealand.

It was a lively journalism for which Edward Wakefield stood. He had a caustic pen, and it is to be gathered from the .leading articles pf those days that he did not suffer fools gladly. Wakefield was not only editor of the 'Herald.' He was. at the ?amo time, member in turn for Geraldine and Selwyn in the House of Representatives, and was Colonial Secretary and Native Minister in the short-lived Atkinson Ministry of August. 1884. His energy was certainly remarkable, and it continued till late years. Long after lie had left New Zealand, living first 'n America and then in England, when time enough had elapsed for any ordinary man to be forgotten, there was a rumour of his returning to this country to take a most important journalistic position. It was an empty rumour, but his energy was shown in another scheme, and that one of the most curious. Ju«<t before the war one of his letters stated: "T am now devoting myself to the foundation of a farreaching proiert of Church of England settlement on Vancouver Island, and am sailing next week to select the site of the capital and make the preliminary survey, very much on the plan of Canterbury in 1850.