DEATH OF MR L. EHRENFRIED.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume VII, Issue 345, 4 March 1897, Page 11

DEATH OF MR L. EHRENFRIED.

In this week’s issue we reproduce a lifelike portrait of the late Mr L. Ehrenfried, who departed this life at his late residence in Auckland city, on Friday, February ‘26th. The report of the late gentleman’s death was circulated in the City of Auckland shortly after it took place, and as it was market day, the city was full of country settlers, all of whom shared the general regret felt and expressed by the commercial men in the city over the loss of one who so illustriously adorned the commercial life of New Zealand. In our issue of July 11th, 1895, we published a brief history of Mr Ehrenfried’s life, in which it was shown that the excessive good nature — the desire to show practical sympathy to a friend in trouble, without emolument or hope of reward—resulted in landing the firm of Ehrenfried Bros, in serious financial difficulties, which were faced with bravery and a full determination to overcome them. How, by energy, judg-

ment, and properly-directed application, this and subsequent difficulties were over C ome, how obligations (not legal ones) were fully discharged, are now household words on the west coast of the South Island of New Zealand, also on the Thames goldfields in this provincial district, and more particularly in the City of Auckland, where the deceased gentleman resided for many years, and where he, by unostentatious generosity, by broad religious toleration, by integrity and enterprise in business transactions, by a strict adherence to principles which he believed to be right, by his generosity as a large employer of labour, and by generally acting the part of a true colonist and a New Zealand patriot, endeared himself to all sections of the community. In fact, in all these things he, by precept and practice, set surviving colonists of all grades an example which can be followed with advantage. In local politics, as in business and private life, he acted as though fully imbued with the conviction that what would benefit the community as a whole would ultimately as a matter of course benefit himself; but so far as we can gather, mere narrow selfishness was never with him the first consideration. In the supreme government of the country he took a keen and practical interest, but he never contested a seat for the parliament of his adopted country, though, to our knowledge he was frequently requested to do • so, and the requests were made by those who ensured him of the probability of success. The whole of his political opinions were liberal, sometimes even to radicalism, a radicalism, however, which found expression in an honest desire to convey ‘ ‘ the greatest good to the greatest number,” and to grant full compensation from the State revenues for anything taken in the interest of the State itself. If latterly the deceased gentleman gave strong expression to his feelings in denouncing the trend of certain legislation which, if enacted, would have ended in confiscating certain properties, we are certain that he was in effect defending one of the cardinal tenets of his faith as inscribed by Moses on Mount Sinai, and it was only the rabid and fanatical section of New Zealanders who failed to appreciate his defence, and refused to assist him in his demands for unimpeachable justice. Some of his political traducers said he latterly made his trade his politics, and formulated this charge against him, though not a single one of the latter

could assail him for having done a mean or underhand thing to accomplish his purpose, which after all meant, and meant only, a generous belief in the old proverb “ that the instinct of self-preservation is the first law of Nature.” It was the privilege of the writer of these lines to have enjoyed the friendship of the late Mr Ehrenfried, which extended over many years, during which time many political questions came up for discussion and earnest consideration. Perhaps there, is no person in New Zealand who more fully enjoyed the confidence of the deceased gentleman on what is known as “ trade” politics than the writer, and it is here recorded as a manifestation of gratification and pride

in connection with that friendship, that every suggestion emanating from him whose death we now deplore was the quintessence of generosity, andmighthave been published to the world. Lord Byron once said that a truth is never flattery. If this is a true axiom (and we think it is), we have in rfo degree flattered the commercial giant, whose death we so deeply deplore. The mortal remains of r Ehrenfried were deposited in the Jewish Cemetry, Auckland, on Sunday last, and the funeral procession was witnessed by fully 3,000 people. In the procession itself, nearly all the local members of both branches of the legislature and all the principal Auckland merchants and professional men took part; in fact all classes assembled to pay an eloquent tribute in death to one who had been the recipient of the people’s love during his generous and useful life. The following beautiful lines formed part of the appropriate ceremony read in the mortuary over the deceased gentleman’s remains : —

We live in deeds, not years ; In thoughts, not breaths; In feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count life by heart throbs He .most lives who thinks most, Feels the noblest, thinks the best.