In Memoriam.

White Ribbon, Volume 10, Issue 118, 15 March 1905, Page 8

In Memoriam.

Margaret H- Sievwright.

BY K. W. Sheppard. It seems difficult to realise that one whom we have known as one of the purest and bravest women that New Zealand has ever seen will no longer be visible to mortal eye. So long have we been accustomed to see her indomitable spirit triumph over physical weakness, that we began to forget how frail was its earthly tabernacle. The telegraphic news of her passing came with crushing force, and it is with aching heart and bewildered brain that I attempt to pen a few words about the bright spirit that has so suddenly left us.

Although she was for many years a studious and earnest worker in unobtrusive ways,—so difficult has it been for women in the scattered communities of our colony to even know each fellow.worker, —it was not until after the enfranchisement of our New Zealand women that 1 made her acquaintance personally. But for the ten or twelve years it has been my privilege to be counted among her friends and co-workers, she has had my deep affection and reverent admiration. I say “reverent” not because of her cultured scholarly grasp of basic principles, nor because of the broad catholicity of her views. These she had to a remarkable degiee. But over and above these was her passionate love for humanity, and her unflinching adherence to what she believed to be right. Only those who knew her personally could understand what it must have cost her modest retiring nature to act as the leader of forlorn hopes where derision, contumely and misrepresentation were apparantly her only guerdon. And yet, to those who knew her -ensitive nature, it was on such occasions that the rare nobility of her soul was revealed. For we could not but marvel at the meek and uncomplaining courage with which she faced abuse and blame in the hope of helping to a truer and better ideal. Her religious views were broad as her sympathies, and her reverent mind saw good in all religions.

But first and foremost came her devoted work on behalf of her own sex. Her vision of the future was a heritage

of freedom for all; girls born free to the same degree as boys; citizens being composed of freewomen as well as freemen. To equalise unequal laws, to give to women equal privilege and equal responsibility, so that they might take their part in the world’s work, was, to her,-an imperative duty in the performance of which no sacrifice could lie counted too great. She ever felt that

“ The Woman’s Cause is man’s : they rise or sink Together, dwarf’d or godlike, bond or free.”

Vet incessant as were her labours on behalf of the woman’s cause, her private benevolence wa- untiring. The sick and troubled among her neighbours and friends found in her a ready and sympathetic helper I have often marvelled at the beautiful and unselfish way in which she burdened and harassed herself with the charge of those whom she thought needed her care and hospitality. Others may dwell more fully on her kindness, her loving thoughtfulness, her beautiful family life, her high literary attainments, her ardent work as secretary and president of the W omen’s National Council. To me she stands out as a rare embodiment of loyalty to principle, unswerving fortitude, and self-sacrificing devotion. AH must sympathise with her daughters and with her husband, whose kindly counsel and professional knowledge have so often helped her. By A W. “ 1 laid my soul before I’hy feet, That images of fair ami sweet Should walk to other men on it.” In exjerienceof life it must often appear that hierarchy in the domains of earthly priesthood is but an attempt to shadow forth the true hierarchy in the purer and more exalted realm of souls. “ Trailing clouds of glory do we come from God, who is our home,” the poet tells, but how few- of us remember this ineffable heritage or walk in the w'orld with the light of our spiritual ancestry upon ns. Yet ever and anon touching infinity and deathless purpose with one hand, do elder brothers and sisters of our race come to make -ojourn among us as poets and prophets, as teachers and workers, redeemers of the world, and of such, as partaking of their nature, was Margaret Sievwright, who yesterday passed from out the bourne of time and space, to be crow ned a queen “ far in the spiritual city.” Dowered with blessings all women might desire, she was lovely of face and graceful of form. Her voice, too, ever soft and low, had in it a quality which appealed to all with whom she spoke. Her mental powers accorded well with her physical charms. Keen in perception, logical in thought and action, poetical

in expression, the master influence of her life was a passionate love of humanity. The presence of this pure woman was always as the passing of sweet music, stirring always to the depths those with whom she came in touch. Though by every instinct a woman shrinking naturally from the blaze of publicity, she was cast in true heroic mould. Sh i was ever on the alert to face and tight wrong or in justice, whatever guise they might assume. Her courage never wavered in proclaiming the truth as she knew it. and that was dearer far to her than name or fame or life. Far back from her early childhood she deliberately set out to essay the steep and thorny pith. fo» no way of dalliance and ease could find favour permanently to her to whose ears the bitter cry of humanity for ever ascended. Of her it may he truly said she heard and obeyed the voices of the worlds and the ages “Choose well ; your choice is J m l yet endless. Hi 1 > do regard you In h i j ; uity's stillness ; Here is a»i fulness, Ye brave *0 reward you ; Work and despair not.”

As a young girl she taught in one of the Edinburgh schools for p<ior little waifs and strays. Subsequently, she tie ned as 1 nurse under Florence Night ngale, and in the hospital for women to which she w s attached she vowed to work with all hti powers to right the wrong of her outcast sisters. Naturally, then, she associated herself with those brave men and women who were instrumental in removing from the Statute Books of England those iniquitous laws which are a blemish on civilisation, and in New Zealand her influence has never cease 1 to accomplish the same end. Needless to say, too, that she was on • of that hand of devoted women who worked without ce ising in New Zealand for the franchise of our women. Her great desire that “they all may be one ” in working for the purifying of the world made her the prime mover in instituting the National Council of the Women of New Zealand, for which she was appointed by the Countess of Aberdeen first honorary secretary. For the last seven years she has been president of the Council by the unanimous wish of the affiliated societies, and during that time she has kept in touch with the National Councils of the world, so that her name among women social and political workers is honoured and revered; and in the great women’s conference recently held at Berlin she was affectionately and gratefully acknowledged by all as unceasingly netting forth the ideal of the nobler time that is coming. Her acquaintance with the laws relating to women was, perhaps, unequalled by any living woman, and in season and out of season she proclaimed equality of opportunity for the sexes and the ideal of a truer and purer relation of man and woman in the marriage state and the consequent right of every child to be well-born. In very truth she was a lightbringer, a path-finder, one of that glorious band of women liefore whom our young girls, as they constantly enter into a fuller heritage, should reverently bend. To those who were closely related to her in her devoted work, her loss seems well-nigh irreparable to the women’s cause. She was the central inspiring light of her co-workers. It was impossible to dream of failuie or ultimate defeat while she piloted the vay. It cannot be that

her work is ended; she has but passed to higher and nobler spheres of labour, where her influence can never die, but must pass onward, ever from less to greater. We are comforted, for we have faith. Is she not now

of the “ communion of saints,” unseen, yet not unreal ? Is she not one of them of whom it is known that their heroic sufferings rise up melodiously together to heaven, out of all lands, and out of all times as a sacred miserere, their heroic actions also as a boundless everlasting Psalm of Triumph ? Lyttelton Times.