The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prevalebit. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1884. The late Postmaster-General.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1375, 8 November 1884, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prevalebit. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1884. The late Postmaster-General.

The death of the Right Hon. Henry Fawcett, at the comparatively early age of 51, which was announced in our yesterday’s cable messages, will be a severe loss to the Gladstone Administration. Of late years he had taken but small part in Parliamentary polemics, and has held himself aloof from the exciting episodes which have recently distinguished English political affairs, but during the time he held the position of Postmaster-General he exhibited business capacities and powers of organisation that his early career gave little indication of his possessing. Indeed, it may be said that in no other department of the State have so many useful reforms been carried out during the past decade as in the post office in Great Britain. Originally established for the transmission of correspondence, in itself a work of vast proportions, Mr Fawcett recognised that he could adapt this system for a more extended usefulness, and nothing but admiration can be felt for the manner in which he accomplished his end. Perhaps the most important reform initiated by him was the carriage of parcels by post, the success of which is undoubted. Then, again, it was the late PostmasterGeneral who made it possible for the poor to invest their savings in consols through the medium of penny stamp slips, and some idea of the magnitude of the operations of the Post Office Savings Bank can be gathered from the fact that that institution in England and Wales holds deposits to the extent of L 39,000,000. As a matter of fact, in every branch of the service Mr Fawcett carried out many and notable reforms, all of which shewed that he was clearly alive to the increasing needs of the public. But our admiration of the energy and organising power of this administrator of what must be considered the largest concern in the world is increased tenfold when we remember that during the past twenty-six years of his life he was totally blind. So dire a misfortune happening at the outset of his career as the deprivation of his sight would have condemned a lesser man to a life of comparative uselessness, but Professor Fawcett triumphed over this and has earned a place in the memory of his countrymen which will not readily fade out. As we have said, Mr Fawcett has not taken a prominent part in parliamentary debate during late years; he

evidently determined to devote his attention to the department under his control, and the success he met with amply justified that decision. Siill, his speeches were always regarded as models of close reasoning and able expositions of facts, while his strong common sense caused him to early throw off the shackles of the philosophical-radical creed which he had imbibed from his early association with the school of John Stuart Mill. One of the greatest authorities of modern times on Political Economy, he was yet no blind votary of that sombre science, fads as the nationalisation of the land obtained no support from him. The death of Mr Fawcett, in what may be considered the full hey-day of his career, is a national disaster, and Mr Gladstone will find it no easy task to fill up the gap thus caused.