OBITUARY.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16414, 7 January 1919, Page 7

OBITUARY.

COUNT VON HERTLING

(Australian and Js.Z. Cablo Association.)

COPENHAGEN, January <5,

The death is announced of Count von Hertiing, ex-Ciianceiior ot' Germany, wiiicn look piacu a.t Ituhpoidiug, Bavaria, alter an limots lasting six days.

At the time of Count von Hertliug's apputiiUiK'iii as Cnancellor in Novem-ii-ii', "iiie nines gave the loiaccount ot his career: Iwju (jCoige von Hording was bo.ii in Duiiiisuuli, in io-iU. Alter liuisnihg lus studies he spent two years m limy, 111 IMj7 settled now 11 vii Ik-lili as a privaiUozeut. luirteea your.-. pa»»ed beiore lie obtained a proK'sMji suii'. The reason, as he himself has b.ud in one of las boous (•"ihe Principle of Catholicism and bcienee''J, was time he was written Uown as an iihramontane, and the aeaueauc progress ot uitraniontaiies in j those lia.Yi. was "steep and diiiieult." But having obtained iiis professorship in ISSO, lie was transferred two years later to Munich as Professor of Pliiiosophy. lie had already' for some years been a member of the Reichstag, and iiis fortunes advanced rapidly with thoae of the Centre Party, of which ho ultimately became the leader, on the death of Dr. Lieber. While lie was nominally a professor at Hertling was in reality tho chief, although uuollicial, representative of Germany at tho Vatican, and for a generation 110 had conducted every important German negotiation with the Pope; his university lectures were as rare as his absonce at ltome were frequent. While Hcrtling's career in German politics could be described only in a history of the Centre Party during iiis timo. there are two events which deserve to be remembered. When Prince Bulow at the end of 190G joined issue with the Centre Party— nominally about colonial policy—Hertling, as 110 explained somo years afterwards, took the dissolution . of tho Reichstag as an attempt to establish "a Liberal regime" in the Empire and in Prussia. Tho result of the elections was tho defeat, not of tho Centre Party, but of the Socialists, and the Reichstag majority which came into existence was not a "Liberal" majority but the famous blue-black bloc—'the combination of Conservatives and Centre Party. Two years later Prince Bulow received his punishment, when the Conservatives and the Centre Party defeated with reactionary arguments tho proposed death duties, and Prince Bulow fell. It is characteristic of Hertling that, whereas in 1908 he had strongly supported Bulow and seyerely criticised tho Kaiser in the matter of the "Daily Telegraph" interview, he supported in the summer of 1909 the criticism against Bulow for his behaviour towards the Emperor in the previous year—the issuo which caused tho Kaiser to take lus own revenge on Bulow as soon as the political situation gave him hia Opportunity. In February, 1912, Hertling was suddenly summoned by the late Prince Regent Luitpold to succeed Count Podewils as Minister-Prosidenfc of Bavaria. Podewils was really overthrown by the Bavarian Centre Party, and Hertling's appointment _ was found peculiarly convenient owing on the one hand to his power and prestige as head of tho whole Centre Partv in Germany, and on the other hand to his aloofness, which lias already been explained, from tho Centre Party in Bavaria. The solution could not offend the Bavarian Catholics, and for tho moment it actually pleased the Bavarian Liberals. Hertling had considerable troubles over the Regency question after the death of Prince Luitpold, and exhibited little tact, but he kept his position, and tho King of Bavaria had not been ungrateful for the fact that it is to Herbling that he owed the termination of the Regency and his establishment on the Bavarian Throne while the mad King Otto was still alive. Since the outbreak of war Baron von Hertling has been given the hereditary title of Count. MR H. W. VINCENT. Mr Henry William Vincont, who died at his 1 evidence, Westenra street, Addingtoa, last Friday, was a native of Teignmouth, Devonshire, England, whore he was bora in 1840. With his parents he came to New Zealand in the ship Canterbury in 1851, the family settling at Papanui, where the lato Mr Vincont assisted his father to build a whare, which stood until recent years. They cut tho timber for tho building from tho bush that was at the timo growing on the property, which was situated at the corner of Langdown street and tho North road. In 1857 Mr Vincont went to Rangiora, and took up farming, and was the owner of the first liorfiopower threshing-machine in that district, with which he threshed tho first wheat grown tliore. Mr Vincent drove the first bullock dray up the Garry riverbed as far as Mannerings. At tho time of the Maori war Mr Vincent took an active part in volunteering, and was a lieutenant when the volunteers were camped at Woodond to watch the Maori pa. Afterwards ho farmed at Eyreton and Annat, and later at Mount Somere, whore he resided for nineteen years, coming to live in Christchurch six years ago. He leaves a widow and a family of six boys and thieo girls. Tho death occurred at tho Heefton Hospital last week 'of an old and. muchesteemed pionoei, Mr Henry Betts, aged 84 vears, after a short illness. The lato Mr Bctts was a native of London. He had been a soldier, and had seen service in the Crimean War. At tho close of the war he went out to Cape Town, where ho worked at his trade as a stone mason. In tho year 1858 ho went to Victoria, whore he followed mining. The fame of tho West Coast reached him. and with his family he landed on the Coast in 1865. After boing at various rushes, he invested in a quarry at the Port Hills, near Christchurch, where he worked for some years. When ho sold out, ho went back to the Coast, and '■ind been a resident of Orushington for many years.