OBITUARY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1149, 9 June 1911, Page 6

OBITUARY.

AN EX-PREMIER OF FRANCE. Ih I'elegrauh—Press Association—Oopyrieht Paris, June 7. The death is announced of M. Maurice Rouvier, ex-Premier of Franco. A RADICAL STATESMAN. Tn common with a large majority of the statesmen of the third Republic, the lalo 11. Rouvier hailed from Southern France, being born in Aix, on April 17, 1812. The la,st. years of the Second Empire saw liiin a barrister at. .Marseilles, nursing Republican principles, and when tho Empire fell Gambetta chose him for the post, of Secretary-General to the prefecture in that. town. In IS7I he became a member of the National Assembly, and soon lie was a leader, young, fiery, and not always prudent, of the extreme Radical sefction. As Secretary to the Chamber of Deputies, in 1876, a trumped-up charge of immorality was brought, in an insinuating way against him. With characteristic boidncss Bouvier met his enemy half : way. He demanded to bo persecuted, and the Judges had to acquit him. In Gambetta's famous "grand ministerc" of 1881-82 he was Minister of Commerce and Colonies, and five years later he was President of tho Council and Minister of Finance. His capacity as economist and financier was soon recognised, and he remained at tho Treasury under the three successive administrations of M. Tirard, M. de Freycinet, and M. Loubet.

At the end of 1592 charges of bribery in connection with the famous Panama scandal were brought against M. Rouvier in the law Courts, and afterwards in Parliament, causing him to Tesign office. He faced tho accusations boldly. I 1 rom the first there was no ground for a legal conviction, and M. Rouvier did not even take his trial, the grand jury quashing the _ proceedings in February, 1893. He regained completely the esteem and confidence of his fellow-citizens, anil in June, 1902, ho was appointed Minister of Finance in M. Combes's Cabinet. After M.Combe&'s resignation in February, 1905, M. Rouvier became as'a matter of course, Premier, and when tho post of Foreign Minister was surrendered by M. Dclcassq in the following year, it was also taken' by him. In March, 1906, the .Government was defeated on a division in connection with tho taking of church property inventories, and M. Bouvier and his colleagues resigned. The late M. Rouvier has been described as primarily a business man, with the subtle mind and imagination of the Marseillais. "An able speaker and skilful debater, he is no man of letters, no doctrinaire or dogmatist! his open-minded-ness, his staunch belief in expediency, are his chief_resources in danger; arid they enable him to disconcert an enemy in action by the almost Napoleonic swiftness and daring of his decisions." MR HENRY HAYMAN. London, June 7. Mr. Henry Hayman, who has largebusiness interests in New Zealand, is dead. The late Mr. Henry Hayman, who was widely respected in business circles, was tho senior partner in the firm of P. Hayman and Co., importers, which has its headquarters at Dunedin and branches in Wellington, Christchurch, and Auckland. He was born in Germany in 1837, and at the age of 18 sailed to try hia fortunes in Australia. After he had been in business for a short while lie' caught tho gold fever, and for a time was on the goldfields at' Inglewood, in Victoria. In the early 'sixties Mr. Hayman came across to New Zealand, and opened up a business in Dunedin, a fewyears later founding, with his brother, the firm of P. Havman and Co. He took up his residence in England in 1873, and for many years past has lived at Ponibndge Square, London. Mr. Hayman who is survived by his wife, has no* children-