OBITUARY

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2251, 10 September 1914, Page 8

OBITUARY

SIR HENNIKER HE A TON. ' By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Rec. September 9, 9.30 p.m.) London, September 8. . Sir Henniker Heaton has died at Geneva.

Some years ago an Englishman was looking after-.1n3 business at a station far "up country" in New South Wales. He 'vfef talking with his men when the mail arrived,' Few of them received letters, but t tho lucky few read their news for tho benefit of the rest, who took as keen ail interest in the welfare of the old, folk at home as if they were relations of their own. The incident made a deep impression on the Englishman's mind. A few years later lie went home, and chanced to enter a village post office, where a woman was inquiring the postage to Australia. She could not afford the requisite sixpence, and the Englishman paid it for her. He learned subsequently from the parson of tho parish that uhis outlay brought the old . lady a remittance of £5 by return of post, for mother and son had at last-been brought into communication; The Englishman laid these things up in ■ his 'heart;, and determined to make it his mission in life to cheapen the means of communication' between tho old folk at home and their kith and kin,.beyond the seas. The hero of this pathetic tale was the late Sir John Henniker Heaton, who had gone to seek his fortune in New South Wales, and who married.the only daughter of the late -Mr. Samuel Bennett, a . wealthy -newspaper, proprietor in that colony. He returned to Europe, and got himself- elected in 1885 Conservative M.P. for Canterbury, which, seat he held until 1910.1 But his real constituency was a'larger one'. 1 He was the member for Postal' Reform, the Martin Luther of the Post Office, and his assiduity extorted from successive Postmasters innumerable reforms, including tho Imperial Penny Postage scheme, which he carried in 1898, the introduction of telegraphic money orders, parcel post to France, and any number of other boons. His public snrvices were recognised by' the bestowal of a. baronetcy in 1912, and by the Freedom of the City of London in a gold casket. He wasva native of Rochester, was born in 1848, and was educated at King's College.