A LOSS TO PARLIAMENT

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2336, 18 December 1914, Page 4

A LOSS TO PARLIAMENT

Among the many changes brought about by the elections there is probably none that will cause wider regret on personal grounds than that involving tho retirement.of Sib Walter Buchanan. The late member for Wairarapa had announced that he was' offering his services to the constituency for tho last time, and there was an ungracious touch in the abrupt ending given to so long and honourable a career of public service. Sib Walteb . Bu-chanan-is a figure who will be missed from Parliament. He was the "Father of the House," and although the years are creeping upon him, they came as "a lusty winter, frosty but kindly." His recent active campaigning over his scattered electorate would, for instance, have put e. younger man to shame. His generosity and splendid public spirit have been an example and a stimulus to all with whom he has been brought into close contact. . With all the nativo canniness and shrewdness of the Scot, he has combined a broad outlook on public affairs, and on many occasions has shown that Be is one of ■those public men who are able to look at public questions purely from the point of view of public interest. Although originally possessing large landed interests, of which he liad made \it his policy gradually to divest himself as the demand for land grow, he was a staunch advocate of the application of the graduated land tax to reduce big holdings, held to tho detriment of tho community. Throughout his Parliamentary career he showed himself a man who not only knew his own mind, but never lacked tho courage to speak it plainly when the occasion seemed to him to demand it. As the Christchurch Press said of him the other day* "No straighter representative or 'whiter' man ever sat in the New Zealand Parliament." Wβ are sure that all who have known him will join with us in wishing the veteran campaigner of tho Wairarapa many years of hale and hearty usefulness whether in Parliament 'or out of it.