EDWIN SALMOND

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 6, 2 October 1943, Page 6

EDWIN SALMOND

An Appreciation Of His

Qualities (By "A Friend.”)

Those who say there is no room for sentiment in business have never had. the enriching experience of knowing intimately a man of the type that lights up the daily traffic of business with such sterling character that, on his passing, his associates feel bereft of a dear friend. Such a man was Edwin Salmond, of Wellington. For those of us who knew Him well to say that we have lost a friend would be an understatement. M e have lost a man whose sound judgment, wise counsel, and warm heart were so much at our disposal that we seem almost to have lost a .part of ourselves. "Sammy” was a man’s man, and a good mixer, not because it. was good business to be, but because there was iu him an irrepressible spring of good fellowship. , . He was the youngest member of a Scottish family of eleven. His father, a Presbvterian minister, was one of the original Professors of Otago University, at which all Edwin’s brothers were students. He always regretted that. financial circumstances did not make it possible for him, as the youngest boy, to go to the University. One brother, Sir John Salmond, was one of the Empires greatest jurists. Another occupied the chair of Mental and Moral Philosophy at Canterbury College, while a third is an architect in Dunedin. , An omnivorous render, Edwin Salmond in his later years found deep pleasure m the older classics, which he loved to discuss with his friends. He possessed a robustness and vitality, nnd a zest for life. Wilh such splendid qualities of heart and brain, Edwin Salmond was bound to succeed. Starting his career in Dunedin, he decided to venture forth on his own, and in 1907, he left that city and with Percy Spraggon, came to Wellington, where ho founded the firm of Salmond and Spraggon Ltd. which was rapidly to become a lending firm ot manufacturers’ agents. He was one of the first to see the trend of Government policy in the development of New Zealand industry, and Ivag quick to organize manufacturing and packing for various principals by his firm in this country. He will long he remembered with admiration and affection by his staff for. the soundness of his judgment and his integrity and fairness in nil his business dealings. All who heard it will long remember his magnificent valedictory address ,as president of the Chamber of Commerce. His political bias was toward the left wing of Conservatism. Rightly or wrongly, he believed that life was largely what you made it. and that to hasten reform too rapidly was to court, disaster. Friendshiii was the breath of life to him —he litornll.v lived for his friends and his famil.v. He was fond of golf and tennis and none of us will forgot. Sammy s familiar figure on the court —his curious serve, his extraordinar.v backhand, his unfailing sense of good humour and sportsmanship. lie enjoyed life because he contributed so richly to it.