AN APPRECIATION

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 139, 9 December 1929, Page 12

AN APPRECIATION

(By Sir Robert Stout.)

I may say that I knew Sir John Mudlay from his youth up. His father was a sawmiller on the West Coast, and came to Dunedin and became one of t-ho Findlay Timber Company. There were thjee Findlays in the sawmilling partnership in Dunedin, but Sir John Findlay's father was not a relative of the other two Findlay partners. His father was an able man, and was fond of literature.

Sir John Findlay became a student at the Otago University, and was recognised as one of the best students in Professor Maegregor's class. The late Robert M'Nab was another of the class. John Findlay ended his university studies by obtaining the degree of L.L.D. in 1893. He was a good scholar, and distinguished himself in letters and in philosophy, as well as in law. He was essentially a literary man, and had a keen sense of the highest literature, which he ever enjoyed. Sir John Findlay became a partner of mine when he came to Wellington in 1894, and lie distinguished himself as a learned lawyer. Ho also entered the political arena, becoming a Legislative Councillor in 1906, and a member of the Ward Ministry. He continued in office until 1912, being Minister of Internal Affairs. Attorney-General, and Minister of Justice. Sir John Findlay was member for Hawkes Bay in 1917 until the dissolution of- that Parliament. He was with Sir Joseph Ward as a representative of Now Zealand at the Imperial Conference- in 1911, and. was recognised both by the British members of that Conference and the Colonial representatives as one of the ablest members of the gathering. I heard that from members of the Conference when I was in London.

Sir John Findlay has lately been in poor health, and his eyesight gay© him. great trouble. The recent tenor of the news from. London was that ho was getting better, and the news of his death will be received with great regret by all his acquaintances. He was one of our distinguished lawyers, and was, as I said, a distinguished literary ■ man and a great Shakespearian scholar. I ever found him reliable and generous, and his politics were of the Liberal humanitarian type.

New Zealand has lost one of her distinguished sons, and to Iris widow and two sons the deepest sympathy will be given. Ho lost one of his song in the Great "War. This son was looked upon by the school in which he was being educated in England as one of the most promising student^' u __^ i ',^.l_ W ~