The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, JUNE 22, 1906. “THE LAST POST. ’

Gisborne Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1790, 22 June 1906, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, JUNE 22, 1906. “THE LAST POST. ’

Yesterday was a day of mourning throughout New Zealand. “ The Last Post”, was sounded over the earthly remains of a great statesman, a man who has made his mark in his-

tory, and for whom people of all shades of political opinion have no» thing hut the kindest words. The name of, Mr Soddon is to-day extolled throughout the British Empire and far beyond it. There is perhaps a danger of over exaltation during the poriod of grief and of creating an impression that the democracy which produced Grey, Ballance, and Seddon, has now to lament a vacancy which none can worthily fulfil. Yet it is perhaps to the credit of all that that feeling should exist to-day, and

it is well also that at timos wo should all realise the need for valuing the work of our statesmen during their

lifetime. Mr Seddon cared little during his political battles what was said against him, over buoyed as he was by the feeling that he was acting conscientiously and doing his best for all. His dear wife and family, who must at times have bitterly felt the storms that had to be gone through, have now the consolation of knowing the real value in the public mind of the great man who has passed away. But we hope that the lesson will not be lost to the political world ; that the asperities of party warfare will be often tempered by the thought of what has happened in the case of Mr Seddon, and that in the fiercest strife it will be borne in mind how the leader who bore the bruDt for so many years at last had his many great qualities recognised, and that the record of his good works will liy.e for ever in the annals of the British,