The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 2, 1907.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 1968, 2 January 1907, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 2, 1907.

The cable announcement in an.itlur column, recording the death of the Baroness Burdett-Coutts, is one tLa* dcserves more than passing notice, for it intimates the 'demise of a lady whose death will be deeply mourn id by many thousands who have never known her personally, yet have tasked of her lavish philanthropy at times when file has voluntarily stood between them and active starvation. The late Baroness was a lady possessed of enormous wealth, and her training, education and experience o l; life were not such as to impress he, with the deepest feelings of compassion for those who were less favor id of the world’s goods, nor were her opportunities of finding out the real necessities of the poor of such a character as to impress her with the deep sense of charity that she so often displayed.- But within her lay a heart filled with compassion for those who needed succour, and her wealth enabled her to gratify her desire to do good. That she never missed a chance to gratify that desire is already well-known to many thousands of people in the old land, and, unlike some philanthropists, she did not wait to the closing years of her long life to distribute her gifts among the poor, for as early as 1848,, when famine played havoc with the Irish peasantry we find her, though yet a young lady of scarcely mature age, interest-j ing herself in those people and contributing large sums of money towards their relief, and during her kng and usejul life, her first care seemed to be to find out where distress existed, and to relieve it, and it lias been said of her that she never felt so happy as when she was told that her liberal gifts of money had liad the effect she desired them to have, of placing human souls beyond the reach of want. Wherever and whenever there was need for her generosity, it was always granted without the asking, and so often did her name appear as the largest contributor to charitable funds, that that name came to be regarded throughout the British Isles as synonymous with the word charity itself; yet she was by no means ostentatious, and preferred that her name should not he mentioned, for it w-as the real good that she was instrumental in doing rather than the kudos which her

liberality naturally brought hor that gave hor pleasure. She was. in short, a true philanthropist, ami the lea'! ing one of her day; but death lias removed her from the scene of her many generous and noble acts at the ripe old age of ninety-two, and it will probably be found that Ur many charitable institutions which claimed se large a share of her attention during her long and useful life will not have been forgotten by her when preparing for her inevitable demise. To say that the world is the poorer for the loss of such a sublime character as that of the Harmless Hurdet" Coiitt-s, is to say byt what is her duo, and hor magnificent example in helping every good object that came within her knowledge is one that has had

but few equals m the history ol the world. May the awards that sho has so richly earned await her at the Golden Gate.