Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star MONDAY, APRIL 12th, 1920. JOHN SMITH DECEASED.

Hokitika Guardian, 12 April 1920, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star MONDAY, APRIL 12th, 1920. JOHN SMITH DECEASED.

The Greymouth morning paper in Triday’ issue recorded with some display of type, the demise of John Smith. From the proud epitaph with which our < -n----temporary surrounds as with a. h?Io, the glory of the departed Smith we take it that he was of the salt of the E'mpire—and there is room to-day for many as noble and self-sacrificing as Smith. Smith is reputed to have worked hard and died poor. To him the dignity of labor was as precious as life itself, and he was content to be satisfied to do his duty, and when passing hence from this sujblijmary abode he was proud in leaving behind him a good name—more precious than wealth uhieh

could not be taken with him, and which left would be dissipated by others. Smith wais supported in his busy hard working life by the knowledge that he was the proud inheritor of a share in the glorious British Empire on which the sun never sets, and under the flag of which he enjoyed privileges and freedom ever iiecious to a solid democrat. The late Mr Smith worked in his own way to sustain that Empire. He was not content to receive his privileges and freedom unsullied and by acts of his own jeopardise those national characteristics wl’th , made him proud to call his country his own, but to live, work and die for it —so that those who came after would not find the place any the worse for his brief sojourn here. One’s country is a 'place where one would jchoose to : labor and to live, and having vnf.de that choice Smith worked honestly lor his own and his country’s betterment so when he died lie earned his rtst and enjoyed the respect of his fel'owment who knew him for what he v-as —an honest, upright, loyal citizen—the salt of the Empire lie was so proud to belong to. At his death the Greymouth paper records that Smith was placed in his grave —and his share of the glorious Empire was reverently shoyelled on top of him—and so he came into his own. But death had a different vision to Smith than Get. Smith’s upright life presupposes tl.at he lived too for the life that was to come. And after all he did not die ' a poor man. He was not like the Ephesians of whom St. Paul wrote to Ihe Corinthiamsi—eating and drinking today, and dying to-morrow. Smith’s death was a triumph over the grave for death had no sting and the griVe no victory. Judged by his life, Stfuth was of that class who believed that our ' bodies, with their equipment of mind, sens'es, and muscles, were not gi' en us to acquire wealth, comfort, or i csition, but to study how to know and love the God who made us, and in whom we live and move and have cur being. And so Ms death was his crowning earthly glory—as reflected in the striking epitaph of the Argus, and the good men speak of the life and sacrifice of this plain man Smith. Would that Now Zealand to-day were peopled ivy a vast family of Smith’s such as the Greymouth paper memoralises. There would be no waste in labor by slacking and vain striking, and a continual upsetting of the world we are expecting to better and not beset. As the newest poet has it: Work is life’s currency—earn what your worth and send out your products to the ends of the earth.” Emulate John Smith by whose type our Empire has been moulded and by whose sacrifice we today enjoy the privileges we do. May Smith rest in peace, but may his work and his worth he always a shining example, and may millions continue to tread the path he trod so bravely for his country’s sake.