A PERSONALITY PASSES.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 5046, 1 November 1926, Page 3

A PERSONALITY PASSES.

CHARM OF SIR JWS CARROLL.

Timi Kara. He of the magic tongue shipped away from Te Reinga into the great beyond, and New Zealand is the poorer for his departure (states a writer to the Dominion).

Bdrn to the; purple of life, Sir James Carroll had that mysterious charm which Sir J.ameis; Barrie has named "it,” for the simple reason that the English language holds no. word which that persuasive, winsome a,nd lovable quantity, which w,e so often sum up in the word personality, an altogether inadequate word, since everyone has personality more or less. It is, however, given to the very few to possess that ingratiating and allconquering aura so strikingly in evidence in the la,te Sir. James Carroll. ...But he had much more than mere charm. It was hacked by the possessioin of an amazing vocabulary in English, which permitted tne poetry and imagery of the. Maori to find expression ; that peculiar gift of always having at his disposal the exact word to convey ,a precise meaning, and at the back of that again there was a broad sympathy and expassive understanding of all things human. These qualities, not perhaps so apparent during recent years, were recognised wherever he went. No matter what the company Sir James Carroll stood out as a “somebody ” to listen to, a man to re member, a ( chieftain to, love, . . Here and there among public men there is one or two who command silence without exerting the slightest effort to gain it. In Parliament, in the wharepuni, at social gatherings, chatter more or less' general may continue during speech, but when that certain One rises to speak a silence pronouced ajid immediate ensues. That power was most mabke.d in Sir James Carroll. Even in the Savage Club’s “smokers” —and the deceased was ever at his best in such congenial company—the attention given to his remarks,, which were always worth hearing, was most marked. Without the least effort the winning charm of manner .and grace of speech, combined with Im delicious sense of humour, enabled Sir James Carroll to make an impression in London, during a brief visit to the metropolis, whe,re he was done the honour of being made the chief guest at one of the historic Savage Club’s dinners. And he was just' at home among tiie, cultured habitues df tha,t club, as he was in the pas of his countrymen. Always at ease, he was never perturbed ar, anything ; excitement and anger were; to him the evidences .of ah intellectual weakness. Why worry. The sun would shine to-morrow, even if it werq cloudy to-day. His was a sober, temperate intelligerice. that adjusted itself comfortably to the' even flow of life —and life with him was a very pleasant thing. He was perhaps, rather too satisfied with life as, he understood it to rise to the greatest heights, for with all his’ forensic gifts, he wa.s, in later years at all e,vents, more inclined to say:

“Let me live in my house by the side of the road and be a friend to man,” and possibly that access of lethargy and contentment lost him his last election in Gisborne;

Not only was Sir James Carroll, when roused, a remarkably fine orator, but he had excellent knowledge of the pdets : but of them all he liked best to recite Tom Bracken’s “Not Understood,” the fine broad humanity of which would naturally make a great appeal to such a man. He was. inordinately fond of a gdod horse, and loved to see them in actiori, though he seldom wagered much on the issue. It is related of him that a little less than .a yea.!- ago he was recovering Vrcm a rather serious illness (which had thrown him down at Levin), and was being nursed back to strength by Lady Carroll (who on 'that occasion took him home to Gisborne), when, most of the others being out of the house, he slipped out of bed and, donning an overcoat and a ; pair of slippers, went off to the racecourse only a mile or so away, and when a friend protested at his rashness he said with that sad, sweet smile of his : “As. good to die oin a racecourse as anywhere else.” As the result he, had a relapse and nearly did die. As Sir James genuinely mourned the death of his friends—only recently his panegyric on the late Sir Willia ( m Hehries evoked admiration—sri will he have mourners from one end Of the Dominion to the other.