The Late Premier.

Kawhia Settler and Raglan Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 264, 22 June 1906, Page 2

The Late Premier.

THE FUNERAL. (By Telegraph.) (Special to the settler ) Wellington, Thursday. The funeral < f the Ute Premier took place this afternoon, the cortege bang lh< largest ever seen in New Zi i hind. The memb r for Waikito and Mrs G censUde wore in attendance. Amongst the enormous number of fio h 1 emblems was u beautiful wreath from Kawhia mourners. Tho business places in Kawhia were closed daring the time of the funeral, and fligs were flying-at half mast.

REFERENCE IN THE KAWHIA CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH

On Sunday night last the R Mi;._ *ull took for his text;, “ For David, after he had served his own generation, by the will of God fell on sleap and was laid lo his father.” This lyas said ot David, a man who was by no means j u e, whoso life had many failures and mmy faults, and often limas fell far short of the ideal, yet in the midst of them all he s rved G d by serving bis own generation. He hud always the highest interes's of the people 0.-ur which he ruled at heart, and although his actions may not always have accorded wiib his profession, yet through all there is to ba found that undercurrent which sought to serve bis people aud in serving them to serve God. Fur no matter who he is, or what he is, if he is a man that is seeking the welfare and the highest good of his fellows ho is a man who is serving God, even although his mode of procedure m*y not accord with everybody’s ideal, or his actions at times seem to savour more o f self than of God. We judge motives from oatside, bat God from the inside, aud He judges not so much from results as from intentions. What often seems to us tinged with self aud personal aggrandisement is often ie the intention perfectly unselfish. God uses the weak things of men for the accomplishment of his great purposes, and in the bye-and-bye we shall know.

“ So to-night,” continued the rev. gentleman, “ it is with a certain measure of sadness that we thiukof the late Mr Seddon, who hat? been a faithful servant of his generation. The suddenness of the blow has brought home to friend and foe the unique position the dead statesman held, not only in the beads, but in tbs hearts of fairs fellow colonists. He has died as I feel sure he would have wished to die—in full vigour of life and in harness. Cut off it may seem to us, politically speaking, in the prime o flife, a martyr for his adopted country’s good. But of this we may be assured, that He who rulcth all things wisely has not cut him off before his work was finished. From the other side w© would see that be had served his own generation, and done it nobly, before he fell asleep. Little did we think that a week ago to-night that he whose plans were as great as himself, and whose dreams were of Empires, had died, and that the morrow would see a country cast into a gloim of sorrow, because the coid hand of death bad laid its band upon its Premier. Although we may not have been able to see eye to eye with him in everything, or to be blind to bis faults, yet we have to admit that the colony has lost a leader and a man it could ill spare, A man who had risen from the ranks and towered like a giant above his fellows. He never forgot that he had toiled for his daily bread, and had always a Kindly smile aud a hearty handshake for the c impanions of his hardships. A man possessed of g*eit abilities, a kindly spirit, a sympathetic heart and a gam erous hand, A man whose force of character brought him to the front rank, and when the history of New Zealand comes to be written his uamc will stand out emblazoned in large characters, not only as one of its epoch makers, but as the one who lifted it out of comparative significance into a position of more or less influence in the affairs of the world, .as well as in the Empire of which it forms a part. But

' Now the labourer's tank tn o'er, Now the battle day is past, Now upon the farther shore Lauds the voyager at last.' The place that .knew him will know him no more for over, but he has left behind him footprints ou tho sands of time that will keep bis memory fresh and greon in the hearts of thousands for many a day to come. Many there are who have reason to stand up and call his name blessed, (or they have found in him a friend in the hour of need. Now he has crossed the bar, and the tragic suddenness brings once more forcibly to our notice the uncertainty of lite. It reminds us as perhaps as nothing else could that ‘ln tho mid.it af lifo we are in death.’ 1 The glories of our birth und state are sha-

dows. not subslantiftl things, There is no nrinottr against fate, Death lajs hia icy hand on Kings.’ ”

Apprtpria'o hymns were feelingly sung, and at the closo of the service the 0-mgrcgaUoii stood with bowed bead.-* while the “Dead March in Saul'* was played by tho orguni t. Miss Buekeridge.