Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, APRIL 29, 1898. The Late Premier.

Manawatu Herald, 29 April 1893, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, APRIL 29, 1898. The Late Premier.

As the gale knocks down the mighty trees of our native forests so does death claim our foremost colouists all too soon. To-day, in common with our contemporaries all over the colony, we have to deplore the death of the Premier, stricken down whilst labouring for the good of the people. There is something wrong in the distribution of labour, something more important than the eight hours or nine hours a day of work, that needs speedy consideration when we find our leading statesmen carried off by hard work and anxiety. It is now said that for months the Hon. John Ballance's life has hung on a thread, said now too late, but said only now. When reports were current that the Premier was not so strong as could be wished, the Ministerial papers denied the fact and asserted it was only the invention of the enemy. It seems to us extremely sad that this worthy leader should have been permitted to have so battled with his infirmities as to have retained the lead of a necessarily most harassing position in the state of health he was in. Those who were politically opposed to him would have desired that more thoughtful consideration had been shown to a grand, brave man. New Zealand has been most fortunate in possessing splendid public men, the product of the freedom, and the surroundings, of the land in which they selected to dwell in. The, late Sir Harry Atkinson and the late Mr Ballance were true products of the colony, men whom the difficulties and dangers of the early days made. Men who resembled those old Maori chiefs whom the Frenchmen met close on a hundred years ago at the Bay of Islands, who, imagining their rights of possession were being imperilled by the man-of-war's crew cutting some spars in their forest, jumped into the track, naked, and armed with only the primitive weapons they possessed, and disputed the passage of the logs. As soon as one Chief was shot down another took his place until ten lay dead. We have before us the fact that the leaders of either side of colonial j politics were imbued with the same courage and determination as these earlier asserters of their rights and privileges and met their deaths whilst doing what they considered to be only their duty to their fellow men. Colonists lead by men like these should feel proud, and will willingly accord to the dead the praise they have so justly earn... . . It is not now that the late Premier's political actions should be reviewedi We are content to assert

that we balieve he was actuated by. the best of motives fth_ many of his Acts have been bf very much use. It is some little satisfaction to know that he was permitted to see the return o. the prosperity of the colo_y he loved so well, and to know that the labour he had given to introduce, what he believed, a better principle of taxation had resulted in practice hotter even than he .oUld have expected iti Yet tpßrs to human sunVrifcg are due ; And mortal hopes defpftte'd and o'ertlu.wn Are mourned by man-, and ft..*, fe^ m&_t „l_ne.