SIR THOMAS SIDEY

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 544, 30 May 1933, Page 7

SIR THOMAS SIDEY

RETIRING PERSONALITY SHRINKING FROM LIMELIGHT. Political distinction, which he never coveted, came to Sir Thomas Sidey by accident, says the Christchurch Sun editorially. He had wished to retire from the House of Representatives in 1925, being then 62 years- _ old, ahd having represented Dunedin South (under that name and its earlier one, Caversham) for 24 years. The Liberal Party had ch'anged its name to National, and Sir Joseph Ward was no longer its leader. It caused noi surprise that one who had been a disciple of Liberalism when it rode on the crest of the wave should choose to drop out of the ch'anged picture. That he did not drop out was proof of Mr. Sidey's devotion. It was put to him that his retirement would probably mean the loss of his seat to the party: so he stood by the party. Most happily, his doing so enabled him to crown 19 years' of patient persistence, as a private member, with his Summer Time Bill, which became law in 1927. In 1928, this humble ambition fulfilled, he did retire, honoured by colleagues and constituents of all parties, but remembered in political records only for his daylight saving. Then Fortune spun her wheel. Withina year the slight, quiet figure who had passed so unobtrusively from the political stage was back in its very centre as a Minister of the Crown. Less than two years after his "retirement" he had been honoured by the King -and was mingling with the statesmen of the Empire at an Imperial Conference. This startling translation from obscurity to the limelight would have spoiled many'men. To Sir Thomas Sidey it made not the slightest difference. He accepted office as a duty, and served the country with the same xmassertive thoroughness that had marked his loyalty to his constituents and to the Liberal cause. Had he considered his own wishes only, the chanees are he would have chosen to stay in Dunedin, where now he will be mourned not as ai statesman, but as an earnest son of one of the original settlers, who, in his life-long service for the High' Schools, the IJniversity of Otago, and the Presbyterian Church, ran true to the ideals of the founders of the province.