The Sun 42 Wyndham Street, Auckland, N.Z. THURSDAY, AUGUST 25, 1927. DEATH OF MR. BOLLARD

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 132, 25 August 1927, Page 10

The Sun 42 Wyndham Street, Auckland, N.Z. THURSDAY, AUGUST 25, 1927. DEATH OF MR. BOLLARD

OIIAKP regret and that sincere emotion which does not find O easy expression in British communities, will be felt throughout the Dominion at the death this morning of the Hon. Richard h rancis Bollard, Minister of Internal Affairs. As an administrator he was everywhere trusted and respected; as a plain man with a high character and no low pretences he was revered. Naturally, the jarring suddenness of his departure from the quick life and brisk affairs of his homeland will be a keener shock with a deeper sense of loss to the people of this province. Two generations of Aucklanders have reason to remember with some pride in their gratitude for dependable public service that the name of Bollard has held an unblemished place continuously lor over thirty years in New Zealand’s Parliamentary history. First the father, the late Honest John Bollard, M.P. for Eden from 1896 till 1911, and then the son, member for Raglan from 1911 to 1927, equally honest and likeable, known appreciably to intimate friends and to everybody as “Dick.” It need not be pretended, even at a time when it is good form to be extravagant in appreciation of a man’s memory, that the late Minister of Internal Affairs was either a statesman or a great administrator. But it is also true to say that he had qualities of character which, in politics, are better virtues than some of the political merits that constitute greatness in the popular sense. He was sincere. He was straight. His wisdom was simply plain common sense. Those who look for a spiritual foundation to the political creed of a State administrator may be asked to believe that Mr. Bollard’s rested on the principle of the text: “In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.” He had the right temperament for politics and knew quite well that, to the patient administrator, the logic of a silent policy often gains an abiding reward after loquacity has failed to become convincing assertion as to its worth. So, all through a serviceable Parliamentary and Ministerial career he worked while others talked. And one can look back across the years of Mr. Bollard’s service. for the State and see quite clearly that the outstanding merit of it was its honesty of purpose and reliance on conscientious performance of duty without any flashy pretensions or political artifice at all. It may be said, as a sincere tribute to Mr. Bollard’s diligent work for his province and his State, that he was never a trivial idler, but laboriously and conscientiously wrought all his time in public service not only to get things done, but to have them done well and in the best interests of all the people. The sympathy of the whole community will go readily to his family and will sustain them in the bleak days of sorrow.