The Daily News SATURDAY, JANUARY 23. HONORING OUR DEAD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 330, 23 January 1909, Page 2

The Daily News SATURDAY, JANUARY 23. HONORING OUR DEAD.

Recent happenings have tended to '-e-1 vive interest in the historical events associated with the dark days of early settlement in Taranaki, and we believe lias awakened a new sense of patriotic pride amongst Taranaki-itcs in the bat-tle-scarred little province, then, as now. regarded as the garden of New Zealand. (1 he present generation's justifiable pride 'in its ancestors and their deeds, involves a duty that should not be left to the future for fulfilment. It is right that the names of those who fought for the security of life and property in the early days should be perpetuated ere it is too late. In the erection, of the Marslaud Hill memorial the neglect of the past will to a certain extent be atoned for, and a permanent record of those who fell in the defence of this province be landed down to posterity. The movement should be further extended, however, and a, permanent record made of '•all the citizen soldiers who took up arms and in other ways laid the foundation of peace and prosperity in Ihi laud. il

Canterbury and Otago honor the . pioneers of their settlements, possess ' permanent associations of early settlers and their descendants, with their own buildings and club rooms, wherein are capably preserved all the available records of the early days of settlement. How much greater should the memory ef the pioneers of settlement in Taranaki be. revered 1 There, were those also prominently associated with early settlement, whose lives were, devoted alike in times of peace and war to the eause of religion, men whose unassuming faith and courage under trials and adversity won them nothing but admiration and veneration. Within the past few days the names of at least two heroes of the Church, the Rev. Deau Rolands and the Rev. Jolo AA'hitelcy, have been recalled in these columns. Men of divergent faiths, they were untrammelled by the narrowing convenitialities of modern ehurchdoiu. AVith what thankfulness the ministrations of these faithful missionaries were received liy all denominations only those of a fast disappearing generation cam now speak, hut that voice is unanimous in its praises. Father Rollands, a Frenchman, is vividly remembered for his devotion to the wounded and the dying in battle no less than the Itev. John AA'hitelcy is honored as the. disseminator of the Gospel amongst the heathen Maori, and the earliest settlers. None can gunge the inlluence the lives of such men had in laying the foundation and framing the destiny of settlement, but that their inllueircc and example tended only for good to both races is freely acknowledged. Otago long ago recognised what it owed to the guiding inlluence of its earliest broad-minded ministers of veiigion, anil amongst the finest monuments in Dunedin are those erected by the citizens to the memory of Dr. Burns and the lamented Dr. Stuart. And what the people of Otago very properly deemed a duty is surely more incumbent upon the people of Taranaki, whose noble clergymen, of the strenuous tinus of war and bloodshed, sacrificed themselves to the cause of Christianity and humanity. AVe need scarcely add that Ave entirely support the proposal of a Correspondent (Mr. AValker, of Waitara) in these columns in the direction of "erecting a tablet to commemorate the great sclf-sacrifico of that brave

and noble-hearted soldier of our Maker, : the Rev. Dean Rolands. In. the Whiteley Memorial Church, the Rev. John (Whiteley has a lasting monument, but

it might,not be out of place, in a publicly subscribed memorial, to erect a [joint tablet to the memory of these itwo men, whose religion was all embracing, scorning the confines of creed. The one a Roman Catholic, the other a Wesleyan, their ministrations were welcomed by all faiths, the best testimony to their Christian characters. We believe a movement to publicly perpetuate the memory of these true clergymen is warranted, and further that it would . lie well supported. It only remains that

(steps be taken in the proper quarters to ensure the recognition we feel the public will show to their memory.

I THE BUSINESS MAN IN POLITICS, flu a recent issue, the, London Spectator ; deals with the business man in polities. ; Its remarks are not without interest to [ Hie people of this dominion, who, as a [ general rule, are not believers in the I professional politician'— the man who [ devotes his whole time, or most of his . time, to politics and the public service. . The Spectator puts forward a different j view. At one time, it says, it was con- • sidered necessary that a man who was i to succeed in politics should go into the ■' House, in his youth in order to learn ' the ropes and acquire what used to lie > called the "House of Commons man- ' ncr." Nowadays this necessity is not. 1 admitted, and undoubtedly there will be ' an increasing tendency for the active ] ranks of the Legislature to be recruited ' from men who have made a success in , some, other sphere. Up to a point the ! tendency is good. We are far from believing that a statesman should be, m Napoleon's words, tout a fait un etre politique. It is desirable that he should lie a student, even a master, of some of the liumaner arts. But, says the Spectator, We are firmly convinced that he must be, in the best sense of the words, a '■professional politician." Jlis training and equipment must have, been directed towards polities, he must have the habit of regarding all tilings from the civic point of view, and the public service must command his best energies and not their fag-end. He must have the power of seeing great issues behind trivial circumstances, of piercing through a fog of detail to the ultimate.simplicity of a problem. He must have the large sympathy which, can gauge national feeling. He must remember that a statesman's duty is to lead and persuade, and that accordingly he must always have one eye on the Land of Promise and the other on the mixed multitude he is taking with him. Above all, he must have what we can only call the political sense—the power of seeing questions neither abstractly like, the student, nor in narrow detail like the man of business, but in their relation to the life and well-benn' of a community. In a word, he. must" have statesmanship, a possession which success in business certainly, docs not often give. It is the old question () f the political expert. A man to succeed must he an expert, but he must be an expert in politics, not in finance, or commerce, or law, or military organisation. With all these departments politics has to do; •but the political mind, as Lord Curzon. once explained in an Indian speech, is I not the same as the departmental mind. Mr. Gladstone, who never ha* one hour of business training, was a far better Chancellor of the Exchequer than Lord ' Goscbra,. who was by profession a financier. Mr. Ifaldane, w e are convinced. ' makes, a better War Minister than the most distinguished field officer. To be a statesman needs a. certain synoptic ' talent, a freedom from departmental ' prepossessions, and a power of estimat- ' nig a scheme in the terms of ultimate ' civic value. None of these things are ' essential for the successful business I man. We admit that he might make an l excellent permanent official, ],iit we f deny that he is- any more, likely || m n ,! the "professional .politician" to make a l good statesman. s

The Spectator epiotes a passage from Kwlcsiasticus: "The wisdom of a lea rued man cometh bv opportunity of leisure: and he that hu'lli little business shall become wise. How can he get wisdom that holdctb the plough, ami that fflorieHi iit the goad, that drivcth oxen, and is occupied in. their labors, and' whose talk is of JmllocksY lie givetli his mind to make furrows; and is diligent to give the kine fodder. So every carpenter and workmaster. . , . ,\jl these, trust to their hands: and every one is wise in, his work. . . . Thev shall not be sougljt for in publick counsel, nor sit high'in the congregation. • . . . But they will maintain the state of the world, and [all] their desire, is in the work of their craft."

A successful business man. continue the Spectator, must be a, money-spinner. Tfc is not. as Americans say, in business for bis health, and liis constant prenccu- ■ nation must be with questions of profit. Wow it is not too mireh to snv tlrat this 1 preoccupation is never Hint'of the statesman. Large economic and financial considerations enter into statesmanship, but never in the narrow form in. which they appear In private business. Nothing is harder than to change, the. point of view of a lifetime, and j-t it is certain that the great captain' of industry who embarks upon politics inust. get. rid of the frame of mind to which he owes his commercial success. In the second plaice, a tmvn- who lias been immersed for the best years of liis life in the cares of a great business has not had the "opportunity of leisure" which the TMirew writer presupposes in 'statesmen. Tie has not'had the train-

ing for politics which conies from long familiarity with pnlilic affairs and from study and reflection. Modern industrial life is highly organised, and the/ man who sucieeds has no time to provid?

himself with an adequate political equipment. We should, concludes the Spectator, be glad to see business methods, which are also common-sense methods, adopted in our Government Departments, but [or our statesmen we desire political experts, just as the business man looks for an expert to put in | charge of hisi mill or his counting-house. I And to be a political expert in the true sense a man must have dedicated his. life to the consideration of public affairs.

ON THE FOURTH PAGE.

Cricket Wedding i Commercal i Mendelssohn Her Last Days Church Services Junior Scholarships The World of Sport £100,000,000 Law Case The Mails for the AVeek Mr. E. Pridlani's Return Stratford County Council