DUTY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 187, 6 February 1912, Page 4

DUTY.

It is good to die in harness. Last Tuesday, Mr. Fitzherbert, Stipendiary Magistrate, sat for the last time oil the Bench, and endeavored with all the strength that remained in him to do his duty to his King and to his country. The late Magistrate fully realised that he could not live. Knowing this he showed the high courage, the unexplainable resolution, the great spirit of a British gentler man, the kind of spirit that moved his eminent father to procure a small vessel in th? forties ifl'England and sail for this "terra incognita." It' is this type of courage on which is based the fabric of our Empire. To many folk.it is unaccountable that a man grievously wrestling with death can so far sink himself as to proceed with his plain duties. On Tuesday the late' Mr. Fitzherbert,proceeded until he was physically unable to do more. Even at this moment hia self-sacrifice was apparent. He was the people's servant, and he apologised because he could no longer do the work of the people. "Gentlemen," he said, dropping his hands almost helplesslv, and addressing the Court, "I am sorry, but I cannot proceed," and these, as far as we can ascertain, were the last official words spoken by him. To labor this matter is to invite a charge of insincerity, but we are so convinced that this particular quality in an individual has a tremendous influence on his fellows during his life and after his death that we record it. The unselfishness of Mr. Fitzherbert's services is an inspiration to his fellow countrymen. To do one's simple duty to one's fellow man is to, do the best that is in one, and it is because generation after generation the father impresses the son with the idea that duty is before all, that Mr. Fitzherbert resolutely faced the inevitable and died like a true gentleman. We sincerely condole with the relatives of a most valuable public servant, whose official example is worthy of dutiful imitation.