STRATFORD NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 15, 18 June 1913, Page 3

STRATFORD NEWS.

DR. CARBERY FAREWELLED

FROM OUR RESIDENT REPORTED

Office and Job Printing Works: Next N.Z. Loan & Mercantile Agency Co., Broadway. Telephone No. 113.

BIG GATHERING OF CITIZENS. Notwithstanding Monday's unusually heavy exodus to the Winter Show at Palinerston North, and of early birds for the Dreadnought visit to New Plymouth, there was standing room only in the Municipal Buildings on Monday night, at the invitation of the Mayor, to do honor to Dr. Carbery, who leaves this (Wednesday) morning en route for England. The gathering was a fully representative one, and practical proof of the many expressions of esteem and goodwill tendered to the genial doctor by friends on the eve of his departure ■for the Old Land after fourteen years' •residence here. The Mayor, Mr. W. P. Kirkwood, presided. Before commencing his speech, the Mayor read apologies from the Rev. Father Tr'eacy, Messrs. J. H. Thompson, J. B. Hine, M.P., E. Jackson, W. G. Mai one, T. Webb, J. McCluggage, W. L. Kennedy, T. C. Fookes, J. R. L. Stanford, C. Massey and Chas. Bayly., Every one of these gentlemen, J said the Mayor, had given material assistance in making the presentation, a success. (Applause.) The meeting that evening was the outcome of the representations made to him as Mayor by quite a number of citizens, who had said there was a very general opinion that Dr. Carbery should not be allowed to depart without a suitable send-off j from the citizens. So readily had people i responded that the presentation would I take the form of a well-tilled purse of I sovereigns. (Applause.) Dr. Carbery was going Home, and would be away for about a year, during which time he would make himself conversant with the most up-to-date developments of medical and surgical science. During the whole of his fourteen years' residence Dr. Carbery had made not one' single enemy. (Applause.) But he had made a great many friends, and he would be much missed. He was one of those men of whom it would be said that he did not allow his left hand to know the doings of his right, and the speaker knew of many people who were under a great obligation to him. Dr. Carbery had been closely associated with the volunteerforce, the public hospital, the Territorials, the Horticultural Society, the Operatic Society, golf, tennis arid swimming clubs, the old Parliamentary Union, and many other institutions/ #The Mayor made eulogistic reference to the manner in which he had worked in all these institutions, particularly in response to the hospital and the Territorials, in which he now held the rank of major. Dr. Carbery had always been on the best of terms with his fellow practitioners. He was a fine, type of citizen, a man whom they were proud to honor. Amidst loud applause, the Mayor then handed to the guest a little sack of sovereigns, the green ribbons with which it was bound being a delicate compliment to the land of Dr. Carbery's birth. Dr. Paget was the next speaker, referring to the guest as a very old friend. He himself had been some twenty years in Stratford, and Dr, Carbery came about six years later. His social abilities and entertaining qualities were well known, and practically every institution in Stratford had had the benefit of them. As practically the founder of the Stratford Club he had given to Stratford people an institution which had tended greatly to enlarge the social life of the place. The Rev. Father Maples said his nine months' acquaintance with Dr. Carbery had been quite enough to enable him to recognise in that gentleman one of the whitest and straightest gentlemen he had ever come across—the type of a real Christian gentleman, a distinguished member of his profession—which was almost a priesthood in itself. He had admired him as an enthusiastic Territorial, and as a disinterested and public-spirited citizen. He wished the guest bon voyage, a pleasant journey, the successful consummation of the business which was taking him Home to England and Ireland, and a speedy return to Stratford. Captain Lampen spoke as the representative of the King's forces, and extended to Major Carbery the good wishes and good-byes of the' Territorials and those interested in them. Someone had said "A good example at the top is bound to "filter through," and he dared anyone to gainsay his statement that Dr. Carbery's example to the young fellows of this district would be hard to beat. Hard-working, he had devoted willingly and ungrudgingly his few spare hours in the service of his country, and was deserving of the greatest and highest respect. When he (Captain Lampen) came here first, he had been told Stratford was "the worst place in; New Zealand," but he was also told by one of his friends that "you'll be ail right; Carbery's there; and Carbery's; Stratford. He's in everything." He' had found this to be very near the truth, for he had known the Doctor as "Major Carbery, Dr. Carbery, SweetPea Carbery, Daffodil Carbery, Swimming Club Carbery, and Everybody's Carbery."

Mr. J. MeAlliister, as chairman of th,e Hospital Hoard, conveyed the unanimous expression of the goodwill of the members and staff. Institutions, like individuals, had their ups and downs, and it was in the time of the "downs" that they found their true friends. The Hospital Board in these circumstances had found Dr. Carbcry to be one of its best friends.

Mr. N. .). King expressed liis pleasure in testifying as a citizen to Dr. Carbery's conduct as a citizen and a man, and said Hint Stratford would welcome him back with open arms. Mr. V. IT. Wilkie conveyed to Dr. Carbery tlie text of a resolution just passed by a full meeting of the Operatic Society, at the Parish Hall, wishing Dr. Carbery a very pleasant journey and safe return.

Mr. C. D. Sole, secretary of the Stratford Oddfellows' Lodge, 'also welcomed the opportunity of speaking of tlie admirable qualities of Dr. Carbery, who had been medical officer to the' Lodge since its inception twelve years ago, and concerning whom there had never been one single complaint lodged hy a member of the Lodge. If. there was one thing likely to test a medical man it was his office as surgeon to a Lodge. The members of his Lodge had subscribed to a presentation which he would ask the Mayor to present to Dr. Carbery, and the Toko and Amhurst Lodges also asked to be joined in expressions of good will.

Dr. Steven said that it was one thing for citizens to speak well of Dr. Carbery. It was another thing for a man I like himself who had had :the honor' and pleasure of working alongside him; who had seen Dr. Carbery, his work, and how he did it; how he/treated his fellowmen in all circumstances. He could only say that he held Dr. Carbery in, the highest esteem and respect. The) Mayor then handed to Dr. Carbery, on hebalf of the Stratford Lodge of Odd-I fellows, a smoker's companion in silver. Dr. Carbery was unable to proceed un-' til the applause died down. His speech, in reply and in thanks, was one of those which suffer tremendously in condensa-

tion. Starting nervously, lie regretted liis inability to come up to the standard of some of his old "Parliamentary" speeches in this very chamber, but presently he was launched into an address to which it was a treat to listen. He ! briefly expressed his gratitude for all i these kindnesses tendered to him. The I keynote of the addresses that evening [ had been "citizenship." The gathering I that right exemplified the essence of eit- ' izenship—co-operation. Referring to his I two colleagues who had spoken,- he said | that he had looked deep into their hearts and found something good. When he left England he had been told he was leaving much behind. So he had. He had pictured Stratford as a wild uncivilised, savage sort of a place, whose residents strode abroad armed with lethal weapons or rode fiery untrained steds in an unbroken wilderness. He had found a town in the making, a town which even in those days, was noted for its pull-together proclivities. He had found Nature in her shirtsleeves. He had gone on finding out things day by day, and the longer he lived the more he found. He had found to-night that he had a number of exceedingly good friends. ' He regretted that the exclusiveness of his profession had prevented him from taking his part in civic life, for he conceived it to be the duty of every citizen to take his seat on the Borough Council. He could point to distinguished New Zcahmdere who had to acknowledge Stratford as .the birthplace of their ideas of true citizenship. If men were wanted for difficult work it was quite usual to send a Taranaki man. Taranaki was the "Garden of New Zealand." It had the best men in New Zealand, and the pick of them were in Stratford. (Laughter and applause.) Another feature of the addresses had been "soldiership." There could be no true citizenship without soldiership, and he honored the men who had banded themselves together to be trained in the use of arms for the defence of their country. (Applause.) Reverting to his early experiences of Stratford he said tha't, even when he came, there was in the people a spirittypified by this meeting—of loyalty to themselves. True, a collar was not exactly the correct thing except at a race meeting; a tie was a rarity, almost fined to the professional men; and an umbrella quite tabooed. But to-day' Stratford stood as the most important inland town in the province. He remembered Stratford's first motor-car, a machine propelled mainly by invective, and the occasional use of such petrol as could be persuaded to go into it, assisted by hard blasphemy. (Laughter.) He remembered all the early stages of the hospital movement, and how he could congratulate the district on its hospital and he had nothing but praise for the Board's conduct of the institution. Ho thanked the Friendly Societies for their present and for their consideration always tended to him. And he concluded by again thanking his friends, including the Mayor, whom he congratulated on his speech-making abilities, the outcome he considered, of his training in the old Stratford Debating Society. Cheers, and good-byes, and finis.