FATHER AND SON.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 June 1916, Page 7

FATHER AND SON.

A NEW ZEALAND REMINISCENCE. The Chief Justice of New Zealand, the Honorable Sir Robert Stout. K.C.M. G., has contributed the following recollections of Lord Kitchener, whom he met in Otago nearly half i century ago:— I met Colonel Kitchener in Dunedin in the later sixties. He waß then on a visit to see one of his sons, who was a settler in Shag Valley, Otngo. He was a strongly built man, with a large frame, but not tall like his son, Lord Kitchener. I met him on many occasions, and joined in the conversation of the party when we met. I remember asking liim many military questions aboitt the Civil War in the United States, a war in which I had been much interested, having read all the accounts of the war that I had been able to obtain. He was not interested so much, however, in military science anil history as in another subject that was much discussed at this period of our history. This subject was spiritualism, and I was at many meetings with him. He had an ardent desire to find out whether there was any evidence of a life beyond the grave, and I thought then that his belief sometimes colored his conclusions. He was, however, & seeker after truth, and he was prepared to follow her wherever she might lead. I remember on one occasion, when the matter was l>eing discussed, someone of the party remarked that this would be contrary to tue orthodoi Christian belief. folone' fCiicheiier brushed this objection aside bv stating that what mankind had to strive for was to ascertain the truth, and he did not care what the result was to either religious or scientific beliefs. He seemed to me a man of strong opinions and full of courage. He had a great devotion to his Queen and country, and, like many other soldiers I met, his duty to serve was ever present with him. In short, he was a courteous and courageous gentleman, fond of his military profession and devoted in his declining years to the study of the future. In later years I met his daughter, Mrs. Parker, and I remember being struck with licr attitude during the. South African war. I remember when she accompanied her son to Wellington when he was setting out with one of the contingents. She seemed to me to have Jjer father's courage and his high sense of duty and of service for the Empire. That these qualities were hereditary cannot now he denied. Can there not be seen in his noble son. whose death we arc now lamenting, some trace of his father—his courage, his devotion to duty, and his anxiety to follow the truth wherever it may lead?