LATE MR. OKEY, M.P.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 September 1918, Page 4

LATE MR. OKEY, M.P.

A HIGH TEEitJTE. Mr. C. A. 'Wilkinson, M.P., speaking at the meeting last night called to discuss the proposed harbor extension scheme, paid a high tribute to the late Mr. Okey, with whom he had been associated in Parliament during the last seven years. The people of New Plymouth, he said, had lost a very devoted servant and a very splendid typo of public man. As the speaker knew from his knowledge of the late member's work in the House and his private life, he would be o, man hard to replace- It had been said during Mr. Okev's life that New Plymouth should have a more pushful man, but that was .a wrong assumption, as Mr. Okey was always concerned with tlie interests of Taranaki. It was mainly due to Mr. Okey's tact and genial personality that the previous iHarbor Empowering Bill passed through the House. But for Mr. Okey also the Taranaki Education District would have been lost, he having received the co-operation of other members, with the result that the Education District wa3 preserved to the poeple of the province. They would now have to consider his successor, and ha trusted that whoever they sect would be a supporter of the harbor scheme. Prior to the conclusion of the meeting, Mr. C. E. Bellringer also paid a tribute to the worth of the late Mr. Okey, and on his motion the following resolution was unanimously carried in silence i —"That this meeting expresses its high appreciation of the services rendered to the community by the late Mr. Okey, and extends its sincere sympathy to Mrs. Okey and family in their* bereavement." A memorial service in connection with the death of the late Mr. H. J. H. Okey, M.P., will be held in the Whiteley Memorial Church to-morrow morning. The Citizens' Band will attend, and will play "Thnre is a Green Hill" (Gounod)' and ! "The Garland "of Mojjers." 'Appropriate hymns will foe sung, led By the band. The preacher will be the Rev. W- A. Sinf>lair. At the evening service Mr. Sinclair will give the fourth of a series 'oi addresses in "The Last Things," entitled "Heaven: Where and What It Is."