THE HON. J. HALL.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3409, 25 November 1879, Page 3

THE HON. J. HALL.

Mr Juhu Hall is a public man of whom this colony and especially Canterbury, which own 3 him, has a right to be proud. Nature has not endowed him with excess in some parts and deficiency in others, but has made him good all round. The lantern in the lighthouse of his mind is not of the flashing order, and it does not revolve. Momentary brightness does not suddenly burst forth and as suddenly disappear, but the light shed is fixed, permanent, and equable. Mr Hall is one of those men who are born to public life. In the nursery we can imagine he preferred statistics to sugar plums and playing at Ministers to playing at marbles. As a school boy he could never have been so happy as with a Hansard, and his holidays must hare been passed in moving for and preparing imaginary returns. He grew to a complete Blue-book in breeches. But Mr Hall is far more than a mere political encyclopedia. He is a man fit for any public business, and he delights in work. He will sit on any number of local beards, and only succumbs to the physical impossibility of sitting in two places at once. He is ever ready in his place in Parliament, and is as much at home in the clerical alteration of a clause in a Municipal Bill as in the midst.of a ministerial crisis. Whatever may be the subject and however long the sitting, Mr Hall is never at a loss, and is seldom to be caught tripping. He is not an orator, and not given to .declamation; but he is a good debater, - and what he says is not easily answered. He does not dash into a subject and then dash out again—with great gallantry and greater discretion, gaining nothing and losing much. He knows when and where to attack, and how to retreat. His industry is unwearied, and his energy is indomitable. In 1868 when Parliament was in session, Mr Hall who was in the Stafford Ministry, and was then in the House of undertook, in addition to his own proper share of the work, the duty of the Colonial Treasurer, who was then in England. Part of that duly was to bring in the Budget in the face of a strong and violent Oppcssitien led by Sir W. (then Mr) Pox ancP&ir (then Mr) Julius Yogel. Mr Han was overworked and suffering from a severe illuess. He rose from fi sick bed, and ably performed a task which would have taxed the powers of leading statesmen in good health. It was a remarkable instance of mental resolution compensating in bodily weakness. Had it not been for ill health and for his subsequent retirement from the House of lleprcsentalives, Mr Hall would long ago have been Premier.-■■ Although he would not probably have had the grasp of mind and the boldness to create and launch the Public Works policy of 1870, he was in many respects better qualified then Sir Julius Vogel to administer it when launched.— Lyttelton Time*.