THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1906.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8262, 16 October 1906, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1906.

Tomos Estrada Palma, whose name has been frequently mentioned in our cable news lately, certainly deserved his appointment as President of Cuba, for he fought and worked his hardest to make her free. He is an old man uow, having been born in 1835, and his life has been full of adventure. The child of rioh parents, he had all the advantages nroney could give him, but when he returned to Cuba from Seville, where he had been studying law, he was caught in the whirl of revolu tion, and never practised his Drofeßsion. The Spaniards not only captured the family estate, but tortured his mother to death. Palma's gifts soon made him leader among his mediocre companions, and he became President of the Provisional Government, an establishment foroed to be migratory by th 3 attentions of the Spaniards. Eventually Palma was captured by the Spaniards and taken to Spain, where he still maintained his claim to be President of Cuba. When they let him go in 1878, tbe war wan over, and it was uae-

lees for bim to return to Oaba, bo he went to New York, and then to Honduras, where he became Post-master-General, and married the President's daughter. A few years later ho settled in the United States as a "gentleman farmer," and founded the Institute Estrada Palma for Cuban boys living in the States. There he lived a quiet life, until he was ORlled upon in 1895 to become the bead of the organisation formed to Bdvance the interests of Oufca in the United States, and moved to New York. When Cuba was freed he retired to the country again until he was summoned by the Cubans to be their President. In his own mind he held that he had always been President, but he did not argue the point. He aniounced at the beginning that te would not take the office of President unless all the elements of the island would assure him of their 00-operation in putting the new republic on an honourable foundation among the nations, that he stood oommitted to all the financial obligations of the revolutionists, and that, although grateful to the United States for its work of freeing the island,he waß unalterably opposed to annexation. He took office as the most popular man in Cuba, and now he has the mortification of knowing that the Cubans, when they have gained their freedom, cannot keep from fighting. From the description given of him by an American biographer, ho is the very antithesis of the popular idea of a President in that part of the world. He is a quiet, courteous gentleman, who hates fuss and formality.