THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1907. THE LATEST PEER.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 9012, 23 December 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1907. THE LATEST PEER.

I It is interesting, as well as instructive, to oeesionally go beyond our own narrow sphere, and that of those whose lives are epoch-making in a local sense, and take a glance at the men of the Mother Country, who have been able to "show us the road" of progress, and "onward lead the way." Two such men we referred to in recent articles—General Booth and Dr Bernardo—whose lives have bettered the civilised world. There is another type of man who, in a totally different sphere,— in the field of commerce and industry—enriches the I world by the goodness of example. At the head o* this type stands Lord Airedale of Gledhow, better known to the world of British industry, as Sir James Kitson, of Leeds—a self-made man, who by his energy, persistency, and high integrity, has risen to the highest positions that honest ambition need seek. Writing in the Pall Mall Magazine, Mr Harold Spencer gives an interesting and valuable sketch of this Captain of Industry, which shows how ability and rectitude , combined can reach the loftiest pinnacle of success, and demonstrates mferentially that the questionable tactics so often adopted in business pursuits are really nonessential to that end. "We cannot," says Mr Spencer, "take a better example of human captaincy than the story of the Kitson family—the 'Kitson and Co.,' whose brass label is fixed to eo many thousands of locomotives in eyery part of the world to-

day. The present head of the family is that stalwart York shirt-man, 'four--square to all.the winds that blow' — l as square in character as in physical form —the latest made of all our peers—Sir James Kitson that was, or Lord Airedale of Gledhow, as we know him now. It is a unique English product —this, ironmaster who is Privy Councillor to the King, unopposed member of Parliament, first baronet and peer of the reaim, first Lord Mayor of Leeds, chairman of the National Liberal Federation, and for two years president of the Iron and Steel Institute—who can show you in his drawing-room twenty keys of buildings he has opened and twelve trowelo with which he has laid first stones—this honest, genial merchant prince who has risen to fortune without offence to any man, and can move through his works as among his family, surrounded by the love of the men he rules and leads. He stands midway between the rough brutality of the pure individualistic creed and the hazy sentimentality of Socialism—a man who shares his fortune with his fellows, but abates no jot of leade'-ship; a man as faithful to his country and his party as he is to his own work—who has carved his fate with his own hands, but enjoys it without pride or arrogance—who retains on the heights the same simplicity of life with which he started to climb. How Jong shall we retain this type among us? It is a type worth dwelling on in these vague days—a man blunt of speech and clear of opinion—not wedded to opportunism by politics or to social stupidity by business—who at the age of 70 is still the youngest in his works and his family life—an Englishman without fear or guile. Everything about him spells solidity and endurance—from the great offices of Kitson and Co. in the centre of the town to the square, gra> hall outside on the hilltop, whence he looks out over green country westward. There he leads a simple and patriarchal family life among his childrer. .There he has entertained, and still entertains, the leading men of his day. never permitting his life to be narrowed by business or allowing the pressure of affairs to eclipse the natural humanity of his kindly nature. Jtfut to understand the type fully you must look back to his origins, and realise that he is the second of his race—that his fortunes are based on the genius of a still simpler* father, who seized the moment of the great industrial renascence of the thirties. The story is not without its charm. Exactly 70 years ago—in 1837—Lord Airedale's father was a partner in a small workshop in the centre of Leeds —on the very site of the present engine works. There were some cloth looms in the adjoining building, chiefly managed by a Portugese; and the special business was to manufacture cloth. But Stephenson was making his first engines, and the imagination of the elder James Kitson was fired by ;Some';hing higher than cloth. It was a day of mechanics' intitutes; audit was in the library of the Leeds Institute that Kitson picked up and read 'Nicholas Wood on Railways'—a little book of which Sir James recently secured a copy from a secondhand bookseller signed with the name of one of his father's friends. That book put-a new idea into James Kitaon's head. In May, 1839," Kitson began to erect an engine in the building adjoining the clothworks. The Leeds people shook their heads. 'How will you get it out of the shed?' they said. He finished the engine, and took down the end of the shed to let it out. That for 1839. Now, in the year 1907, at the different works in Leeds over which Lord Airedale I presides, they are paying some thousnds of" pounds weekly in wages. The locomotive works are turning out 150 engines a year, and the steel works are supplying steel woldless tires to half the world. The brain that direct. 1 ! so big a machine must be always fresh and vigorous, ready for prompt decision, open to new inspiration. Lord Airedale's tasks are now mainly those of superintendence and suggertion. Younger branches of the family do the administrative work, but he has the energy of youth with the wisdom of age; and he still remains the real and undisputed head."