Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, MAY 28, 1943. A STATESMAN PASSES.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 May 1943, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, MAY 28, 1943. A STATESMAN PASSES.

TN the minds of a great many people, from end to end of the Dominion, unaffected sorrow will be awakened by the death of the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates and to that sorrow a sense of shock will be added by the unexpectedness and suddenness of the event. To the last, Mr Coates was a robust and vigorous, as well as an engaging personality and of none can it have been said morQ truly that he has been removed from the stage of public life in the fulness of his powers. It is' only a day or two since he was heard on a public occasion in earnest and wholehearted advocacy of an unsparing national war effort.

Varying fortune was experienced by Mr Coates in his public and political career extending over a period of upwards of thirty years and it stands to his credit that he met success and reverses alike with unfailing dignity and good humour. lie was a clean fighter, incapable of the meannesses and foul tactics that at times sully political, contention. In his earlier experience as a Minister, particularly in his control of the Public Works Department, he earned respect and established a noteworthy reputation as a most capable and progressive administrator.

When, after the death of the late Mr Massey, he became head of the Government and was confirmed in that office with the support of a large majority in the election of 1925, Mr Coates appeared to be assured of a long term of leadership in office. In fact, however, his Government was short-lived. He was less successful as Prime Minister than he had been in the administration of important Departments of State, possibly because he was less inclined to give thought and attention to political tactics than to straightforward work on specific problems and tasks of government.

For a time, Mr Coates appeared to have retired contentedly into the ranks of the elder statesmen, freed from the cares of office but able at times to give calm counsel in times of difficulty and stress. The great emergency of war in Avhich this country and all nations free in fact or in aspiration, are ranged against ruthless forces of evil brought him, however, once again into the forefront and enabled him to give new proof of his qualities as a man and a leader of men —as a statesman in the best sense of the term. »

With the added authority derived from the fact that he had himself served with distinction in the last Avar, Mr Coates from the outset appealed for an undivided national effort and set himself squarely in opposition to any dissipation of the national energies in internal divisions of any kind. No one can doubt that his single-hearted aim throughout the Avar period, as a private 'member and as Minister for War Co-ordination and a. member of the War Cabinet, has been to set the cause of his country and that of the British Empire and its Allies above all lesser considerations. It Huis fell to his lot once again, as it often had in his earlier career, to speak and act for his country, both at home and abroad, on occasions of commanding importance. His great powers had never been exercised to better or more Avorthy and stimulating effect than during these supremely critical years.

The death of Mr Coates is most of all to be regretted because it deprives the Dominion, in Avliat may Avell prove to be the culminating period of the Avorld struggle, of a leader of true understanding and insight, Avhose voice and influence Avere directed ahvays to promoting the loyal unity of effort on Avhich our Avhole future depends.