PRESENTATION.

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 13, 11 June 1920, Page 13

PRESENTATION.

ME A. W. RODGER'S SESVICES REOOGHISED. BUSINESS MEN'S APPRECIATION. The very high esteem in which Mr A. W. Rodger is held by citizens generally was expressed very definitely this morning when a number of the district's leading business and commercial men waited npon that gentleman at the Southland League rooms. Mr J. Stead (Mayor), who acted as spokesman, said: "Mr Rodger, I have, during my term of office as Mayor of Invercargill, performed many pleasing fnnctions, but never have I taken part in one that affords me more gratification and pleasuxe than coming here this morning and on behalf of a few of your friends in town and country and a few of the business men express their recognition of the unequalled, splendid services that you have rendered to Invercargill, to Southland — in fact' to the Dominion. We are proud of the work that you have done, proud of the result^ that you have obtained." — (Applause. ) 'It was their wish, said Mr Stead, that they should be given the opportunity to reeognise in a substantial way what he, Mr Rodger, had done. They did not know of another man who could have achieved such undoubted success. — (Applause. ) Not the least important of the work accomplished was that of convincing the rest of New Zealand, and tha few croakers in our own midst that the spirit of progress and advancement abounded in Southland. — (Applause. ) Mr Stead then read a letter addressed to Mr " Rodger by a number of citizens, the terms of which wer e : — "As Ohairman of the Southland League and the Southland Electrification Committee you have for several years, and with unexampled generosity, been spending your time and your money in strenuous and untiring endeavour to advance the interests of Southland. Your activities have, we are sure, been prompted by patriotic and unselfish motives, and have been carried on withont fee or reward. ' Your successful work in cormection with the scheme for the electrification of Southland will, we are convinced, result in enormous benefit to the people of the district. We, as business men, have interests in the district which will, we believe, be greatly enhanced by the promotion of your great scheme, and we feel that the least we can do is to see to it that you are not permitted to continue your self-sacri-ficing efforts without an attempt on our part to make you some return if only by way of acknowledging a past debt which the people of Southland can have little hope of ever being able to repay. With this object in view we gladly and respectfully ask you to accept, as such acknow • ledgment, the attaehed Bank Draft for £2000, accompanied by our best wishes for your own prosperity and for the success of the great nndertaking with which you are so closely identified." — (Loud applause. ) His Worship then handed the letter and the bank draft for £2000 to Mr Rodger, and asked him not to look upon it in any way as a payment for his services or as a discharge for his services. It was an acknowledgment, or part acknowledgment, of what had been done at great personal sacrifice. — (Applause.) On rising to respond, Mr Rodger was received with great warmth. Speaking with emotion, he said that he had never found it more diffieult to utter what he would like to express. He appreciated very fully their feeling of goodwili, and in accepting their splendid gift he wanted to tell them that it was the first money he had ever accepted. He had done the work for the pleasure 1 of doing it, and would have been pleased to have continued to do so. Mr Rodger referred to the great war work that had been accomplished by one and all, and indicated that his own motive had been to do something during war time tha-t would be of benefit after the waj\ Their expression of goodwill had been sprung upon him, and he felt it too keenly at the moment to make any lengthy „ reply. He referred to the &evotion with which Mrs Rodger had aided him. in his public work, and he asked their kind permission to transfer their token to Mrs Rodger. He thanked them very sincerely for their magnificent gift.— (Loud applause.) Cheers for Mr and Mrs Rodger were then gfven, and the gatherrng dispersed.