CHAPTER XXXIII. Sir John Hall
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CHAPTER XXXIII
IN speaking of men who have been utilized in the service of the colony as well as of the province, none can be said to have held a higher place in public estimation than Sir John Hall. This being so he is entitled to be classed among the leaders of the people. I don't know of a man amongst its who is to be depended upon to say when this lover of work first became useful to the world. One of his schoolfellows once told me, in speaking of his school days, that as a boy he was quite as remarkable for a close application to his studies at school, as he has always shown himself when engaged in parliamentary or other public work; that afterwards at the University he made good use of his time; and that finally, after a short experience in a public department in the old country, he was quite entitled to be spoken of as qualified for any sort of official work. And this estimate of his fitness and appetite for work was soon discovered by his fellow-colonists to be a true one: that it was indeed almost impossible to put him into a position that he was unfit for. He quickly developed into a successful settler, engaged in country pursuits. He was at one time a Resident Magistrate, then Chairman of the Christchurch City Council, before Mayors were known in the land, and heavy rates burdened the backs of burgesses; then at the head of a Provincial Executive; then a leader of an opposition to the Government; always a member of the General Assembly; often holding office in a Ministry; then just by way of a change, at the head of a General Government Opposition; and finally the Premier of New Zealand.
In all of these different and difficult positions he has played the part of a strong man, and has earned, and is living in the enjoyment of a reward and a reputation that none desire to rob him of. I have already in these pages referred to the great West Coast road as his masterpiece in Provincial public works. A writer in the "Canterbury Rhymes," in playful mood thus encouraged him in the performance of that really great undertaking:--
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"Make the road Johnny, my dear Johnny:
Make the road Johnny, my little man.
Anywhere, anyhow, over the mountains,
Do it as quickly, my boy, as you can.
"No doubt you'll do it, that's if you choose to.
Nobody doubts your powers a bit;
But do it smartly, my little Johnny,
Or soon I'll be writing your hic jacet."
A writer in the Press newspaper not long since, in speaking of Sir John Hall, says, "He never claimed to be a popular orator in the sense in which Sir George Grey was a popular orator; but he never failed nevertheless to realize the importance or propriety of taking the people into his confidence on public affairs. He spoke essentially as a colonist to colonists: and to use his own expression, as one more ambitious of being a useful public servant than a powerful ruler. Many people underrated the value of his speeches, for the very reason that they brought politics within the comprehension of the most ordinary understanding. He attracted no sentimental admiration; he aroused no effective enthusiasm; but he gained sympathy and respect, and kept people well posted up in their own affairs, and that was all he laid himself out to do."
The above in relation to Sir John Hall was written only a few weeks since: the following was penned, printed, and published twenty-eight years ago. The writer, a newspaper reporter, detected in him "an awkward trick (said by the way to be common to Canterbury members at that time) of rising on his toes when speaking, as if he was pulling up his words with a string--probably a habit acquired by straining on tip-toe to spy out their sheep on the vast plains they inhabit." The further criticism of him was that he was a "very neat and earnest speaker; not pretending to eloquence, but always to the purpose; always clear, and always decided. He has an intense sense of justice, always ready to champion the oppressed. I have no doubt that at school he had a perpetual black-eye from fighting the battles of the small boys against the big ones who bullied them."
The late Lord John Russell I have more than once heard spoken of as his great pattern and prototype. The London Punch, in speaking of the Whig statesman on an occasion when the Queen had sent for him to advise as to the formation of a new ministry, made Her Majesty to say, "John, I am afraid you are not strong enough for
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the place." That at any rate could never have been said of New Zealand John at any time during his political career. He was always ready when the occasion demanded to lead a forlorn hope; or to pilot his party through the rocks and shoals of the political ocean; and with a success which was as harassing to his opponents as it was gratifying to his supporters.
The Canterbury Punch, a witness to his many successes in the Provincial Council and in Parliament, admitted his great qualifications for public life, and irreverently wrote of him as " the boy of all work, "and the "generally useful man of his party."
Sydney Smith once said of Lord John Russell, that there was nothing in the wide world of work that he did not consider himself equal to, and showed his readiness to undertake at a moment's notice. We who are good judges, say of Sir John Hall, that there never has been a political position that he has not fairly faced, fought in, and proved himself the master of.
I think Canterbury Punch showed wonderful wisdom in providing, for our friend the motto: " Omne bene--Hall's right."
