CHAPTER LXXIX. THE LAST DAYS OF FOUR NEW ZEALAND CELEBRITIES.
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CHAPTER LXXIX.
THE LAST DAYS OF FOUR NEW ZEALAND CELEBRITIES.
The living and the dead alike claim an honest and impartial estimation. -- CHARLES KNIGHT.
IN addition to the usual temptation to prolong the enjoyment of place, power and pay, the Atkinson Government were strongly tempted, after the general election of 1890 had clearly gone against them, to cling to office long enough to put seven of their strongest partisans into the Legislative Council, and to appoint their disabled Premier to the well-paid and very light duties of Speaker of that easy-going Legislature. Sir William Fitzherbert had held that much-coveted office for eleven years, in addition to the large pension and the illegal leave of absence which we have seen that he obtained so rapaciously with Mr Gisborne's help in 1869 and 1870. He was now lying on his death-bed, and his death had for some time been daily expected; but, as it did not take place before the Government was compelled to resign, his resignation was, with difficulty, obtained in time for the appointment of his successor to be made by the minority Government.
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ATKINSON OBEYS MARCHING ORDERS.
On June 28th, 1892, Sir Harry Atkinson met the sudden death which he and his friends had so long expected. During the sessions of 1891, he had, with the personal courage which made him such a distinguished and respected soldier, and in disregard of the warnings of his medical attendants, occupied the Speaker's chair in the Legislative Council without incurring the penalty which the diseased state of his heart rendered so probable; and with still more desperate courage he attempted to endure, with a still weaker heart, the same dangerous excitement in the session of 1892 which began June 23rd. On that day the Council only listened to the Governor's speech and immediately adjourned. On the following day, a very little formal business was transacted, and the Council adjourned twenty-five minutes after it met. At the next meeting of the Council, which was on Tuesday, June 28th, the Council only sat for quarter of an hour, but the frail heart was affected by some observations on the deaths of Messrs. Whitaker, Fulton, and Martin. As he left the Council Chamber for his own room, he said to Mr. Olliver, --"I should very much like to have said a few words myself on the losses we have sustained, but I did not dare to attempt it." Soon afterwards he was stretched on the floor of his room, and said, calmly and bravely, --"I have got my marching orders." On the following day, his friends in the Council were discussing his death, and naturally chose to enlarge exclusively on the good work of his brave and vigorous youth rather than on the weakness of his long decline.
His friend, Dr. Grace, concluded a strong eulogy of his military work at Taranaki in these words:-- "I scarcely felt any sadness as I looked at him lying dead yesterday, for I felt that death, so far from being a catastrophe, was often a real blessing, as, for example, when it came, at the crowning epoch of a career, to transfer the suffering creature to his noble inheritance in heaven."
Seven months after the death of Sir Harry Atkinson, died Wiremu Kingi, the noble patriot to whom
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A CONSISTENT CHRISTIAN'S DEATH.
the justice of the future generations will probably assign a more honourable place, a more stainless record of cruel wrongs endured, of fierce calumny unrevenged, and of incredible injustice meekly forgiven, than could be truthfully assigned to any other New Zealand patriot. His timely preservation of the doomed early settlers in Wellington from the inevitable destruction planned for them by the bloodthirsty Rangihaeata; the brave and skilful generalship that so astonished Governor Browne, by which he evaded, without bloodshed, the destruction of himself and his supporters on their own land at Taranaki by the great guns and surrounding army of the arrogant Governor; his thoughtful and effectual protection of those Taranaki settlers who refused to bear arms against him, and of innumerable peaceful, unoffending settlers throughout the whole course of the long, aggressive war; the meekness with which he endured so many years of hardship and suffering and misrepresentation as an unjustly persecuted outlaw, and after all, returned, with every expression and proof of kindness and goodwill, to end his eventful life amongst the children of the settlers who had so long mistaken him for an enemy; all show a greatness, a nobleness, a justice and humanity of character that it would be difficult to equal in the annals of even the most civilized community, and was really marvellous to find amongst the descendants of a race so long habituated to the atrocities of uncivilized warfare. His death should have afforded a too tardy but a much needed opportunity of giving a strong public expression of remorse for the injustice inflicted upon the living and forbearing patriot: and, by the New Zealand press some handsome acknowledgments and candid confessions were actually made in that direction; but no manly public opportunity to acknowledge repentance and regret for their past cruel injustice was taken by such of his persecutors as now survived him; so that his funeral was allowed to be as unostentatious as the last years of his social, domestic and amiable life had been. He
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EFFECT OF A SELF-RELIANT POLICY.
died February 14th, 1893. We regret that we have not been able to obtain even a photo of this ill-requited patriot.
Him did the scorn and wrath of man
Pursue with deadly aim,
And malice, envy, spite and lies
Long desecrate his name.
But truth shall conquer at the last,
As round and round we run;
The right shall yet come uppermost,
And justice shall be done.
It would be difficult, if not impossible, to enumerate all the benefits to New Zealand that so promptly followed upon Mr. Ballance's carefully considered and firmly pronounced determination, which he made known to the House on June 16th, 1891, and reiterated still more emphatically on June 30th, 1892, in these memorable words:--
"If we are to maintain our credit and financial independence, borrowing in the London market must cease. Our debt is great and the population to bear the burden comparatively small. We have marched for twenty years at a furious pace, too severe to last; and have piled up obligations which should make sane men pause. But now for the first time we have determined on a policy of true self-reliance--the only policy, I firmly believe, to make this a great country."
Never was an honest, brave resolution more promptly or distinctly rewarded. The financial difficulties that Mr. George Hutcheson so ably and truly depicted in such gloomy colours as endangering the solvency of the Colony, and dragging down the life of its Treasurer in the last days of the Atkinson Ministry now disappeared like a morning mist. The £400,000, which the New Zealand Bank could not advance at any price, and which the Colonial Bank had lent to the Atkinson Government as a great favour at 5 per cent, and could not get repaid, was now at once negotiated with a saving of £4,000 a year in interest, whilst the eight millions falling due during the first two years of the new Ministry was not only converted without difficulty, but with a saving of £85,000 a year in interest; as the London Financial Times no longer decried the credit of the Colony but some months before the death of Mr. Ballance wrote:--
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POST MORTEM INFLUENCE.
"When Mr. Ballance inaugurated a sound policy we were among the first to recognise and applaud the fact, and now, with all their enormous debt and with all their past incomprehensible folly, we would, under such a Treasurer as Mr. Ballance, rather hold New Zealand stock at the present time than that of any other Australasian Colony."
This was Mr. Ballance's wisest, boldest and greatest work, and would, if it had only been adhered to by his successors, have proved the greatest boon that any man was ever allowed to confer upon New Zealand.
We say this with no desire to undervalue Mr Ballance's great work upon land, electoral or labour legislation, which it would be difficult to overrate. The large majority he usually commanded in the House, and the unanimity with which his wishes were supported in his Cabinet enabled him to effect more important political and social changes than any other man could have effected in so short a time. Nor did his influence in his Cabinet, or in the House, entirely cease even with his life. None of his colleagues in his Cabinet were at all anxious to carry female suffrage, and most of them had strongly opposed it before they became members of his Cabinet, but, either from veneration for their beloved chief, or from a desire to appear consistent, they professedly, rather than actually, supported it after his death. But what is more remarkable, though less satisfactory, is, that such a wholesale borrower as Mr Seddon has always been, did not immediately return to his natural habit after the death of his great restrainer, but obtained the support of Mr. Ballance's friends to his Premiership at a caucus meeting by assuring them that "Mr Ballance's non-borrowing policy had proved successful and beneficial to the country beyond the most sanguine expectations, and that no one understood that policy and could be in such a good position to carry it out as one who for more than two years had worked with Mr. Ballance so cordially and so heartily." Even nearly three months after Mr. Ballance's death, the Financial Statement of his Government, made by his Treasurer, Mr Ward, contains the strongest possible testimony to
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MR. WARD ON SELF-RELIANCE.
the beneficial effect of the policy they were so soon to overthrow. In that Financial Statement Mr. Ward says:--
"I am of opinion that the best interests of the colony are being better consulted by our steadfastly adhering to the policy of self-denial and by maintaining the strong financial position which we now hold than by further large and heavy reductions in taxation, and in substitution thereof adopting a borrowing policy. The Government believe that borrowing is not necessary, and have decided to conduct the business of the country without having recourse to it. The policy of self-reliance has borne fruit, and economy in both public and private life has assisted to bring about a happier condition of things. Never in the previous history of the Colony were its prospects brighter. Land settlement has progressed vigorously. The acquirement of Native lands has gone on actively. Trade and commerce are active and increasing. The bulk of our exports is larger than ever. Our mines have greatly developed and the output of our gold is once more recovering. The avenues for the employment of well-directed energy are large and expanding, and we have the satisfaction of knowing that, in addition to a surplus in our revenue, we have also a surplus in all articles of produce, over and above our requirements, available for export."
Such is the testimony given to the complete success of Mr. Ballance's non-borrowing policy by the very Government which in its Financial Statement of the following year was so completely to overthrow that policy and propose to borrow more than had ever been borrowed before by any New Zealand Government in any one year.
The speech made by Mr Ballance, which was concluded at midnight on Friday, August 5th, 1892, and which occupies twenty-four pages in No. 76th Hansard, was the last and perhaps the best of his great financial speeches. It was a most able and courteous but crushing reply to the most acrimonious attacks on his land and fiscal policy which had principally occupied the House during the previous three weeks. No public man could wish for a happier final indication of his public aims and aspirations than is contained in the last few lines of that speech, or desire any more worthy record of the noblest aims of his patriotic life. After speaking for nearly three hours, defending his policy
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BALLANCE'S LAST GREAT SPEECH.
and his friends, and paying little or no attention to the coarse accusations that had been made against himself by the sufferers from his progressive land tax, he concluded a memorable speech in these patriotic words:--
"What should be the object of members of this House? To raise the people, the great mass of the people, of this country. To raise them to prosperity by contriving that land shall be widely distributed, and not left in the hands of the few. If there is to be one great distributor of property in this country, let that be the State and not a few individuals. Honourable members may say that this is socialism. I attach no importance to mere terms. That word has many meanings, and applications. We do not suit our doctrine to words, we seek the common good and care not what words are used, and shall never cease our efforts until we have done something to ameliorate the condition of the people, and to promote that common prosperity which should be the end and aim of all political and social effort."
This was his last great speech; his last gigantic intellectual performance; the last time that he was able to listen day and night, for three successive weeks, to all the misrepresentations, to all the subtlety, to all the accusations, to all the provocations that able, angry partisans could bring to bear upon his refined, sensitive nature, and then to rise and reply for three midnight hours without any exhibition of anger or resentment, without using an unparliamentary word, and without even betraying the fact that the cruelly prolonged mental strain had proved too much for his weaker physical powers which had been too long subordinated to the mighty intellectual control. For the rest of his life his great mental power was handicapped by physical suffering and weakness that could no longer be ignored. For two hundred days the strong brain maintained a brave, and more or less successful struggle with the faulty bowels, and then his life and his intense sufferings were shortened by a surgical operation which he was not strong enough to survive.
No statesman was ever more universally or more deservedly lamented by the nation he had served so faithfully. Every proof of veneration and affection that the nation could give was expressed by the overwhelming numbers that joined in every demonstration to
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CAPTAIN RUSSELL ON HIS GREAT OPPONENT.
honour his memory. The eulogies of his devoted friends were almost surpassed by the handsome, unreserved tribute to his memory volunteered by his late opponents. The leaders of the Opposition informed the House of Representatives that:--
"There was not a public body throughout the length and breadth of New Zealand, that has not passed resolutions expressive of sorrow for the loss of the late Premier."
But, of all the handsome tributes to his memory which lie before us, we select for its well expressed completeness the tribute of his generous, although constant and prominent opponent, Captain Russell, who said:--
"There was never a more painstaking, thoughtful or industrious man. He performed his duties, not perfunctorily or by mere regulations, but conscientiously and with consideration. He was earnest in the extreme and never neglected a detail, whilst at the same time he worked upon principles which held firmly those who had occasion to meet him. Those who saved him were always impressed with his force, his acuteness and his wonderful grasp alike of details and of generalities. He was an educated man in the true sense, a man of vast reading and extraordinary mental digestive organs. As a political opponent he was a very model of courtesy and chivalry. He towered head and shoulders above most of those around him, and he was earnest and devoted to a degree. There was no rancour in him. He bore no malice, and harboured none of the grudges that sometimes disfigure political life. Nothing, to my mind, shows the calibre of the man so clearly as the fact made manifest of late, that his success exceeded the most sanguine expectations of his friends and completely suprised his opponents. I call them opponents because of enemies he had none."
We must give only a few concluding sentences from a long article in the Wellington Post:--
"Before the great leveller, Death, all questions of party sink into insignificance, and Mr. Ballance's decease will be mourned as sincerely by those who were unable to agree with his political views as by his most devoted political admirers. His motives no one questioned, even when compelled to sometimes disapprove of his methods. For him personally all who knew him entertained not only respect but a degree of affection which became the deeper, the better he was known. His early death will be mourned from one end of the colony to the other by all who can appreciate the high qualities, intellectual and moral, by which John Ballance was honourably distinguished in every relation of public and private life. To Mrs. Ballance the most respectful sympathy is due in the
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HIS WIFE A NOBLE WOMAN.
most terrible affliction which has fallen upon her. It was no ordinary bond of affection which united Mr. and Mrs. Ballance. Theirs was indeed a marriage of true minds, and in the very fullest sense did his wife prove a helpmeet in times of adversity as well as of prosperity, in failure and success, in public and in private life, and, above all, in the last sad scenes which preceded the final and fatal separation."
In the Legislative Council the Colonial Secretary said:--
"Ours was not a friendship of yesterday, it was a friendship of twenty years, unbroken and sincere; and from my knowledge of the deceased gentleman, I can safely say that a more single-minded and honest man, and a more straightforward politician, I have never met. Sir, when I saw him from time to time on his bed of sickness, his mind was ever actively at work. Even when suffering the most acute pain, he discharged his departmental duties in a manner perfectly extraordinary; and when I visited him I always saw that noble woman, his wife, watching and nursing him tenderly and carefully until he breathed his last."
The Hon. Dr. Grace said:--
"I had the privilege of knowing the late Premier for fully twenty years. In every progressive step he earned the confidence of this Colony, and I take this opportunity of testifying the high estimate which I hold of the many sterling qualities which characterised his public career."
The absent Governor wired--
"The Governor desires to take the earliest opportunity of expressing to his Ministers his sense of the great loss which the Colony has sustained in the removal of so able and experienced a statesman. He also desires to express his own sorrow at the loss of one with whom his personal relations have ever been of the most pleasant and cordial description, and whose courteous assistance and counsel have always been at the disposal of the Governor during this his first year of office."
Never was such a large and mournful assembly seen in Wellington as that which filled Hill Street from end to end on the morning appointed for the funeral and for the removal of the body from Wellington to Wanganui. The brothers of Mrs. Ballance were the chief mourners, the Ministers were the pallbearers, and a gun carriage carried the body in its coffin with the plain inscription,
JOHN BALLANCE,
Died April 27th, 1893.
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THE PATRIOT NEVER DIES.
Five hundred mourners entered the special train, which took them at a rapid pace to Wanganui, which was reached at 3 p.m., where fourteen thousand mourners waited to follow to the grave their long beloved and recently illustrious citizen. As the train whirled rapidly through the numerous stations on the long railway line, uncovered crowds were there to testify their gratitude, love and esteem. No man in New Zealand has ever called forth such demonstrations of respect as were shown to the lifeless body in its plain untitled coffin on that day. No Queen, no Government, no Parliament, no millionaire, could have conferred such honours upon their greatest favourite, as were conferred on the memory of plain John Ballance, by the hearts of the New Zealand nation, on the day that his body was consigned to its long rest in the public cemetery at Wanganui.
He told of England's sin and wrong;
The ills her suffering children know;
The squalor of the city's throng;
The green field's want and woe.
Swart smiters of the glowing steel,
Dark feeders of the forge's flame,
Pale watchers at the loom and wheel,
Repeat his honoured name.
Where is the victory of the grave?
What dust upon the spirit lies?
God keeps the sacred life He gave;
The patriot never dies.
Less than two months after the death of Mr Ballance, a much older and much longer known statesman was called away by the hand of death. On June 23rd, 1893, Sir William Fox, K.C.M.G., M.A., died at his residence in Auckland, on the first anniversary of his beloved wife's death, which occurred on June 23rd, 1892; only a month after they had completed their fiftieth year together, and had been, in every sense of the word, all the world to each other. Life never seemed like life to him after they were parted. We have seen that he was four times Premier of New Zealand, and four times he had resigned or voluntarily retired from that position in favour of men in every way inferior to himself. He was a very uncommon, as he
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THE GRANDCHILDREN CALL HIM BLESSED
was a remarkably unselfish man. But considering his complete education, his uninterrupted health, his power of endurance, his long life, his high character, his extraordinary energy and mental power, and his great opportunities of usefulness, he can hardly be pronounced a great success, if success is to be estimated by realised personal advantages, rewards or distinctions, but those were never a principal object with him. As a student of law he passed all his examinations with flying colours; but, when fully equipped with qualifications, he declined to practise as a lawyer. As agent for the New Zealand Company he saved hundreds of victims of that Company from starvation, and lived to receive the earnest gratitude of their grandchildren; but his benevolence earned neither gratitude nor reward from his employers. As a leader of the Opposition he was brilliant--especially from 1856 to 1861, whilst Stafford was Premier--but, when he reached the Premiership, he always lifted some inferior man into all the solid advantages of the position, and usually followed where he ought to have led. In the settlement of Native Land claims he succeeded, where all other lawyers had failed, and earned and received the approval of both races; but, after four years of hard, honest, intelligent, benevolent work on the West Coast Commission, he retired with thanks only, as if he felt himself no longer fit for employment, or that he had no claim upon the double pensions which he saw heaped upon the inferior ex-Ministers, Domet and Fitzherbert, who had received so much from, and done so little for, the Colony. As a philanthropist he aimed too high and often missed his mark. He expected the multitude to be influenced by the same unselfish sympathy for the fallen and unfortunate which burned so brightly in his own breast. He never understood what a large proportion of the human family would think themselves fools to curtail their own gratifications to secure the safety of their weaker brethren; so that he scorned to approach by spade and sap, by patience and education, or by any long slow process,
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HONOURS DEEDS MORE THAN WORDS.
in which alone a majority would go with him, what he fondly believed that a benevolent majority stood ready to effect by immediate assault and battery. Although his great ability and energy, his reputation and his purse, were all placed, in his later days, at the service of the temperance cause, he never accomplished an equal amount of practical reform, upon those he so earnestly longed to serve, as has been accomplished, in Nelson, by the fine old whaler known as "Ben the Bullock-driver," who estimates his fellow colonists at what they are and not at what they ought to be. But all his failings were on virtue's side, so that those who knew him best loved him most, and those who were most solicitous to promote the welfare and happiness of the human family were most ready to honour the great philanthropist "who went about doing good."
In the habits of his own life he was a cheerful Puritan. Although an honoured and consistent Episcopalian, he was almost a Quaker in his veneration for the Sermon on the Mount, and was ever ready to honour those who honoured God in their lives rather than by their lips. It was in fine harmony with the habits of his whole life that his last appearance in public was to lay the foundation stone of the Salvation Army Barracks in Auckland only a few weeks before his death. Good men of all creeds followed his remains to the grave, and the churches of all denominations thanked God that so great and good a man had been so long spared to serve, to honour and to bless the country of his adoption.
When his death was announced in the House of Representatives by the Premier on Tuesday, June 27th, 1893, and an appreciative motion proposed by the Premier, and seconded by Sir John Hall, its support was naturally taken up by the oldest members of the House. Sir John Hall said:--
"My first meeting with Sir William Fox was before I came to New Zealand. We next met in the year 1856 on the floor of the House of Representatives in Auckland. Since then I have known him in private life and in many public positions. He was a great figure in this Colony; he had great ability, was highly educated,
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PARLIAMENTARY OPINIONS OF SIR W. FOX.
had an excellent memory, was full of information on nearly all subjects, and marvellously so upon every detail of New Zealand history. He had a ready command of language, and those who have heard him will agree that his brilliant and impetuous oratory fully earned for him the title of the Rupert of debate in New Zealand.
I have known him as a political opponent. In that capacity he was formidable, but he was always fair, always honest. I have known him much more as an ally, and as an ally he was loyal, unselfish, genial and considerate in the highest degree. The Government of which I was a member was fortunate enough to obtain the services of Sir William Fox and Sir Francis Bell for the task of disentangling the longstanding Native difficulty upon the West Coast of the Island, and on Sir Francis Bell's departure for England the task was carried to completion by Sir William Fox. Those who know the work they did will agree with me that no equally difficult task was ever more ably or successfully grappled with, or accomplished at so small a cost to the Colony, or with such permanently beneficial results I am glad to think that I was twice enabled to offer Sir William Fox a seat in the Legislative Council, which he declined. He was not merely a politician, not merely a statesman; he was, what is even greater, a sincere and ardent philanthropist in the highest and best sense of the term. He devoted himself, heart and soul and purse, to the cause of humanity."
Mr Saunders said, --
"It would give me great pleasure to speak of him as a politician, as a statesman, as a legislator, as a brilliant debater, as a patriot, and as a philanthropist, but of all the positions he filled so ably I should choose rather to speak of him as a personal friend who never changed his conduct towards those who had once gained his confidence and affections, and as one whom no one had ever found to be anything but faithful and loyal to those who worked with him. No colleague ever had reason to doubt his loyalty or to fear that he would be anything but sincere and true in any relation he accepted. In the course of the fifty years I have known him, I have sometimes agreed with him and been associated in the same work with him, and at other times I have felt it my duty to differ with him, and to oppose him as strongly as I could, but he made me love and admire him quite as much when I opposed him as when I was working with him. As a personal friend I have never known anything more sweetly reliable than his friendship was. I have been struck with the exact application of some lines of Whittier written on the death of Joseph Sturge, which I will repeat and apply to our venerated and departed friend,--
The very gentlest of all human natures
He joined to courage strong,
And love, outreaching unto all God's creatures,
With sturdy hate of wrong.
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HARD HITTERS PARTING AS FRIENDS.
Tender as woman; manliness and meekness
In him were so allied
That they who judged him by his strength or sweetness
Saw but a single side.
And now he rests: his greatness and his sweetness
No more shall seem at strife,
And death has moulded into calm completeness
The statue of his life."
The venerable William Hutchison concluded the nation's testimony to its oldest patriot in these earnest, affectionate words:--
"Sir, as one who has enjoyed the friendship of Sir William Fox almost from the time I landed in the Colony to the last, I should like to add to what has already been so well expressed my heartfelt testimony to the great worth and high character of the deceased gentleman, as a public man and as a private citizen, as a Christian and as a philanthropist. He was always working; working not for himself but for others. No man cared less for show; he had a contempt for money-getting: and he shunned all vulgar ostentation. Wordsworth's "plain living and high thinking" were his daily life. Yet he was a man of exceptional ability. He possessed a fine literary gift which he cultivated to the last. He was as ready with his pen as with his tongue, and his power in this latter respect as the Rupert of debate is fully set forth in the chronicles of this House. And now that the stormy passions which babbled round these distant controversies are dead and forgotten--better still, are forgiven--we can see that even his passions leaned on virtue's side. I know of few things more pathetic, and in its way more noble, than that of the greatest member of the present House, Sir George Grey, visiting Sir William Fox on his death-bed--the two distinguished men--the two hard hitters of their day--talking over the past and then parting as friends and Christians should part. In private life Sir William Fox was one of the most companionable of men--genial, chatty, sympathetic. There was tenderness in every line of his mobile face, yet intricately blended with that firmness of mood which we are told 'refuses and restrains.' He has served his generation; he has died at a good old age; and a more patriotic, and a less self-seeking man, is not left amongst us this day."
