Page:Heroes of the hour- Mahatma Gandhi, Tilak Maharaj, Sir Subramanya Iyer.djvu/255

 Committee member; and in this double capacity the city of Madura owes to him a number of lasting improvements and additions to the activities of the city and its attractiveness. By 1875 when King Edward as Prince of Wales visited Madura Subramanya Iyer, then only in his thirty-third year by which time a Mofussil Vakil now aspires to become a Munsiff somewhat late in his career, had become the leading non-official citizen of the town and was chosen to present the People's Address to the Royal visitor. To be chosen for so signal a distinction at such an early age shews the remarkable zeal and intelligence and earnestness which should have characterised his work and impressed the public and the authorities. The fact is, even at so early an age, he never fashioned his work on behalf of the public for the favour of the Government and his attitude towards the Government was dictated by considerations of the lasting good-will of the people. "Mani Iyer of Madura" as he was then called became as distinguished a citizen as one could name in the presidency and when in 1884 he was nominated a member of the Legislative Council he was the first representative Indian to take his seat in the Council, the first