ADDRESS TO SIR GEO. GREY.

Auckland Star, Volume XVII, Issue 78, 27 March 1886, Page 4

ADDRESS TO SIR GEO. GREY.

A movement to present a birthday address to Sir George Grey was very successfully initiated at a public meeting on March Hj. The promoters wisely desire that it shall be divested of the colour of party politics. Everyone acknowledges the great public services which have been rendered to New Zealand, and especially to Auck land, by Sir George Grey. His munificent gift of a library to the city of Auckland would in itself be enough to entitle him to popular gratitude. The following gentlemen were apEointed the Committee, all names eing rejected which had not been proposed with authority:—The Mayor (W. R. Waddel), Messrs Reader Wood, J. ML Shera, C. B. Button, T. B. Hill, D. H. MoKenzie, T. W. Leys, F. J. Moaa, T. Thompson, H. W. Farnall, W. J. Suiter (Mayor of Newmarket), R. T. Warnock (Mayor of Newton), J. Winks (Mayor of Parnell),' J. L. Wilson, W. S. Wilson, W, Berry, W. J. Napier, F. Jeune, A. Kidd, A. Otto, J. J. Crofts, M. Danaher, P. McNaught, T. Gee, O. Mayo, W. McCullough, John Jenkins, John Mason, J. M. McLachlan, W. G. Connolly, Thomas Mason, Henry Keesing, E. W. Burton, James Grant, A. G. Horton and Dr. Beale, with power to add to their number.

The Bub-committee appointed to arrange matters of finance and to revise the birthday address to Sir George Grey met on March 17. The original draft of the address was considered in detail, and after various amendments had been submitted, the address was finally adopted in the following form : —

Auckland, April 14, 1886. To Sir George Grey, X.C.8., Kawan, formerly Governor of South Australia, New Zealand, Cape of Good Hope, and New Zealand second term, Superintendent of the Province of Auckland, Premier of the Colony, and at preßent M.H.R. for City East, etc., etc., etc.

Sir,—We, the undersigned settlers ot this part of New Zealand, have much pleasure in offering you our hearty congratulations on the attainment of your seventyfourth birthday, and we desire to wish you many happy returns of the day, For the past forty years your name has been identified with the history of this country, and we feel that your remarkable and distinguished career, and your disinterested public services call on this occasion for some special recognition. Al! parties gladly acknowledge the pure sense of public duty by which you have been animated, and that your actions have been prompted by a desire to secure the happiness and welfare of all classes of the people

You have consistently acted up to a high Btandard in public life, and have shown a bright example to be followed by the present and future public men and benefactors of the colony. We recognise in you a generous patron of the arts, and an ardent worker in the domain of literature. As a statesman, your sagacity and foresight have been long known and appreciated—not only in this colony, 'but also in other parts ol the Umpire-where, as the representative of tho Sovereign, you havo wisely and beneficently ruled,

Your eloquent and sympathetic advocacy of all moaaurea calculated to promote the moral and material advancement of the people will cause your name to be ever held in grateful and affectionate remembrance

Assuring you that it is our oarnest prayer that your useful life may be prolonged for many years, and that every happiness may attend you in the future, we aro, &c,