BITTER CRY OF A GOVERNOR

Auckland Star, Volume XXV, Issue 30, 3 February 1894, Page 5

BITTER CRY OF A GOVERNOR

Sir Robert Grant Duff, Governor o* New South Wales, ib will be remembered, bitterly complained the other day thab he was noc allowed to spend Christmas with his family. Even a Governor, he pathetically pleaded, oughb to be entitled bo a public holiday. The Sydney ' Daily Telegraph' publishes an article giving pretty full details of what the Governor there is really expected to do. We spare our readers the record of the piles of papers His Excellency has to sign, and the public and political business to be attended to. Needless to say this in itself would keep him a pretty busy man. Then there are foundation stones to be laid, buildings to be opened, meetings to be presided over, all of which in New South Wales mounts up to a good deal in the course of the year. Social duties in tact fall heavily not only on the I Governor, bub on hia wife. Lady Duff has Ito entertain the hundreds of ladies who ' claim entree bo Government House, On the day of her arrival in Sydney she shook hands with over 2,000 people. She has many meetings and concerts to attend,, In charitable movements Government House is a big power. Two or three balls are given every year; 'at homes' and garden parties are frequenb; and the Governor gives a series of dinner parties, too, going through the list of all the influential people by degrees — Ministers, judges, mayors, consuls, and members of the Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament. From twenty-five to thirty people are invitod to each dinner, and after the dinner aboot 200 people are usually entertained at Government House. To add to the difficulties of Hia Excellency and Lady Duff their official residence io far too small. It is not larger, we are told, than tho country f)OU3B of many a gentleman in England and Ireland. It is impossible, therefore, bo avoid friction by inviting everyone who expects to be invited. In the dining-room, the Governor cannot entertain more than forty people. To the balb about 400 aro invited and 350 expected, for the room will nob hold more. Then, again, the Sydney Governmenb House is neither luxuriously nor artistically furnished. The original paintings of the former Governorb hang in the hall and elsewhere, and are painful to the eys. They all seem, judging from their exprewion, to have found life eoniewhab of

a mockery( It ia sad, if not surprising, to hear now-a-days a cry of ' byer-pressure raised, even from tke exalted precincts of a Government House. lb shows what our driving, hurry ing aeo is leading to. By-and-bye we shall be obliged to have an Eight Hours Act passed for the benefit of colonial Governors and their wives, and Inspectors appointed ,to see that its provisions are carried out.