WELCOME TO GOVERNOR.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 308, 29 December 1924, Page 3

WELCOME TO GOVERNOR.

IN AUCKLAND TO-MORROW. GATHERING IN TOWN HALL. . In addition to being a distinguished soldier, the new Governor-General. Sir Charles Fergusson. is a son of ont former governor of New Zealand and son-in-law of another. He therefore comes among us not as a stranger, but as one who knows all about us and about whom we know quite a lot. Sir Charles himself was in New Zealand as a boy, but it is very doubtful whether even the vivid imagination of youth ever made him picture himself following half a century later in his father's footsteps. It is only the other day that his Excellency arrived in Wellington, and he has not lost much time in making the acquaintance of Auckland, as he arrives to-morrow morning on a short visit, and will be given a civic reeeptioa in the Town Hall iv the evening. Sir James Gunson, the Mayor, will preside, .and the Government will be represented by the Hon. C. J. Parr, Minister of Education. Both the Mayor and Mr. Parr will make speeches of "welcome, and the Mayor will present a loyal address, which reads as follows: "We the Mayor, councillors, and citizens of Auckland, on the occasion of the first visit to the original capital of. New Zealand, which your Excellency has paid as Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief of the Dominion, desire to assure you, as representative of His Most Gracious Majesty the King, of our continued loyalty to the Throne. To you personally, to her Excellency, and to the members of your family, we extend a most cordial welcome" to our city. With your career of memorable and devoted service, more especially during the critical period of the Great War, we are already well acquainted, and we are proud that His Majesty's choice of a representative should have fallen upon one who&e name is so honourably known amongst our people. We regard it indeed as a coincidence of most happy augury that the high position which you now occupy should have been held before you first by your Excellency's father. Sir James Fergusson, and at a later date by your Excellency's father-in-law, the Earl of Glasgow, both of whom discharged their duties with eminent ability and distinction. We feel \ assured that your Excellency's tenure ;of office as representative in New Zealand of our gracious Sovereign will be fraught with much benefit to the people of our Dominion, and that it will further strengthen those ties which so closely bind us to the Tluone and to the Empire." A short musical programme will be provided by the Municipal Choir and the city organist, Mr. J. Maughan Barnett. The choir is to sing, "My Bonny Lass." "0 Wert Thou in the Cauld Blast," and Shaw's "Evening's Pastorale." The city organist will piay "Fanfare," by Lemmens, a Padcrewski minuet. and Schubert's "Military March."