A GRATEFUL FAREWELL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 55, 6 March 1935, Page 6

A GRATEFUL FAREWELL.

New Zealand lias been very fortunate in the gentlemen who have come from Britain to represent the Crown. They have worthily upheld the dignity of their office, they have been personally popular, and they have taken a keen interest in the life and works of New Zealanders. Thus they have strengthened the ties that bind this, the most distant Dominion, to the Motherland. The people of New Zealand are now bidding good-bye to a GovernorGeneral who has added lustre to the office. This week the people of Auckland are expressing their gratitude to Lord and Lady Bledisloe, and to-morrow the final farewells will be skid. There is no mere formality in these farewells. Lord Bledisloe has represented His Majesty the King in this country during several particularly difficult years. He has filled this office with personal dignity and courtesy, and he has thrown himself heart and soul into the task of helping us in every possible way. The outstanding feature of his governorship has been the extraordinary range of his knowledge and practical, sympathy. To say that he has represented the King is to state only part of the truth. He has represented the accumulated knowledge, culture and tradition of what we naturally call "Home." Lord Bledisloe's technical equipment is exceptionally wide, and

he has given this country the benefit of it, always in a kindly spirit, in all sorts of directions. From University education to the breeding of stock, nothing has been alien to him. A practical farmer himself, the product of a famous University, and a man trained in high affairs, he has been able to bring to bear upon our problems knowledge and experience far beyond the average, to the great and lasting benefit of this country.

It is impossible to detail here all the enterprises and causes in which Lord and Lady Bledisloe have interested themselves, but mention should be made of the broad lines of their activities. No one has done so much for scientific farming in New Zealand as Lord Bledisloe. He has. knowledge and enthusiasm, and he came to this country at a critical period of its development, when the old rule-of-thumb methods were beginning visibly to fail. He lost no opportunity of preaching to the farmer the necessity of wedding agriculture to science and general education. Nor did he miss any opportunity of stressing the value of education in ail walks of life. Higher culture has had no more eloquent champion. Lord Bledisloe has taught us, too, to appreciate the better our glorious natural assets of forest, mountain and stream, and he has appealed to us to cultivate a trully natioi.nl spirit. He has confidence in oar destiny, and he bids us work it out fearlessly and wisely. In fact, he has been a continuous source of stimulation in a time of: national trial. To the GovernorGeneral and Lady Bledisloe the country owes the preservation of the Treaty House at Waitangi, and. the dedication of this historic spot and the estate about it to the public interest for all time. This splendid gift Avas a tangible symbol of their Excellencies' sense of historical values. •New Zealand had to confess that what they did at the Bay of Islands .should have been done by Xew Zealanders themselves long before. In such practical appreciation of the past they set us an example, to ignore which would show base ingratitude. In his good works Lord Bledisloe has been helped by the social charm and warm understanding of Lady Bledisloe. New Zealand takes a grateful farewell of Lord and Lady Bledisloe, and wishes them long life and happiness. It knows that in both of them it will always have good frieuds near the heart of things.