A Gift to the Nation.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20543, 11 May 1932, Page 10

A Gift to the Nation.

The Governor-Geuei'al's decision, reported in this morning's Press, to present the Waitangi estate to the nation on behalf of Lady Bledisloe and himself, is perhaps the most graceful of the many graceful acts that have endeared their Excellencies to the people of New Zealand. It will give pleasure to all sew Zealanders, in the first place because of the motives which prompted it, and in the second place because it shows that their Excellencies have found time to make themselves familiar with the history of New Zealand and to understand its significance as a chapter in the history of the Empire. The Treaty of Waitangi, in its more material results, may have been unfortunate, but it embodied an ideal which has always governed the relations between Maoris and Europeans in New Zealand and which has been responsible for one of the most successful attempts ever made to reconcile two civilisations. Li/these circumstanoes it is hardly to our credit that his Excellency should have to remind us that the old British Residency, where the Treaty of "Waitangi was first promulgated, "shows evidences of considerable "neglect," and we shall best express our gratitude to their Excellencies by showing a more lively and intelligent i interest in future in the material landmarks of our history in which they have I thus actively interested themselves.