OUR NEW GOVERNOR.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 791, 14 April 1910, Page 5

OUR NEW GOVERNOR.

HIS CAREER. POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LIFE. UNSPOILED BY FORTUNE. (By TelesraDh.-rSD'eclal OorreanondenU Christchurch, April, 13. The Christchurcji "Press" to-day contains a sketch of the career of Sir John Dickson-Poynder, New Zealand's new Governor, contributed by a Christchurch gentleman who was for years a neighbour of Sir John's, and is ■ personally intimate with hira. He writes-.— Tho British Government is to bo congratulated on the choice it has made when selecting Sir John Dickson-Poynder to succeed Lord Phinket in the Governorship of New Zealand,' and I prophesy that twelve months hence the Dominion will congratulate herself on having attracted the tiew Governor to her shores. , Born near, if not within, tho purple, Sir John has remained unspoiled by the gifts of'fortune, and amid the turmoil of politics has retained all his friends. Even when he crossed the floor of the House of Commons, as ho did in '1905, friends merely shrugged their shoulders and said what a pity it was that Lord Salisbury had, not caught him young enough and kept him chained with the shackles of a Parliamentary Secretaryship. It is now more than twenty-five years since John Poynder, a . boy fresh from Harrow School, • found himself destined to be a very rich man indeed, and a baronet, owing to the death of his uncle, Sir A. C. Dickson, a well-known captain in tho Royal Navy.' His choice of a career was soon made. He took tip hip abode at tho beautiful Hartham family home, 1 Harthata. House, in North Wilts, so well known to those who. travel along tho famous "Bath" Road; As soon as he came of, age the young Poynder assumed the name of his uncle, and became "Sir John Poynder DicksonPoynder." He took the oaths of a justico of tho peace in respect of .his two Wiltshire estates, Haftham and Hilmorton, some ten miles away in the; Marlborough Down country. Let it be known that he accepted the. ordinary Conservative tenets of the English .country gentleman, intended' to settle' down to country life, and would be an aspirant .for .Parliamentary honours; ' 7 ''.'./ Enters Parliament.' In 1892 he. was asked to contest the North-western Division of Wilts, which had arisen on the, ashes of the extinguished borough -of Chippenham. The Liberate at that time ' were determined to wrest the old" aristocratic county of Wiltshire from tho political' gTasp of the great Tory ■ families, the; Bruces, : the Thynues, the Pleydoll Bouveries, and the Longs of Rood Ash ton,, and those best qualified to judge were of the opinion that the'well-set-up young bachelor squire of Hartham, with his handsome face, attractive manners,-arid pleasant,, cheery way,-was the only man likely to save the seat. Their .prognostications were verified. .Sir John safely defeated, though by a very narrow majority,-.."Charlie? Hobhouso, now a Liberal Minister, and won golden opinions on all sides. He took a great part in tho 1835 general ■ election, when Wiltshire '. ejected every Liberal, member. -. This time "a; Liberal tenant farmer was put up against him, but results '.proved that |;he quarrymen. of- Corsham, 'the bacori-curers and, packers of. Calne, the railway workers of Chippenham, and the agricultural labourers of the villages,hod. not tired of "Sir John," who ■ invariably paid good wages,. was always weir up to the front across stiff country when out with "the dukes," attended regularly; ;tho Sherston.. and '. Oaksey Hunt races,, and drove his beau-tifully-appointed four-in : hand to, Salisbury and, "The Bibury" racecourse; Turning-point r ln His Career. In 1898 came- the real turning-point in his career, when London elected him to its County Couucil. - Here 'ho found his party in a great-minority*., and: there can. be no. doubt that ■■ rubbing. shoulder to shoulder with progressives like - John Burns, Captain Hemphill, and Lord Monkswell, not only enlarged Sir John's political horizon, but profoundly modified his. views!, : All too soon was he called away from this useful'social work to. take, out his regiment of, Wiltshire Yeomanry to South Africa. Lordi Methiien appointed- him one of his AD.C.'s, and, Sir John returned *with',an excellent.' character for sound military service, iand with his D.S.O. At the "Khaki" election, Chippenham, was naturally proud to send her returned soldier once- more as her member, but keen x observers wore; pretty certain that a crisis'in his political career was.near at hand. Sir.'John was exceedingly restive and ill at ease during the passing of Mr. Balfour's Education Bill. He' showed great: and natural annoyance when the House of Lords threw out. tho . Thames Embankment Trams Bill, which he : had helped to steer ihrough the Commons,: and, worse than all; he was dead, against any interference with Freetrade. In 1905 Sir John, to. tho pain of many, to the surprise of few, crossed to the Liberal benches.,He spoke very little, and abstained from actively . harassing his late chiefs, but announced that to vindicate himself he would leave his* conduct'to' be sanctioned or condemned by. l'-is_ constituents at the 1900 election, at Chippenham. • -After a long and very stormy meeting, the fighting section of the Tory party - insisted' o'o Sir John's being opposed, prophesying, aud truly, that Sir John would not trouble them long, but a great many' ' Conservatives of . weight,' .light, ' and leading insisted ivhim it tame to the polling, on preferring the man to his opinion and Sir John was returned as' a Liboral by a smashing majority by tho constituency which had returned him on three . occasions as a- Conservative by small hardly-won majorities. An Unfortunate Incident. Whether the game was worth, the candle i? rather more-, than doubtful. At Malmesbury, from' whose famous hosterly of, the King's Arms-Sir John had been wont to return. thanks to a cheering Conservative .crowd, the crowd would not allow him to reach tho market cross. His motor-car. was stopped and in the melee that ensued some.missile, no doubt accidentally, struck her ladyship. Sir John attempted to force his way through 'by himself, but' under wise advice desisted. The incident, however, is almost the only raistako that can be recorded of a career uniformly fortunate. Sir John had scarcely realised under what self-restraint his Conservative supporters .had acted during the election. From Wiltshiro once moro victorious ho returned to the House of Commons, but either thcro was no .room for him there in the crowded Liberal official ranks, or else he did not desire office. He resigned from the Carlton without joining tho Reform, and-to-day he figures as a member merely of the turf and Marlborough Clubs. Further, in 1907, he declined to stand again for tho London County Council where hitherto he had been supported by' tho local Conservative Association, and by then it had. become fairly obvious that he had and could havo but little political sympathy with the Socialistic tendencies of the present Liberal Government. )

All through his extremely busy life Sir John had managed to travel, employing the usual exaggerated expression, "all over the world." And for some time ho has been marked down for some ambassadorship or a colonial governorship, and noyr he is coming to New Zealand. His sincerity and his fixed habits of business promptitude will assist him when dealing with tho business that will come before him and his suavity, his genial bonhomie ore certain to endear'him to all classes of our community from whom .he is sure of a hearty welcome.