OBITUARY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1247, 2 October 1911, Page 8

OBITUARY.

EX-GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF AUSTRALIA. / $y Telegraph—Press Asdrtiation—Copyright (E-cc. October 1, 5,5 p.m.) London, September 30. Lord Northcoto, formerly GovernorGeneral of Australia, is (lead. He had been ill for some months, but moved about until he took to his bed on Tuesday, and from tbcnco onwards gradually grow weaker. LORD NORTHCOTE'S CAEEEE. Henry»',Stafford Northcote, first Baron 1 Northcote of Exeter, came of a family long known in tlie political history of England, his father, Sir Stafford Northcote, being one of tho Gest-known leaders of his day. Lord Northcote was born ia I&JG, and on leaving Oxford in 1868, entered tho, Foreign Office as a clerk. In 1880 he decided to five up his official post and enter party politics. Ho succosrful]y contested the Exeter seat in the Conservative interest, and represented that constituency for tho following nineteen years,, holding one or two minor posts in the Ministry. In 1900. he was selected to fmcceed Lord Sandhurst as Governor of , Bombay, and in 1903 was appointed Gov-ernbr-General of Australia, retiring in 1903, when Lord Dudley came out. The three, and a half years of Lord Nortlicoie's Governorship of Bombay were years of continuous plague epidemic, and sf almost continuous faniino. Those wore lean years in Indisi, a-nd the necessity for Tigid economy mado it more than ever difficult, to,carry out reforms. Tot, says "The Times, ' his record as Governor wjs one of steady Success. He was ablo to , T&establish harm onions' rejiltions between th'o Previ tidal' and' the Ceiitkil Government,-. which wero not on the best terms when he went to Bombay in, the beginning of 1900; important improvements were introduced in tho land revenue system ; and the work of famine .relief Was directed with wisdom and generosity. In Australia, where he was GovernorGeneral from'the. autumn of 1903 to that of 1908, his powers and his responsibilities Were less; but his difficulties were, perhaps, even greater, if of a different order. The pest. bad only been created three years beforo,'and its traditions were fitill largely to make. During his fivo years of office he visited practically every place of importance in tlus continent, everywhere giving himself the greatest pains to learn overything that could be korned. and everywhere establishing relations of mutual goodwill with tho people oe was visiting.