FAREWELL GATHERING

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 117, 19 May 1914, Page 10

FAREWELL GATHERING

MR. J. STRAUCHON'S RETIREMENT Many chapters in the history of New Zealand could have been written — many have been already written — by the gentlemen of the Lands and Survey Department who sat round the festive board at Godber's last night, gathered together for the purpose of bidding a final farewell from the Department to Mr. J. Strauchon, 1.5.0., who has just recently resigned the position of Undersecretary. There were six ex-Surveyor-Generals, and Commissioners of Crown Lands from North Cape to Bluff. It was the subject of comment before and during the progress of the gathering that the Lands and Survey Department has a peculiar knack of producing men who live long and healthy lives, and the "pioneer" reminiscences which were recounted across the table would have made interesting reading could they have been recorded. Mr. J. A. Mackenzie, the newly appointed Under-Secretary for Lands, was in "the chair. In opening the proceedings, the chairman made particular reference to Mr. J. M'Kerrow, the father of the department, who had done so much for the development of Central Otago. Then there was Mr. Humphries, who joined the Department some sixty years ago. Mr. Marchant, " a hard- working, m- ! dustrious, and conscientious surveyor to I the backbone," and Mr. L. Barron, a former Under-Secretary. He also congratulated the gathering on the presence of the Prime Minister, who was also Minister of Lands and head W the Department. (Applause.) The toast of the evening 1 , 1"0ur Guest," was proposed by the Right Hon. W. F. Massey, who was received with applause. It must, he said, be particularly gratifying to Mr. Strauchon to have so many proofs of the respect and confidence and affection of the officers of the Department with which lie had been associated. The Prime Minister then presented Mr. Strauchon with several valuable tangible marks of esteem, and in doing so, said that Mr. Strauchon possessed not only the confidence and esteem of the Department, but of Ministers, individually and collectively. As Minister of £ands he would like to say he could not forget that when he took up the portfolio of Lands in 1912, without any previous administrative experience, with the aid of Mr. Strauchon, who was head of the Department, 'they put up a very creditable record. (Applause.) He (Mr. Massey) did not take any credit for that ; if it had not been for Mr. Strauchon's experience they would not have been able to put up that record. Mr. Strauchon had served his country for fifty-three years, in a Department which he (Mr. Massey) regarded as the most important Department of the State — a Department with an approximate revenue of a million sterling. He hoped that Mr. Strauchon's term of usefulness to the country would not cease with his severance from the Depart- i ment. (Applause.) | Complimentary speeches were also made by Mr. F. O'Neill (Assistant Under-Secretary), Mr. H. M. Skeet (Commissioner of Crown Lands, Auckland, who presented Mr. Strauchon with a. handsome and unique walking stick from the Auckland branch of the Department), and Mr. C. E. Pollen (Canterbury). On rising to reply' Mr. Strauchon was received with loud applause. He made feeling reference to his old associates, and he expressed the greatest pleasure at seeing so many of the younger generation round the board. He indulged in some interesting reminiscences of the early days of surveying in New Zealand, and went on to thank the Prime Minister for the kindly remarks he had made about him. If, he said, he had been of any assistance to Mr. Massey in his first year of office it was latrgely due to the help he had received from Mr. O'Neill, Mr. Hawthorne, and other members of the head office staff and of th,e different branches. He thanked the officers of the Department very sincerely for the handsome presents they had mado him, and he was pleased to hear that his administration had given satisfaction. As far as lay in his power he had endeavoured to do fairly by them all. (Applause.) The toast of "Parliament" was proposed by Mr. J. M'Kerrow, who had known Mr. Strauchon since he was a small boy and also from the commencement of his service in the Land and Survey Department. "It was my duty to find errors in his work," he said, " but I never found any." Responding to the toast the Right Hon. W. F. Massey remarked that when he entered Parliament in 1894 people said he had "the blush of innocence on his cheek." (Laughter.) Now they said the innocence was gone and there was nothing but the cheek left. (Laughter.) He hoped they did not agree with that. (Renewed laughter.) On the whole he thought that members had not much to complain about. A member of Parliament had to apply himself and work for his country and his constituents, and if he did that he thought I he would achieve the merit that was '. his due and come out all right. Generally kpeaking, he thought that the New Zealand Parliament stood out superior to Parliaments of other countries. (Applause.) There were hard things said of one another on the floor of the House, but outside the House those things were forgotten. He believed that the present Parliament was just as good as any of its predecessors, and he believed that in future it would be proved that it left the country better than it found xt. (Applause.) The Right Hon. W. F. Massey then proposed the toast of " The Land and Survey Department," who expressed the belief that the Department was the most important of the departments, because on it depended the development of the primary industries of the Dominion. Many a prosperous settler could look back to-day and express gratitude to the Lands and Survey Department for the help it had given him in the first years of his enterprise. To-day there was an enormous demand for land, especially in the parts of the Dominion which were favoured climatically, and wherever land could be secured in good-sized blocks of suitable quality it was the duty of the Government to acquire them. During his recent tour of the East Coast he had found a very big demand for land and the purchase of estates. Everything possible would be done by the Government on behalf of the country. If the Government did not do that they could not expect the prosperity of the country to continue, and he had every reason to believe that the officers of the Land and Survey Department would do their best to assist the Government in the carrying out of that important work. (Applause.) ' Mr. J. Mackenzie (chairman and Under-Secreta-ry) replied, and in doing I so paid a tribute to the valuable services rendered to the country by the old officers of the Department in various parts of the country, both in the past and in the present. Other toasts followed, and a very pleasant evening was spent. During the evening a programme of vocal and instrumental items was contributed by Messrs. W. Goudie, Peterson, W. F. Connors, S. Runkiji, C. Gkd]estpue ; and Clements.