HARBOUR BOARD WELCOME

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 55, 7 March 1927, Page 12

HARBOUR BOARD WELCOME

PRESENTATION OF ADDRESS

The address of .welcome and loyalty from the Harbour Board was presented to Their Eoyal Highnesses by the chairman of the board (Mr. M. Cohen) at this morning's civic reception at the Town Hall.

After the Mayor (Mr. Norwood) had read the city's address of welcome he

called on Mr. Cohen to come forward and hand to Their Royal Highnesses the address from the port authority. The Harbour Board Address, which was contained in a casket made from a portion of the old Queen's Wharf, built in 1862, was not read by Mr. Cohen, who merely made a few remarks asking that the Address, should be-ac-cepted, and explaining how the casket was made. ■■■

"Your Royal Highnesses," said Mr. Cohen, "I have the honour on behalf of the Port Authority, the Wellington Harbour Board, to ask your gracious acceptance of an address of loyalty and welcome. This casket in which the address is contained is perhaps rather more historic than pretentious. It has been wrought by men in the employ of the board in. tho shape of an old sea chest with a due appreciation of the high purpose which it was ultimately designed to serve. ' It has been made of a portion of the materials which were used in the' construction of the first wharf in the Port of Wellington, known as tho.Queeu's Wharf, which was built in 1862, and was removed in 1924'f0r purposes of modern development. I have the honour again to present assurances of profound loyalty and cor-, dial welcome." (Applause.) TEXT OF THE ADDRESS. The text of the Harbour Board's address is as follows:— THEIR ROYAL HIGHNESSES THE DUKE AND DUCHESS OF YORK. MAY IT PLEASE YOUR ROYAL '■ HIGHNESSES,— We, the Chairman and Members of the Wellington Harbour Board, desire to express our feelings of gratification and pleasure at your visit to this Dominion. We have lasting memories of the honour that was bestowed on us when Their Most Gracious Majesties tho -King and Queen, as Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York, visited New Zealand in X9Ol, and were received by the Wellington Harbour Board on landing at the Queen's Wharf, Wellington; also of the more recent visit of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. As loyal subjects -wo feel that visits such as this from members of the Royal House knit even more closely the ties that bind the overseas Dominions to the Mother Country. Representing tho interests that control tho Port of Wellington, we trust that your sojourn will bo a most happy one, and that upon returning home Your Royal Highnesses will retain the most cordial recollections of your brief but timely visit to these shores. Signed on behalf of the Members of the Wellington Harbour Board, MAURICE COHEN,- ,. , Chairman. Wellington, New Zealand, 7Oi March, 1927. THE DUKE'S REPLY. The reply which the Duke handed to Mr. Cohen was as follows:— The Duchess and I are grateful to you for your address and the welcome you have accorded to ourselves. You have referred to the visits paid

to Wellington in the past by my parents and brother. We esteem it a privilege to be following them and thus renewing the happy associations which were formed on those occasions.

In these days, -when the fortunes of the Empire so largely depend on its commercial prosperity, the importance of.such ports as this cannot be exaggerated, and we congratulate you not only on possessing a harbour rich in facilities for shipping and in scenic beauty, but also on the spirit of progress and enterprise that'your board never ceases to display in its ■work of development and improvement. . We wish you all possible success, and hope we may be given an opportunity at some future date to come arid see you again. ALBERT.