Evining Post. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1930. DUTY FAITHFULLY PERFORMED

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 32, 7 February 1930, Page 8

Evining Post. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1930. DUTY FAITHFULLY PERFORMED

It was recognised by everybody, and doubtless by nobody more clearly than by Sir Charles Fergusson himself, that in following so able and so popular a GovernorGeneral as Lord Jellicoe he was undertaking a task of extraordinary difficulty. He might do well, but if a predecessor who had achieved what was probably a unique success was considered to have done better the invidious comparison would inevitably be drawn to the disadvantage of Sir Charles. How His Excellency's reputation has survived the ordeal is familiar to everybody. He has so comported himself throughout his five years' term that he need shrink from no comparisons. Measured by any standard, whether comparative or absolute, Sir Charles Fergusson's administration has been an unqualified success. He has done all that was expected of him, and more. The formalities of his office have of course been faithfully observed and with becoming state, but no success of that kind would have accounted for the intensity of the popular enthusiasm which has greeted'both Sir Charles and Lady Alice Fergusson at all the farewell gatherings of the last two or three months and appropriately culminated in the Wellington Town Hall last night. A mere formal success would have justified and received some formal compliments at, parting, but-no official preparations could have., provided anything better than a cold and lifeless ceremony. Spontaneous enthusiasm cannot be made to order. The man who was honoured as His Excellency was honoured last night had touched the people's hearts. The combination of such a gathering and such a theme made the task of the Acting-Prime Minister and the other speakers an easy one, and they all acquitted themselves well. What is even rarer on these occasions than good speaking was a good Address. The draftsman of the Address presented by the Mayor of Wellington on behalf of the City Corporation, the Harbour Board, and the local bodies of the adjoining districts had selected the three principal points and done them full justice without becoming extravagant. First there was the inevitable reference to the double family tradition.

We recall first of all that your father, Sir James Fergusson, served this Dominion as Governor, and also that the Earl of Glasgow, the father of Lady Alice Fergusson, served in the same capacity, and we feel that Your Excellencies have further strengthened the bounds of affection between the citizens of this country and your distinguished families. ■ ' ■ • ■ ■

It is indeed a singular tiling that at a time when the. principle of heredity in its political applications is discredited and obsolescent that New Zealand should have profited by its dual operation in a single term of her highest office. Sir James Fergusson did the country good service in 1873-74. and the Earl of Glasgow in 1892-97 and now the union of the son of the one with the daughter of the other has given us five years of what is generally regarded as the most successful administration that we have ever had.

Nor is the association of the Lady Alice Fergusson in the honour paid to His Excellency a mere figure of speech. She has obviously been heart and soul with him in all his activities, but outside of this partnership she has also had her own special field of fruitful labour, and due attention was paid to it in the Address presented to His Excellency.

Time would fail us to recount the many and varied activities undertaken by you for the social and national advancement of the people of this country, the encouragement and example shown by you to all classes and creeds, to forsake things which are petty and pursue those things which enrich and ennoble life; but we would especially mention the initiative and foresight by which the League of Mothers was founded by Her Exeellenpy.

Here again, there is no exaggeration, and it is to be specially noted that all the matters mentioned are almost as completely outside the letter of the Governor-General's contract as the organisation which, as the Mayor said, "will always be a monument to Her Excellency and her .interest in the women and children of New Zealand." The functions of a GovernorGeneral, except at a time of political crisis, are to a very large extent formal and ornamental, and it seems to be the ambition of some of the Dominions to attenuate still further whatever of real power and discretion still appertains to the office. New Zealand does not share that ambition, and is therefore not taking advantage of the enlarged opportunity which the last Imperial Conference provided for indulging it. If: she ever was disposed to think lightly of the office, the tendency has been completely reversed by the work of her last two Governors-General. They have discharged all their formal functions without a hitch, and the impression made by all their public acts and speeches has created a confidence that whatever discretion the Constitution allows them in their dealings with their Ministers has been wisely exercised. But it is particularly in all those activities to which the Address refers, activities which are outside jthe bond and which no document could define or command, that the Governor-General-

slu'p is seen by the people of New Zealand to render invaluable services which no home-made substitute could possibly provide.

The wide scope of these activities under the present regime is well indicated in the Address:

Roligion, literature, music, and art in this country have all been encountered by Your Excellencies, and European and Maori alike have been helped, to treasure those things which uplift and inspire.

Except that science has been omitted from the list, this statement is beyond cavil. Subject to the necessary exclusion of sectarian and other controversial issues, the help given from Government House to "those things which uplift and inspire" has been nildiscriminating and nation-wide. But if His Excellency had stayed in Government House to administer it, the most valuable part of it would have been missed. He has gone out into the busy hauntg of man and into the backblocks to deliver his message, recalling in his moral earnestness, "his journeyings often," the breadth of his sympathies, and his versatility, the apostle who became "all things to all men" that he might save some. The return for all this unstinted labour administered entirely without respect of class or creed is such a hold on the confidence and affection of the people as any politician might envy. In his admirable speech His Excellency showed that he had been deeply touched by the evidence of this sentiment, and accurately diagnosed the methods by which he had endeavoured to deserve it.

The position he had held for the last five years, said Sir Charles, was a very proud and honourable one, and if they had been able to maintain the dignity of the position without in any way appearing to keep themselves aloof from the people, if they had been able in any way to help to promote the activities and interests in which the people were engaged, and if they had been able to help in furthering the happiness and prosperity of the country, then they were truly and utterly thankful.

The gratitude is assuredly not all on one side. The people of New Zealand are profoundly grateful for all that Sir Charles and Lady Alice Fergusson • have done for them, and gladly recognise that in, such hands the Governor-Generalship is not an ornament nor a superfluity, but one of the strongest of Imperial ties.