EMPIRE GREETINGS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20152, 23 January 1940, Page 4

EMPIRE GREETINGS

DOMINION’S CENTURY

MESSAGES OF LEADERS

LORD BLEDISLOE’S GIFT

WAKEFIELD GRAVE FUND (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. Centennial greetings to New Zealand from overseas Governments were read at the ceremony of unveiling and dedicating the provincial centennial memorial at Petonc yesterday. The 1 following message sent by the Prime Minister, Mr. Neville Chamberlain, on behalf of the British Government, was read by the Marquess of Willingdon: “His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom send warm congratulations and greetings to the Government and people of New Zealand on the hundredth anniversary of the first organised settlement in their country of people of British stock. The celebration of this event by Maori and Pakeha alike is a token of that mutual understanding and cooperation on which the British Commonwealth is founded.

“It is a striking demonstration of the possibility of peaceful progress by a free people. It throws into stronger relief the brutal acts of aggression committed by Nazi Germany in the war to which these acts have led. New Zealanders have already at sea and in the air conspicuously displayed those qualities of courage and determination which marked the original pioneers of settlement. Though a severe struggle lies ahead, New Zealand can look forward with confidence to the time when the forces of evil have been overcome and the peoples of the British commonwealth can devote their lives in freedom and security to the arts of peace.” Canada’s Good Wishes Mr. W. L. Mackenzie King, Prime Minister of Canada, wrote: “Please join Canada’s good wishes to any you may extend to our friends in New Zealand on behalf of the United Kingdom.” The following message to the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage, from General J. C. Smuts, Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa, was read by the Minister of Health and Education, the Hon. P. Fraser: “On behalf of His Majesty’s Government in the Union of South Africa, I have great pleasure in conveying the most cordial congratulations on the happy occasion of New Zealand attaining its centenary and the sincerest good wishes for the future of a great Dominion and the continued progress and prosperity of its people.” Lord Bledisloe’s Message The following message from Lord Bledisloe, a former Governor-General of New Zealand, to the Prime Minister was read by the Minister of Finance, the Hon. W. Nash: “My dear Prime Minister: Having always entertained great respect for the .memory' of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, the farsighted pioneer of sound civilisation within the Empire, from which no country has benefited more than New Zealand, and being anxious about the due preservation and embellishment of his humble grave at Wellington, which I visited while I was Governor-Gen-eral of the Dominion, I should like, if I may be allowed, to constitute with the enclosed cheque for £IOO sterling a small endowment fund in the hands of the Chief Justice, the interest of which shall he applied partly towards the maintenance of the grave and partly towards supplying a wreath or other local emblem to be placed upon it every year on the anniversary of his death. I shall be grateful if you will put this in hand for me.”