Retrenching the Governor.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume I, Issue 66, 12 November 1887, Page 4

Retrenching the Governor.

Under the heading, “ A Penny Plain, and Tuppence Colored,” the Wellington Press concludes an article M follows : —“ We have said enough, we hope, to let daylight through the nauseous pretence that the colony will be degraded by getting an inferior man for Governor at £5OOO a year. There is not a shadow of fear of anything of the sort. Any gentleman whom the Queen sends here as her representative will stand as high as he need be, regardless of his pecuniary position. It is the commission and not the salary, that makes the Governor. Who have been the Governors of New Zealand ? Hobson, a naw captain ; Bhortland, a retired navy lieutenant; Fitsroy, a navy captain ; Grey, a retired army captain ; Wynyard, lieu, tenant-colonel of a marching regiment; Brown, a retired colonel; Bowen, the

Sedagogue aforesaid; Arney, Chief ustice; Ferguson, a disappointed English politician who threw up the Government out of pique at the end of eighteen months; Normanby, an impoverished aristocrat and courtier, who was quite out of his element here, though extremely well liked by all who knew him personally; Prendergast, Chief Justice; Gordon, the tyrant of Fiji; and Jervois, a distinguished engineer officer, who came here indirectly by the accident of his military profession. Among these, we should like to know who are the ‘ firstclass Governors,’ and who are the • inferior men P’ Some of the greatest among them were the most poorly paid ; and certainly seme of the littlest were the best paid. Sir George Bowen was allowed £42 for a cradle for one of his babies. It was charged to Public Works. The office of G overnor of New Zealand has never been supported with so much dignity as it was by Governor Grey in a homely cottage, on a salary less than is now proposed to be given to Sir "William Jervois’ successor. If the Queen chooses again to send us an ‘ inferior man ’ ouch as Captain Grey, for our £5,000 ayear, we shall be truly thankful to Her Majesty.”