King Country Chronicle. Tuesday, September 29, 1931. VICE-REGAL VISIT.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXV, Issue 3371, 29 September 1931, Page 4

King Country Chronicle. Tuesday, September 29, 1931. VICE-REGAL VISIT.

It is seldom that this district has a visit from His Majesty's representative in the Dominions, and for this reason it is the more regrettable that the weather conditions yesterday were such as to somewhat mar the welcome, which the residents of Te Kuiti and district sought to give to Lord and Lady Bledisloe. New Zealand has been singularly fortunate in its Governor-Generals this last few years. Lord Jellicoe and Sir Charles Fergusson, during their residence in New Zealand, endeared themselves to the people of this country by the keen interest they always evinced in their welfare, and Lord Bledisloe's name will always be held in the same high honour as his predecessors. Being immune from the heat of party politics, His Majesty's representative can ob-

serve and speak from an impartial point of view, and yesterday Lord Bledisloe delivered some sound advice to those who were privileged to hear him. His exhortation to support the Mother Country in her industries in every possible way was prompted as much with a regard to the future prosperity of this Dominion as a desire to help Great Britain during a time of stress, and when it is realised that New Zealand has only one sound and permanent market for her exports, this is only a natural conclusion for the people of this country. New Zealand has the reputation of being the most patriotic of all the Dominions, and if we wish to hold that reputation it must be in a practical manner by supporting the Mother Country in every possible way. It is rather a coincidence that the Governor-General should make his first visit to this town on the 24th

anniversary of the day when New Zealand was raised from the status of a self-governing colony to that of a Dominion. No special privileges were granted in the raising of the status, for the reason that it would be impossible to grant any more than those enjoyed when the country was a colony, but the title improved the prestige of New Zealand as a unit of the Great Commonwealth of Empire. No one would wish to see these ties of Empire severed or even relaxed for many reasons. First there are the ties of kinship. Our forebears, the men who carried out the pioneering work, and made this country what it is to-day, were of British stock; Great Britain found the capital to develop New Zealand, and it is to that country that we look to for marketing our

exports; and we have to depend on the. British Navy to make us safe from aggression from other nations. All that is asked from us in return is that that our country shall be governed and administered on the lines of the British Constitution — the finest constitution in the world. When His Majesty has as his representatives such men as Lord Bledisloe, there will be little doubt about the value of these ties of Empire or our desire to fulfil our sentimental and moral obligations to the Mother Country.