THE NEW GOVERNOR.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXI, Issue 15333, 16 June 1910, Page 8

THE NEW GOVERNOR.

LORD ISLINGTON AND HIS TENANTS. A MODEL LANDLORD. [From Orn Corrhsi'ondf.xt.] LONDON, May. C. Lord Islington leaves for Now Zealand next Monday. He will spend a few days in Paris, and join the P. and O. liner Macedonia at Marseilles on May 13. The King received Lord Islington in audience at Buckingham Palace yesterday morning, when tho new Governor kissed hands upon his appointment. It was one of tho last audiences granted by his Majesty before his illness became severe. Tho new Governor informs me that tho members of his staff who will accompany him to New Zealand are Mr Robertson Kerr Clark (private secretary) and his wife, Lady' Beatrice Clark, and Mr Crightoii Maitland, lieutenant ' Grenadier Guards. Mr Clark was A.D.C. to Sir Harry Rawson in New South Wales for five years. Lieutenant Maitland served in South Africa in 1902.

The complimentary dinner given to Lord Islington by his tenantry, at Chippenham, was a tribute to tho new Governor's popularity as a landlord. A gentleman who spent several years in Wiltshire tells me that Lord Islington was regarded as quite a model landlord, in the generous way he studies the welfare and requirements of his tenants, and the relations between the latter and their landlord have been harmonious and cordial. His lordship lias been connected with tho Hart-ham and Hilmarton estates in Wiltshire for quite thirty years. His estates avo noted for their model dwellings, and amongst other improvements a rifle range, a reading-room and a water supply have been, provided nt'Hilmarton by tho present landlord. He helped to start the Chippenham Cottage Hospital, of which he is president, giving a largo sum of money for the purpose, and lie has taken a. very active part in county affairs, as well as in political. His tenants had some very nice things to say about Lord Islington. Tho old name of Sir John DicksonPoynder which they had known so well was gone, said the chairman, but they had left them the old personality —“ the cheery' smile, the generous heart, the kindly nature, which no distance, no vicissitudes of fortune could change.” The oldest tenant ut the dinner had dandled Lord Islington in his arms when tlio future Governor of New Zealand was a baby, and to him was entrusted the presentation of an address to tho guest of the evening, signed by 102 tenants. The new Governor apologised to Ins tenants for having to bo ail absentee landlord for the next fow years. “ Lot mo say,” ho said, “ how much I realise the responsibility attaching to one who owns property and who, whether from choice or otherwise, finds himself in a position for a certain number of years of being an absentee from that property. The ownership of estates bring even in these days, though some poople think to tho contrary, many friends. There are also attached to tho ownership of property many responsibilities ana many duties, duties which in tho ordinary course of events should be, and can best bo, performed by the owner of the property present upon the land. Now that cannot bo during the next few- years, but, speaking to you as my tenantry of the two estates, I can say. that I have taken as conscientiously and as oarefujUy as 1 can every possible precaution to avoid injury to tho estates or to those occupied upon tho estates by my absence in a distant land.” ■While he is in New Zealand, Lord Islington will have sent to him at regular and short intervals very full reports of all that is going on upon his estates, so that he may still keep in touch with his tenants. 11 1 hope, ho said, “ any tenant of mine will write to mo in New Zealand., and I promise him he will get a full response to that letter.” The gift of a Georgian silver inkstand to Lady Islington from tho wives of the Hartham and liilmarton tenants drew an interesting little speech frO-rn her ladyship. She, loved her home, she said, and her tliirteen years at Hartham.had been the happiest or her life. Tho one little shadow of her life was that she had no sbn, but ir she had five sens she didn't think she could have been happier in her associations with Hartham. Islington, tlie London borough from which The Governor of Now Zealand lias taken his title, was mentioned in tho Doomsday Book at the tune of l-lenry 11. At the end of the eighteenth' century it was still a little village, but now it lias between 300,000 and 4(H),000 poople livings, within its narrow, limits. Lord Islington occupies tho position of chairman of the Groat Northern Hospital in Islington. Then) is a famous publichouse in tlie borough called tlie Angel, and this fact has, of course, been seized upon by the ivits to apply to the now Lord Islington. A feature of Lord Islington s remarkably busv career lias been the number of Government inquiries and commissions of which ho has been a member. The following list will an idea of his public work outside tho House of Commons, where he sat from 1902 to 1909: „ . Select Committee on Reorganisation of the Yeomanry after South African ltoyal Commission on London Traffic. Select Commission on Housing of tho Working Classes (chairman). Select Commission on Wireless telegraphy (chairman). Departmental Commission on the Inebriates Act. Commission on Trade Relations bo-t-weon Canada and tho West Indies. In the middle of it all Lord Islington was a member of the London County Council for five or six .years, and he held the following appointments , all involving responsible work : Chairman Groat Northern Hospital. Chairman Central Chamber of Agriculture. President Bath Ere Infirmary. President Winsloy Sanatorium. President Chippenham Cottage Hospital. It will be seen that Lord Islington has been born to great estates, ho lias also realised his responsibility to tho full, and given his services freely to tlie community to an extent that probably few men in public life can equal. Let it also- lie added that in the midst olrti multitude of activities he made it his duty to serve bis country in South Africa during the Boer war, and earned thore the Distinguished Service Order. The High Commissioner’s reception in honour of the new Governor and Lady Islington was the event of the week among tlie members of the New Zealand “colony” in London. The guests included many visitors from the dominion, over bore for the summer, and in addition to meeting tlie new Governor. there was tho added interest of renewing old friendships and reviving pleasant memories of J4ie past. Tt must have been something of an ordeal for Lord and Lady Islington to shako hands with something like four hundred strangers, but they boro up noblv, and succeeded in looking as though they liked it. Lord Islington, with his. sunburned features and ready smile, gives one tho impression of a genial temperament. Neither lie nor Ills wife have any liking for formality, and the less there is of it in their new sphere overseas the better, I imagine, it will agree with their tastes. Lady Islington's beauty is of the Scotch type. She was one of the belles of the seas on her entrance into society. Her little daughter Joan is said to be a charming girl, and qn accomplished swim met*.