ACROSS THE STRAIT.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 115, 13 May 1909, Page 2

ACROSS THE STRAIT.

SOSSIP FROM THE EMPIRE CITY.

[from ova correspondent.] WELLINGTON, Wednesday. So "Plunket Governor" is to be no longer New Zealand's official head after the end of February next. His term of office does not actually expire untTl the end of May, 1910 but New Zealand will no doubt be able to get on very well with a Deputy-Governor during the interval, as it has done before during similar intervals, without serious damage to the Constitution, the crops or anything else. So far as Wellington is concerned, -there will be no outpouring of public grief when his Excellency finally retires, whatever may be the case elsewhere. Since Sir Arthur Gordon, no Governor has been less popular with the Wellington public than Lord Plunket. Of all the Governors I can remember, I think Lord Glasgow was perhaps the most popular with Wellington people; but of all Governors ■wives, Lady Ranfurly, with her unfailing good tact and good humour, has been the most liked. Next to Lord Plunket, Lord Onslow was the least popular. Like the present Governor, Lord Onslow had a "frugal soul," and many amusing stories are told of the petty economies of his regime at Government House. The Onslows possess fine estates, but they had become heavily "loaded," and the New Zealand Governorship afforded him an excellent opportunity to "pull things together." Of all our Governors Lord Ranfurly was perhaps the most" amusing to those who came. into official contact with him. When he first came out he was totally ignorant of public affairs, and used to bungle and boggle terribly over the various more or less important State documents placed before him for his august gubernatorial approval. ~■-,. -d i Since he has been exiled to Palmerston North I expect the present Governor has been somewhat uncomfortable. Although it is notorious he and Lady Plunket have never liked Wellington, still, a residence at Government House here was preferable to a lengthy sojourn at Palmerston North, which, although I believe it had the ambition to be called the "Chicago of the South," is relatively a dull sort of place, although, be it said, in all- fairness, its citizens have done their best to show his Majesty's representative every possible public and private hospitality and kindness. Still, even Palmerston cloys upon a ;man after a time, and I don't wonder that his Excellency is shortly to trip it off to Earatonga in the Challenger; He is to be back in time -for t.lt£ opelliSg o! Parliament. There was a very pleasant little gathering yesterday of Ministers, heads of departments, and officers or the Land and Survey Department. The occasion was the saying of "goodbye"—in the Civil Service these funptins are now, I hear, called "tangis to that excellent public servant and all-round sterling good fellow, Mr "Tom* Humphries, Surveyor-Gen-

eral, who is retiring on superannuation. Mr Humphries made a capital speech, recalling the now far-away days when were three cadets m the New Plymouth Lands and Survey office whose Christian names were ■Percy, Wilson and Tom. The three - cadets lived to occupy very important positions in the Department, in which they were then- commencing their official career, for Percy Smith became Surveyor-General, retiring a few years ago and being succeeded by Mr Humphries. Wilson Hursthouse became Chief Engineer of Roads, and as for the "Tom," well, as "Tom" Humphries, the chief figure at yesterday's function, is well known all over the Dominion. Mr Humphries was presented yesterday with a cheque for a substantial amount, subscribed by officers of his old department, with which to purchase a suitable souvenir. The Prime Minister was in good form, and took advantage of the occasion to be quietly satirical at the expense of those of his opponents and critics who took exception to his holding the portfolio of Lands. He instanced the case of a gentleman who, he said, was the most successful railway manager in England, and who was a man who, before he had been given'that important office, had never been connected with railways. . As for himself, he had splendid advice from Mr Kensington and the staff, and -believed he could do very good work for the country in his capacity of Minister for Lands. I notice that Mr Kensington, in proposing the toast of "The Ministry, was very optimistic in his predictions as to the amount of Crown lands shortly to be placed upon the .market. He specially referred to native lands, with regard to the acquiring and opening up of which he said there was at present more activity than had been the .case for many years past. This is good news, and I hope it is true. Mr Kensington said he hoped to remain long enough in office to see all Maori lands occupied either by the natives themselves or by .Europeans. Another ambition was to see the Hauraki and Piako. swamps drained and settled. After that he would be quite content to retire. Clever Tom Wilford, M.P., who didn't "pull off" the Mayoral Cup, but whose cheeriness has not been

abated in the least by Dr. Newman's success, is sending his son, George McLean Wilford, to Scotland to study engineering. The lad's mother is a daughter of the Hon. George McLean, M.L.C., of the Union Company. Mrs Wilford is going to Scotland for a year to see her son settled down to work at the Glasgow Technical College, and later at Denny's famous shipbuilding works at Dumbarton. Denny's is the firm which has built so many fine steamers for the Union Company. Population is increasing very rapidly in the hew townships—l beg pardon, towns —along the Main Trunk Line, and that money is not scarce is shown by the fact that pushful Fred Duval, the well-known agent in advance for Pollard's Opera Company, ha 3 arranged for performances by his "show" at Taumarunui, Ohakune and Taihape this week. Next week, I hear, the company is to visit Blenheim on its way to Nelson. There was a very pitiful scene in the Supreme Court yesterday when the mother of James Hemingway, of whose sensational burglaries at the Government Printing Office and G.P.O. you have heard, gave evidence. Judge, jury and counsel were all visibly moved at the sad spectacle of a highly respectable parent having to witness the disgrace of her son. Everybody in Court was glad when the brief ordeal was over, and the poor Ifidj was permitted to retire. Hemingway, who is only 22, got three years with hard labour in spite of a very clever and eloquent appeal by "his counsel, Mr Wilford, who put up the ingenious plea that the crimes \ Jiad been committed ixt a spirit of '

vanity. It had been announced, he said, in the press that no one could break into the Printing Office and get at the stock of stamps, and in his mad conceit the prisoner had determined to show the public this was wrong. It was a clever plea, but it din;t go down with Judge Chapman, who truthfully remarked that the second robbery and its train of ingenious manipulation of the cancelled notes showed that Hemingway had become an experienced and dangerous criminal. It seems a pity that a young man of 22, of respectable parentage, should go to hard labour for throe years, but justice, not sentiment, must first be considered. The Wellington Scenery Preservation and Tree Planting Society is dead. There were only six gentlemen, including reporters, present at the funeral, and a quorum was only secured by an outsider being hastily elected an honorary member —for ono day only—and then the death-deal-ing resolution was duly passed. There is to be no inquest, I believe, but were ono to be held, the verdict would bo "Killed by the apathy of the Wellington public." During its ! life the Society did some useful work, but it was impossible to get the public to take any interest in it, and the wealthier classes, as usual in Wellington, buttoned up their pockets and displayed their habitual meanness. The majority of our merchants and Avealthy people generally are mere money-grubbers. No project that has not "money in it"—money for them receives support from this class. Now that the Society is dead it will be interesting to see what steps, if any, the City Council will take to plant the city reserves and remove that horrible look of bareness, in the way of shrubs and trees, that the city wears -when viewed from the harbour. Beatification of the city was, if I remember right, a plank in Dr. Newman's Mayoral election platform. We shall see what we shall see. Personally I don't expect very much interest to be taken in the subject by the Council.