THE DEPARTING GOVERNOR

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIV, Issue 126, 4 June 1910, Page 4

THE DEPARTING GOVERNOR

Wellington seems to have given Lord Plunket a ifine send-off at the public meeting held at the Town Hall on Wednesday last, and what with one presentation and another the departing Governor is taking with him quite a formidable stock of silver plate, illuminated addresses, and so forth. Our Wellington contemporaries have exhibited a distinct tendency to "gush" over the personal virtues and the ability which Lord Plunket has displayed in the discharge of his duties, but the real truth, is that his Excellency, though personally, nq doubt, a very worthy man, was, so far as his "governing" went, merely .anr1-amiable mediocrity. It is true that he has spent a large amount of time in travelling about the country—at the country's expense—laying foundation stones, opening halls and agricultural shows, and firing off the most lamentable platitudes and hoary jokes with the air of a man who is casting words of wisdom abroad, and indulging in humor of the t most : . brilliant and original description. But beyond this, what has he done to justify the fulsome flattery which has been poured upon him by the press of the capital city? Lord Plunket is a wellmeaning man, ,no doubt, and has served the purpose of a figurehead fairly well; but this requires no striking ability, and, to praise him to the skies as a species yof heaven-born administrator and to picture him as a great Imperial statesman, worthy almost of being placed on a par with a man like, Lord Cromer, is monstrously ridiculous. It is a pity that our Wellington contemporaries have so poor a sense of proportion.