TRIBUTE TO PIONEERS

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2335, 29 September 1921, Page 4

TRIBUTE TO PIONEERS

SELF-RELIANCE, COURAGE AND HARD WORK.

GOVERNOR-GENERAL’S

PRAISE.

Speaking at the annual winter reunion of the pioneer settlei*s and their descendants, held at the Town Hall, Wellington, onJVlonday night, His Excellency the Governor-Gen-eral (Admiral Viscount Jellicoe) said: —“I don’t think that this is really an occasion for a speech from one who has not been very long in the Dominion. It is an occasion on which you wish to listen to some of the stories to he told bv the early settlers; and I hope that in listening to those stories stories telling of the wonderful self-reliance, wonderful courage, energy and hard work of the early pioneers—there will be aroused in the minds of those of us who come after them a desire to emulate some of their great deeds in building up this Dominion. (Applause.) “But I don’t forget that the earliest hospitality which was shown to me in this country n the capacity ol its Governor-General was extended to me on the occasion a year ago tomorrow of the early settlers’ recep' tion in this historic hall; and for that reason, if for no other, it is very real pleasure both to Her Excellency and to myself to come hero to-night to meet once again some of those great men who have done so much for the Dominion of which wc are all now settlers. (Applause,) It is a Dominion which in its 80 years of existence has gone through one success after another, and has fulfilled a great destiny; and one cannot forget on a night such as this, when we are celebrating the deeds of the early settlers, what the Dominion owes to Edward Gibbon Wakefield, whose courage and whose constant pressing of the Home Government led to New Zealand becoming a part of the British Empire. Sir Francis Bell, perhaps, will excuse me if I say that Governments occasionally need a slight push—(laughter and applause) —and it was Edward Gibbon Wakefield who gave the much-needed push to the Home Government in regard to the settlement of Britishers in this Dominion.

“He was a man of great ideals. One of his ideals was that he should transplant to New Zealand everything that pertained to the Old Country, except its soil; and, as I have often heard it said with truth that Now Zealand is more British than the British, there is ho doubt that, his ideal has been realised. (Applause.) For one thing, there is no more loyal part of the British Empire, the United Kingdom included, than this Dominion of New Zealand. (Applause.) There are many tilings for which we have to thank the early settlers in New Zealand. It is due to them, to their courage—both their military courage and their courage in adopting great experiments in social legislation it is due to that courage and to their energy, their far-sightedness, and their hard work, that a handful of pioneers has transplanted New Zealand in 80 years into a country teeming with prosperity, and with a population of some twelve hundred thousand souls. (Applause.)

“Nobody coming to New Zealand from the Old Country, as I have done in recent years, can fail to be struck with the wonderful work which has been accomplished in that extraordinarily brief period. (Applause.) If one looks only at roads and the railways —although it is true that occasionally both the roads and the railways are criticised — (laughter) —but one has only to look at the wonderful network of roads jpul railways, which have been constructed by so small a population in Ihe short space of eighty years, to be filled with wonder that such work should have been accomplished by such a mere handful of people. (Applause.) And all the time the prosperity of the Dominion and its industries has been growing; and it is all due in the main to the example set by the early pioneers. (Applause.) They faced great difficulties. They faced periods of depression; and if those who come after them face the difficulties which are before them or the periods of depression which may be before them, in the spirit in which their forefathers tackled them, then there can be no question of the future happiness and prosperity of the people of New Zealand. (Applause.) Once again I would like to say how great is the pleasure which we feel at coming here to-night to meet some of those early settlers.” (Applause.)