THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, MARCH 31, 1888.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9016, 31 March 1888, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, MARCH 31, 1888.

In our yesterday's issue we republished . from the Ota go Daily Times that jour--1 rial's criticism of our proposal that Sir George Grey should be appointed to represent this colony in London as Agent-General; and of the further alternative suggestion that the Imperial Government should be petitioned to appoint Sir George the Governor of New Zealand. With regard to the latter suggestion we entirely agree with our contemporary that it is " scarcely one to be treated seriously." As shown by our contemporary, and as argued by us in former articles, the fact of Sir George having been involved in keen political struggles as a leader of one of the great parties in the State would most certainly be regarded by the Imperial Government, and more especially by the Tory Government of Lord Salisbury, as absolutely precluding him from representing Her Majesty in New Zealand ; while, as we have maintained Sir George would most certainly decline an appointment that would reduce him to the position of a mere honorary nonentity, a puppet in the hands of political leaders perhaps, with whom he had broken many a lance before on the field of politics. Indeed it seems a pity that the ideaof petitioning for the return of Sir George Grey as Governor should have been mooted at this stage, as its utter impracticability has a tendency to throw an air of unreality over the idea of honours being conferred on Sir George on his possible retirement from public life. But to the objections raised by our Dunedin contemporary to the suitableness of the appointment of Sir George Grey as representative of this colony in London, we distinctly demur, and all the more from the fact that in raising his principal objection our contemporary — and we say it in no offensive sensedoes not know what he is talking about. Our contemporary says, " The essential quality of an Agent-General is a thorough business knowledge, and a knowledge of business is precisely what Sir George Grey has not. The routine of office work would be thoroughly distasteful to him, even if he were disposed to settle down to it; and for the mastering of details he has shown either a very great incapacity, or an aversion which is but the equivalent of it." Now we have no desire to depreciate the importance of business experience and business aptitude in all men, but any one that knows anything about it, knows that the " essential quality" of an Agent-Gene-ral is not a " thorough business knowledge for the Agent - General is not and never has beensince the Agency-General assumed its present semi - ambassadorial character, — the "business man" of the London office; but the secretary to the Agent-Gene-ral, Mr. Walter Kennaway, it is, who, as permanent head of the official staff, has for many years past been the transactor of all the business portion of the duties of the London office. A more painstaking, clear-headed, or reliable business man than Mr. Kennaway there is not in the service of the Colony of New Zealand, and if an Agent-General were never appointed again, the London business of the New Zealand Government would be transacted by the same hands and with the same safety as for a dozen years past, so long as Mr. Walter Kennaway was continued the permanent official head, as at present, of the offices in Westminster Chambers. This is a fact that is well-known to the present Premier, as well as to every previous administration in New Zealand, and that so far as business, properly so-called, is concerned, and " routine of office work," and " mastering of details," the Agent-General is but the honorary figurehead, whose presence or absence in no way affects, save pro forma, the business negociations of the colony in London. Assuming, therefore, that our Otago contemporary is correct, and that Sir George has not aptitude for business—which we deny —that would not in any material way affect his fitness for a position which, for its most efficient discharge, requires qualities of a far higher and rarer kind than those to be expected in a superior kind of clerk. Certainly there may be tricks of trade, the knowledge of which may be and often is regarded as constituting an essential element in a

business character, and in these Sir George may not be proficient. But in that higher sphere of duties, to which the office of Agent-General has latterly been raised, there certainly is not, nor ever has been, a New Zealand colonist who would fill the office better and with more efficiency and dignity, nor anyone who would command so much attention for New Zealand in the highest governing circles of the Empire.

In advocating the appointment of Sir George Grey to the Agency-General we have no idea as to whether such position would be desired by that gentleman ; nor in doing so have we been merely giving expression to a feeling of gratitude in Auckland, or a mere desire to seek out some means of publicly marking the appreciation of him by the people,of this district, as insinuated by our contemporary. We firmly believe that on all the larger questions affecting New Zealand and the South Pacific, New Hebrides, Samoa, and elsewhere, there is no other whose voice would command so much attention. In such position he would have the right to be heard, and in any question affecting colonial relations or interests, he would be a very tower of strength to New Zealand. We are fully aware that a feeling of jealousy may rankle in the minds of many immeasurably his inferiors, who may affect to believe that Sir George Grey could not or Would not adapt himself to the requirements of the position ; but it would be indeed a deplorable thing if such paltry feelings were allowed to blind any one, so as to prevent an appointment that would give an influence and a position to New Zealand in the Councils of the Empire that no other colonist could possibly command.