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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9017, 2 April 1888, Page 4

Rear-Admibal Heneage of the Pacific command, and new ; Higl Commissioner of the Western Is utds, must be rather an intereatin j , sort .of person, and ,it will [be | much- to .> be regretted if bin ' auti do . not ■ y , .1: •• V".? il' ■■: v • , j I

bring him sometimes into these latitudes. , It appears that he waives his poop deck alone, no other officer v of $ny standing being able to abide in his presence, while the men on duty have to exercise their functions with heads uncovered in the distinguished presence of His Excellency. White kid gloves de rigneur on Sunday on the part of his officers,*and coats buttoned to the chin, , are of "the minor requirements necessitated for maintaining the? dignity of his presence ; but, taken altogether, he would be a pleasant, sort of person to know if it had only fallen to his lot to have obtained the Australian command instead of being a-fray among the islanders , who do not require lessons in the art of behaving themselves. Colonists are given to brusquerie as a rule, and a representative or Imperialism such as this, capable of making those coming in contact with him keep in their proper places, would have been of infinite benefit to colonials. It is not too much to expect, however, that in his administration of New Guinea, the New Hebrides, and other places where the contact of civilisation and barbarism develop commonly positions of delicacy, this important officer will be brought into propinquity with colonists ; and ,as Victorians, who more perhaps than any other colonials are {>rone to assert themselves, are the most ikely to be drifting up in those latitudes, we are not to be surprised if the relations of this distinguished and particular officer, with those coming under his command, should prove sultry. With our Jervoises and our Fairfaxes and their like, we have become somewhat demoralised in our ideas as to the relations which should subsist between Residents in these seas and the representatives of Imperial authority; and an officer such as Admiral Heneage appears to be would, if he came to these parts, have the effect' of giving sharply-defined form to our relative positions. From the picture drawn of him by Truth, as given by our London correspondent, we anticipate hearing a good deal of the new High Commissioner in his.dealings with the Western Pacific.