THE GOVERNOR'S DEPARTURE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9320, 25 March 1889, Page 11

THE GOVERNOR'S DEPARTURE.

PRESENTATION OP AN ADDRESS. Wellington, March 16. A lunch to llis Excellency the Governor, in the Drill-shed, this afternoon, was attended by some 300 people, many of whom were ladies. The Mayor presided having Sir William and Lady Jervois on either hand. Miss Jervoi3 was also present, as were also the Premier, Messrs. Fergus and Hislop, Sir W. Fitzherbert, and several other members of Parliament, the Chief Justice, and pretty well all the principal citizens. Captain Hand, of ELM. s. Royalist, was among the guests. A band was in attendance. The Mayor (Mr. J. Duthie), after proposing the Royal toasts, called on the Town Clerk to read a formal address, as follows :— To His Excellency, Sir William Francis Drummond Jervois, C.8., K.C.M.G., Governor of New Zealand. May it please your Excellency. We, the Mayor, Councillors and citizens of the city of Wellington desire to avail ourselves of the occasion of your Excellency's departure from the shores of New Zealand to express our regret at the termination of your Excellency s office of Governor of this colony, and to record the admiration which we, in common yvith every section of the community, have for the able and courteous maimer in which you have invariable exercised the functions and discharged the duties of 'that exalted office during the six years you have filled the same. Not only has your Excellency been at all times ready to perform the various social duties devolving on Her Majesty's representative in this colony, and to act with promptitude and discernment whenever political questions havecalled for your interposition, but the material prosperity of the community has ever engaged your serious attention, whilst in matters connected with defence your presence at the head of affairs has impressed a feeling of security on the minds of the jieople of this colony whom you have placed under a lasting sense of indebtedness for the valuable professional services you have freely rendered to them. In bidding farewell to your Excellency, it gives us great pleasure to farther express that high esteem in which Lady Jervois and the members of your Excellency's family generally have been held among ua during their residence in our city, and our sens* of the philanthropic labours for I the benefit of the citizens, which have been so frequently and ungrudgingly bestowed by them. We have now only to wish your Excellency God speed, in the hope that you may long live to enjoy the leisure you have so desorvedly won in the exercise of the service under our gracious Queen which you are now bringing to an honourable and eminently satislactory close.—(Signed by the Mayor and Councillors.) His Worship said he believed the address represented the feelings of the citizens of Now Zealand from one end to the other. He made special reference to the assistance derived from the presence of the Governor in matters of colonial defence, and to the interest taken by Sir William and his family in social matters. He was sure the colony would always look back to the six years of his term of office with feelings of kindly remembrance. i The health of the Governor was drunk with right good will. His Excellency, who was received with loud and prolonged applause, said : Mr. Mayor, ladies and gentlemen,—With your permission, I will first reply, in a formal manner to the address which has been so kindly presented to me on this occasion. In your address you have been good enough to speak in high terms of the manner in which I discharged the functions of Governor of this colony. I can only say that the duties of my office have been rendered easy to mo hy the loyalty and sympathy that I have met met with from everyone, whether official or unofficial, with whom I have been brought into contact in New Zealand. (Applause.) For this I owe the colony my warmest thanks, and if by services rendered in my old Department of Defence I have done anything towards discharging that debt I think myself very fortunate indeed. That the efforts of my wife and family to do what in them lay have merited your approval, is deeply gratifying to them and to me. We are all sorry to leave New Zealand, and especially sorry to leave Wellington. (Applause.) We shall carry with us to England many pleasant memories of this colony and of this city, and in bidding you both farewell I wish you a Jong period of happiness and prosperity. (Applauso.) But, ladies &nd gentlemen, on such an occasion as this I cannot content myself with simply a formal reply to your address. I must make some other observations on an occasion like this, which I will assure you will come from the bottom of my heart. On behalf of Lady Jervois and my daughters, no less than on my own account, I return you my most sincere and cordial thanks for the great honour you have done us by inviting us to an entertainment like this, and still more for the-manner in which you have received the toast of my health, which has been so ably proposed by His Worship the Mayor. From one end of the colony to the other, we have never met since we landed on these shores anything bat the greatest kindness and consideration, and, ladies and gentlemen, although I have often said this before, I must, indeed, say it again, I have never experienced in the whole course of my life anything like the hospitalities and kindness of the people of New Zealand. (Applause.) Let me assure you your conduct towards us has touched us all very deeply. Ladies and gentlemen, whilst speaking let me refer to my friends, the Maoris, whom I am glad to see represented here. I must express my great gratitude to them for the kind manner in which they treatod us when we were touring through the country. I am exceedingly sorry that, owing to many circumstances you can understand, it has been "impossible to meet them in solemn conclave after the good-will they have shown me since I assumed the government of this important possession. It is generally considered to be the privilege of a Governor before he leaves a colony, which he has governed for a certain number of years, to say all the disagreeable things that have been pent up in his bosom during his term, to abuse all the things he can, and indeed generally deliver himself of opinions on those things with which he has had to do. Now, ladies and gentlemen, I will say at once that I do not intend to avail myself of that. In the first place, I have simply nothing disagreeable to refer to, and in the next place, although I might read you a lesson 'upon the evils of borrowing too fast, or upon other matters of that sort, I am sure that if you do not listen to Nature's lessons, which have been before you since I came into this colony, I am perfectly certain you will not listen to mine. In the second place, 1 am sure that the colony has taken to heart the lessons which were to be learned from thab mother to which I have referred, and certainly needs no lecturing. I may say, however, that the clouds are breaking, and

there is a gleam of promise shining on the horizon which I am sore will conduct us to tho utmost goal of prosperity. My observations then on this occasion will not be on colonial finance. I will not comment on matters of that sort, but will refer mainly to the city of Wellington. It is, a3 you all know, one unfortunate thing in this colony, greatly-owing to the geographical position of the-country, that if you speak well of one Eart of it you are generally supposed to 0 speaking evil of all the other parts. (Laughter.) The converse is that if you speak evilly of one part you are supposed to be praising all the other parts. Comparisons wo all know are odious, but comparisons of that sort are not to be dwelt on by me, because I love New Zealand through its length and breadth, and if I say anything of Wellington it is not to be interpreted as casting a slur on other parts of the colony. Wellington has been my home, and the home of my family for the last six years. It has been indeed a very happy home, and that it has been a happy "home is mainly due to all I see around me here. I assure you, as I said in reply to the address, we shall leave this place with great regret. As far as lam individually concerned I did seriously think whether I should not take up my abode in New Zealand. (Loud applause.) It has been, I can assure you, and you can well understand it, a painful thing to me to have to remove those household goods you have seen, and no more to see the faces of friends in that old home. And now as to the Empire City. Its motto, as we are reminded by several decorations on these walls, is supreme/, a situ. Now, really, I do not know that it should not be first in all other respects. Here you have a splendid harbour; here you have country at your back—the West Coast and the Wairarapa countrypractically unsurpassable ; here you have a glorious climate; here you have a solvent Harbour Board—(laughter) —railways to carry your produce to this harbour. Wellington is advancing. I do not so much refer to the fact that the land has advanced some fifty yards into the sea, but Wellington is becoming the centre of trade ; it is becoming most important as the administrative and commercial centre of New Zealand. (Applause.) Now, it is your business to make Wellington equal to its position. It strikes me that there are many things that might be done to make it more attractive— (hear, hear)and, I venture to think, these are scarcely enough considered in Wellington. If you make a place attractive 1 people will be attracted to it, and if attracted to it they will spend money in it; and I venture to say that, if this place were in the south of France, it would be an object of envy, and a resort for the people of Europe during the greater part of the year. First, 1 must observe that the city sanitation ought to be beyond reproach. You will all, I think, agree with me that pure air and pure water are the first conditions of that sanitary state. They are indispensably necessary. A city that has not good drainage and pure water is a white sepulchre, neither more nor lesa. (Hear, hear.) Wellington is in itself a healthy place, and I hope by the erection of that destructor on the reclaimed ground that it is an evidence you are going to destroy the elements that may lead in a remote degree to sickness and distress. There are certain matters to which more attention might be given in regard to external concerns. You allow that Wellington is hemmed in by the hills and the seas, consequently when you drive in the day you are naturally compelled to drive by the coast. Now, one of the most delightful drives is to the Hutt, and I do not think it is unfair to say that as you are going along there you have two organs kept at work, one by the beauty of the scenery, which is reflected upon your eyes, and the other by the smell which is reflected on your nose. (Laughter.) I claim to have a good nose, and while I do not think it unfair that I should have to hold my hat in one hand, I do complain when I have to hold my nose with the other one. (Laughter.) Ido not know whose department that is, whether it is that of my friend the head of the Geological Department, or my friend the head of the Government, or my friend His Worship the Mayor, or whether any particular legislation is necessary, but I do think these odours ought to be avoided. Ido not complain of those gentlemen employed in these manufactures ; on the contrary, one day I visited one of these places because I wanted to see how the smell was propagated. The gentleman in charge of the establishment said it was a very healthy thing, but I differed from him on that point. A drive along Oriental Bay is one of the most beautiful drives, but you see signs of decomposing fish and other matter. 1 do not know whether it is in the hands of my friend the Mayor, but I do think Wellington ought to be better cared for. With regard to the Botanical Gardens, they are overgrown with gorse, and I am sure we all owe a great deal of gratitude to Sir J. Hector for all he has done there. But I do wish that they should be rendered more beautiful. Above all things Ido hope you will not allow the project of Dr. Newman to be carried out, but that you will not allow him to fill up one of those holes or valleys. (Applause and laughter.) It is much easier to destroy beauty than to create it. There is another thing I have beard a great deal of talk about, the want of a position for a town hall, and a position for other matters. It has often struck me that the present Government House is eminently and uncommonly well suited for the site. I say put Government House in the Botanical Gardens, and put the town hall and museum, or whatever you want where Government House now is, and what is more you could do it all absolutely for nothing, for the same Government House would still be Government House, and the cost for buildings would be derived from the sale of sections on the present valuable site. I commend this matter to the public of Wellington. Now, ladies and gentlemen, I have touched upon the city showing where it is susceptible of improvement. Here is Wellington; it is first in position ; it is for you to make it first in health, in beauty, and in every other respect the first place in New Zealand. (Applause). Now, lam sure I have detained you long enough. Let me thank you once more, Mr. Mayor, and you, ladies and gentlemen, for your kindness in inviting us to this entertainment. I shall always regret that it was my lot to leave New Zealand. My work in this colony is done. Yours, Mr. Mayor, and ladies and gentlemen, I may say in many respects is before you still. You will, I hope and trust, kindly think of us all when we are gone. We shall, on our part, I affirm, always treasure an affectionate remombrance of our sojourn in New Zealand, ftnd especially in Wellington, our New Zealand home. (Loud applause.) Before we leave this hall, it is my pleasant duty to propose a toast. I have- referred before to the ability of His Worship the Mayor, and I am sure you will agree with me, and the citizens will agree with me, that they are very happy in having him at the head of Municipal affairs. Yon -will all unite with me in drinking his health, and I propose for your acceptance ' c The Health of the Mayor of Wellington." The Mayor, in reply, said he hoped that before long they would have removed some of the reproaches which could now be levelled at the city, especially on sanitary grounds. The proceedings, which had lasted barely two hours, then came to a conclusion. March 18. Sir William Jervois, accompanied by Miss Alice Jervois (his daughter), ana attended by his secretary (Captain Medley, R.N.), left here this afternoon in the s.s. Wairarapa for Dunedin, en route for Adelaide, where His Excellency is to \ meet Lord Onslow, thence proceeding-' per Orient line of steamers to Europe. There was an immense concourse of people on the wharf to take leave of the Governor. The steamer was advertised to i leave at four p.m. A few minutes before | that time the Garrison Band and the Naval volunteers, who were appointed to act as a guard of honour, took up their places on the wharf just in front of the gangway to the steamer. At four o'clock His Excellency, accompanied by Lady Jervois, his daughters, Miss Jervois and Miss Alice Jervois, in an open carriage, and attended by a troop of the Heretaunga Volunteer Cavalry, arrived on the wharf. The approach of His Excellency was signalled by the band playing the national anthem. His Excellency passed between the files of the Naval volunteers holding their arms at the " present," and proceeded at once on board the steamer. He saluted the crowd, who raised a cheer —a unanimous cheer indeed, but somewhat feeble. As the steamer cast off the artillery fired a salute, and after a short time the steamer had rounded Halswell Fort. There are people here who think this valedictory compliment was a failure

because there was little manifestation of enthusiasm about it. I think for that very reason it was the more appropriate, because noise and cheers are nob pleasant on sach -an occasion. , __ Bluot, March 22, His Excellency Sir Wm, Jervcfeand Miss Jervois arrived by special train at 4-30 p.m., and sailed by the Wairarapa - for Melboarne. _____