STATE GOVERNOR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23177, 25 October 1938, Page 6

STATE GOVERNOR

LORD HUNTINGFIELD TERM ENDING IN -MAY RENEWAL NOT EXPECTED [FROM OUB OWN ORRF.BPONDE.Yr] MELBOURNE, Oct. 17 The first direct hint that the Governor of Victoria, Lord Hunting-* field, is not likely to seek a renewal of office was given at the annual meeting of the Boy Scouts' Association in Melbourne this week. Lord Huntingfield will complete his term of fire years as Governor next May. For many months preceding the Melbourne Centenary in 1934 Victoria had no Governor, but, with the important round of. celebrations then pending, including the visit of the Duke of Gloucester, the desirability of a successor being found to Lord Somera was realised. The Chief Justice, as Lieutenant-Governor, h a( j fulfilled the Vice-Regal duties in the interval. When the appointment of Lord Huntingfield was announced it proved immediately popular because he is a native of Australia, having been born in Queensland, although most of his life had been spent in England. By his conscientious discharge of his duties, in spite of indifferent health, and his unfailing good humour, Lord Huntingfield in the past four and a-half years has made friends in all sections of the State. In the recent absence abroad of the Governor-General, Lord Gowrie, Lord Huntingfield was acting-Governor-Gen-eral, living mainly at Canberra and Admiralty House, Sydney, but he is back now in historic Government House, Melbourne, where the earlier Governors-General .of the Commonwealth resided. When the chairman of the State executive of the Boy Scouts' Association, Mr. G. H. Thomas, was welcoming Lord Huntingfield to the meeting, he said it appeared that it might be the last annual meeting of the association at T'hich His Excellency would preside. Lord Huntingfield said his time as Governor was coming to an end. Maybe he would not be with them at the annual meeting next October. Whatever might happen to him in the future, ho would always remember his association with the Scout movement. Wherever he found himself in the world, he hoped that Victorian Scout visitors to that locality would come and "dig him out." The members of the Governor's faffl« ily are being educated in England, and it is expected that that will influence his decision to return there next year.