CONGRATULATIONS TO MR STOUT.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 744, 4 June 1886, Page 25

CONGRATULATIONS TO MR STOUT.

The Hon Major Atkinson rose from his seat in the House yesterday week and addressed the Speaker as follows Sir, assuming that the reports which have recently appeared in the newspapers are correct, and that the Premier has received the honor of knighthood from Her Majesty, I desire on behalf of the Opposition to convey to the hon gentleman our hearty congratulations. (Cheers.) Sir, many and fierce are the battles which we have fought with the hon gentleman on the floor of the House, but I rejoice to be able to say that notwithstanding the fact that party feeling has run exceedingly high at times, it has never interrupted, even for a day, the friendly relations which we have had with the Premier.. (Cheers.) Sir, the congratulations I wish to pay to the hon gentleman on this occasion are no idle compliment. We feel—and I think I speak for the members of the House, and for the people of the Colony—that honor has been done to New Zealand in the appointment which Her Majesty has been pleased to make, because the hon gentleman is a type of a colonist of whom any country might be proud. Possessed of great ability, he possesses what, in my opinion, is of still greater importance in a public man —a high personal character, and he has wide and general sympathies.. Sir, so long as it can be said with truth, as it can in this ease, that the public men of New Zealand ever seek the public welfare, forgetting all private advantage and personal gain, I nay that the Colony can go on with an assurance of reaching that goal which we all hope to see it reach, feeling sure that prosperity will be returned to us whatever may be our present differences, political, social, or economical. Sir, I beg to convey to the hon gentleman the hearty congratulations of the hon gentlemen on this side of the House on the high and well-deserved honor which Her Majesty has been pleased to confer upon him. (Cheers.) _. T Mr Macandrew, who followed, said —Sir, 1 for one, feel exceedingly gratified at the very graceful terms in which the hon gentleman has alluded to this matter. I feel sure that, laying aside all party and all personal feelings, there is not a member of the House that does not congratulate the Premier on the great distinction that has been conferred upon him on the occasion of Her Majesty’s Jubilee—that has been conferred upon him, I may say, spontaneously, without any adventitious aid,, and without any backstair’s influence. I think a very great compliment has been paid to the Colony in the person of the hon gentleman. — (cheers) —and I hope that it will act as an incitement to the rising politicians of New Zealand, whose name is legion—(cheers)—to devote as much brain power to the public affairs as the Premier has. Although I have differed in opinion from the hon gentleman, at the same time I cannot but recognise in him a man brimful, as the hon member for Egmont has happily put it, of broad human sympathies and popular instincts—a man who has raised himself by sheer integrity to the highest position in the land.. (Cheers.) The Premier rose amidst cheers. He was so overcome by emotion, however, that he could hardly speak. Speaking slowly, and with evident difficulty, he said—Sir, lam more at home in debate than in a case like this. (Cheers.) I thank the House for the kindly manner in which it has received the matter, and I hope it will excuse me from saying more. (Cheers.) Later on in the afternoon the Premier made a few remarks on the matter. I wish (he said) to say a few words now. I am rather emotional, and I hope the House will therefore excuse my inability to speak just now. Sir, I may say this, that the honor confeved upon me by His Excellency the Governor was not only unsolicited, but entirely unexpected on my part. I had no friends at Home, nor was I aware that any person had spoken to the Home authorities about it. Therefore, I concluded that it was due to the position I hold in the Colony. I accepted it with diffidence, for I recognised that it was an honor with great responsibilities, and I felt that there were men in the Colony—men who are older than I am, and who have borne the heat and the burden of the day in the service of the Colony for many years who better deserved the honor than I did. And I exceedingly regret that they have not received the honor which has been conferred upon me. I need not mention names, because the House will know to whom I refer—a gentleman who has been Premier of the Colony before. I should have been the first to congratulate him. I may say this, further, that it is true I came to the Colony quite a lad, and knowing hardly anyone in it. And I have, since I have been in the Colony, striven to he a colonist, and I hope I have succeeded. (Cheers.) (The Premier was imperfectly heard in the Press gallery).