LORD ISLINGTON’S DEPARTURE

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8184, 27 July 1912, Page 4

LORD ISLINGTON’S DEPARTURE

1 IVe shall all be sorry to lose his Excellency, but, at the same time, we must all congratulate him on having been selected for such a high and honorable position.—The Prime .Minister.

The people of New Zealand, while regrotting the circumstance that Lord Islington will not remain long amongst us, will rejoice in the thought that his capacity for wider and more useful service has again been recognised by the Imperial authorities. It has all along been quite obvious to close observers that his Excellency was not designed for the mere ceremonial usages of a parochial Governorship, for, although by consummate tact, h© has managed to conceal the ennui which must have sometimes oppressed him in carrying out the trivial routine duties attaching to his office here, there were continual indications that his keen practical mind and instinct of initiative were cruelly circumscribed by the limitations inseparable from the position. The scrupulous thoroughness with which he carried out every undertaking, his keen interest in the ideals and pursuits qi people in all walks of life, his acquisitiveness for the smallest details in regard to acts of local administration all marked Lord Islington ns a keen and capable observer, while furnishing an object lesson by which all thinking men might profit. Those things which you are called upon to do do with a thy might is the example which Lon Islington has furnished to New Zealand. We trust that it will not be lost upon our people, more especially as the efficacy of the doctrine has been so aptly demonstrated in the case of the Governor himself. The man who is faithful in little things is the one who is usually called to the highest responsibilities. Rightly or wrongly we regard with exultation the fact that one who has been so intimately concerned in New Zealand’s affairs should have been chosen for the very onerous and statesmanlike task of systematising the Civil Service of the great Indian Empire. “ The unrest of India ” is due to deep underlying circumstances with which the Civil Service is intimately correlated, and momentous issues underlie the task awaiting the Commission whoso presidency Lord Islington has accepted. Ho will depart upon his mission with the hearty good wishes of the people of this Dominion.