SIR CHARLES DU CANE AND HIS TENANTRY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 4172, 2 July 1875, Page 3

SIR CHARLES DU CANE AND HIS TENANTRY.

The Esrex Weekly News gives a lengthyaccount of the rejoicings and festivities attendant on the return of Sir Charles Dii Cane and Lady Dv Cans to their home at Braxted Park. In responding to an"address of wel come, Sir Charles made a speech to his tenantry, in which he said : "I trust, whatever Wrt may hear of elsewhere, that the relations between employer and employed are not destined in the parish of ) Braxted to degenerate into a mere hard-and-fast com-, mercial birgaiu.—(Hear, hear.) I trust that both the tenants and labourers on this property are still< prepared to look up to Lady Dv Cane and myself as the heads of your family circle. I.trust that you are still prepared to regard, us in that light, and that you ftel still that the relatien hitherto existing between us can be maintained without either loss of independence or self-respeot on the part cif any one of the contracting parties. At all events, I have come back again prepared to fulfil my part of the contract And if I may take this opportunity of s.iying so, I trust, too, that tlii labourers- o'a this property will remain, as tliey have hitherto done, happy and contented under those that employ them. But I do not ask them t« do so merely from that 'farce spirit o! hereditary bond service which tells them that the whole duty of the labourer to society is ' Be contented with their rations, Always know their proper stations. And bless the squire and his relations.* (Laughter.) Let them bless the squire and his nlitions by all means—l. would much rather they* did that than the other thing— (laughter)—but let them do so because they feel that the squire and his relations do their duty hones'.iy and conscientiously by them— because they feel that their welfare, both, moral and physical, is honestly studied in this parish—and above nil, because • they are encouragei in t ose habits and feelings of self respect, without which no man, to my mind, can be a man in any useful and practical and minly sense of the word.—(Hear, hear.) These are the sentiments with which we have come back to Braxted. These are the sentiments upon' which I endeavoured to act when I lived among you six years ago; and we hope we shall be able to carry them none the worse into efleet now for the knowledge and experience we have gained in that vast antipodean world, where the love for England— the love for English institutions—the love for English manners and customs—and last, but not least, the love for good English sports and amusements, were deeply rooted in the heajts and affections of the people. — (Applause.) That very love for all that is English in that far distant? country has only strengthened the conviction which I have always entertained that there is no position more enviable or more honourable than that of an English country gentleman and his wife living .on their estate, 'surrounded, respected, and beloved by their tenantry and their neighbours, and doing .their best, as bccnmes them, both by their practice and example, to do good to all those who live around them." ' - ! ■ ■ -