TWO EX-GOVERNORS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 9797, 22 July 1893, Page 5 (Supplement)

TWO EX-GOVERNORS.

A CHAT WITH SIS WILLIAM JERVOIS AND SIR GEORGE BOWEN. (Fbom Oub Special Correspondent.) 30 & 31 Fleet Steeet, London, June 10. A few days ago I hid an interesting chat with your former Governor, Sir William Jervois, whom I met at the Athemeum Club. Sir William is looking very well—a little thinnej, perhaps, than in his New Zealand days, but as brisk and full of life and energy as ever. He tells me he feels now no ill effect from hia accident in South Australia beyond some slight pain in the right shoulder, and this, he hopes, will pass away when he has nndergona a course of massage treatment, which he is about to try on the recommendation of his medical adviser. Sir William expressed deep regret that the unlucky accident prevented bis re-visiting New Zealand. " I wish you would let people know out there," he said, "how fully I intended going on to New Zealand, and how very sorry lam that I could not do so. I shall always cherish the warmest and most pleasant recol-

lections of that colony and of its people, and I should very much like to see it and them again, but I fear that there is not much chance of that now. I rather wished to settle in South Australia, where, as you know, I have a run, but my wife and daughters did not like'the idea of going 60 far away from England again, although we were very happy in the colonies." "And now tell me," Sir William went on, " how do the new Ministers get on ? I was very

sorry to hear of poor Ballance's death. Seddon

always struck me as a very clever fellow. A little impetuous, perhaps, and too apt to make long speeches; but he has had more experience since I knew him, and I dare say he will manage all right. I once travelled with him on the West Coast goldfields and fonnd him very pleasant and sensible. He has taken office at a favourable time. The colony has quite turned the corner now. But the credit of the improvement in the public finances is entirely due to Atkinson. It was ho who initiated all the

needful reforms and economies. He faced the situation in 1887. You remember how he cut down the Governor's salary by one-third. By-the-bye, how have my successors managed

on the reduced salary?" I explained that Lord Onslow had explicitly stated (as also had Lord Knutsford on his appointment) that the reduction in salary absolved Governors from all obligation to official entertainment, and that what Lord Onslow did in this way he regarded as being done wholly in his personal capaoity as a private gentleman and not as the official representative of the Sovereign.

"Yes," said Sir William, "a salary of £5000 does not leave much room for official hospitality. Then you know Atkinson cut down his own salary as Premier by nearly one-half, and reduced all the salaries of Ministers and members, and carried out genuine economies,' and put on fresh taxation until he had restored financial equilibrium. It is" to his action, then, that New Zealand owes her surplus to-day. His successors have merely followed in his steps so far as general principles are concerned. By-the-way, Mr Ballance was very angry with me, I saw, because I said that his new taxation was causing capital to be withdrawn from the colony. But that was the fact. I knew abso-

lutely that capital to a large amount ms then being withdrawn from the colony purely on account- of the new taxation. I simply stated what I knew to be a fact."

"I do think something more ought to ba done about the federation question," continued Sir William Jervois. "In my opinion the Secretary of State should send out a circular to the colonial Governors inviting them to obtain an' expression of opinion. The colonies should send delegates to another conference in London, and then the whole matter might be talked over afresh, with the help of all the new lights that may have been thrown on the subject. There is certainly a feeling in England that the colonies do not contribute a fair share (in proportion to population) of the cost of defending an empire in which they have a moßt deep and vital interest, if only they could understand their real position. They owe their existence and independence to their being integral parts of the British Empire. If they- were separate, depend upon it, they would be snapped up instantly by Franca or Germany. Even China might seize one or more of them, and would do so if it were not for British protection. What they have done for their own defence is all very well so far as it goes. Bat it is hard to make Australians or New Zealanders comprehend or realise that they are vitally interested in the defence of Hongkong or of any other distant portion of the empire. Yet such is the case. But, of course, contribution would involve representation; aud this would have to ba discussed at a general conference, and thea^ thare is the question whether the respective colonies would consent to be bound by the action of their delegates. All might be agreed upon at' a conference, asfi yet ba upseis at the J next meeting of the colonial Parliaments, if.j such a course suited any political party, and then all might have to be- gone through over again."

" It was a great pity," Sir William observed, " that when the colonies were granted constitutional government the statesmen of the day were not farseeing enough to discern the certainty that these questions would arise and to prepare for them, it would have been comparatively easy then to impose conditions of autonomy. It ib very difficult to do bo now. .Yet something must be settled sooner or later as to the position of the colonies. in the empire. I wish the federationists would be a little more definite and precise in their statement of aims. They ought to do so now. It is high time that they formulated some definite plan instead of contenting themselves with mere generalities and vague aspirations."

i, Just then I heard behind me a decidedly Irish voice, once very familiar to me in New Zealand, and turning round, saw a. smart, soldierlylooking man, who came up to Sir William and addressed him in an unmistakably filial tone. I at once recognised Major Jervois, who was his father's popular secretary during the latter's Governorship. He is looking remarkably well, and told me that Mrs Jervois and his family of three are all bo robust that he is convinced the salubrious New Zealand climate quite "set them up," and endowed them permanently with capital physique. He is now stationed at Aldershot.

Immediately afterwards a third well-known Government House face and figure appeared on the scene. They belonged to Professor Pemie-

father, L.L.D., who recently arrived from Adelaide, on a year's leave, which he is mainly occupying in completing a New Zealand Guide Book for Mr Murray, the famous publisher. I ventured to congratulate Dr Pennefather on being accompanied (according to the veracious newspapers) by Mrs Pennefather. "Dr and Mrs Pennefather " appearing ia th* published passenger list of the steamer in which he travelled Home. But I was " crushed again," for amid the professor's confusion I learned to mine that, as Mrs Prig observed, there was "no sich person." Or, to quote another author, " The Spanish fleet thou canst not see, because it is not yet in light" —no more is Mrs Pennefather. The professor is still unmarried.

Our quartet of ex-New Zealandera then became a quintet. A full rotund voice exclaimed : " I say, Jervois, I have just made an awful mistake. There is a man in the next room the very image of you, and I went up to him and clapped him on the back, telling him that his son was looking for him, whereupon he turned round, and said very stiffly, ' You are under some strange mistake, I have no son ;' and I saw I had slapped the wrong' man on the back—awkward, wasn't it?" And then I recognised the speaker as another New Zealand acquaintance of former days, ex-Governor Sir George Bowen. He is looking wonderfully well and hale, the very picture of a prosperous country equire. His face, alwayß a handsome and -strikipg one, is, I think, far finer in his more advanced years than it was in his New Zealand gubernatorial days. We exchanged cordial greetings on recognition, and then he spoke very warmly about New Zealand, wishiDg he could pay tho colony a visit and see for himself its marvellous progress that he had heard so much [about. " But I am too old," he said, "for such a long journey as that." I suspect a little affectation here. Sir George looks hearty and vigorous enough for any undertaking. He remarked that he .was a considerable shareholder in the Bank of New Zealand, and asked anxiously as to its position and prospects as regarded in the colony, expressing his gratification that these seemed now to be so favourable. He remarked that one of his old Premiers, Sir Edward Stafford, was now resident in England, but asked cordially after the other one still in New Zealand—Sir William Fox. He has cot forgotten the Wellington winds. '' I remember," he said, "mentioning to Sir Frederick Weld that I had been telling, somebody that absurd story about the Wellington wind—that about a boat being blown along the street and killing an old woman, when Sir Frederick assured me that the story was perfectly true, for he knew the old. woman personally and recollected the incident." Poor Wellington! Whatever else her ex residents forget, they never consign her breezes to oblivion.

And then we separated multivioua. A suggestion has been thrown out that the many ox-New Zealanders now in Londcn should meet (and probably dice) together onca every year. This is done by the London-QueenElandirs, and it is thought that the arrangement might prove not only pleasant but aleo beneficial in various ways. However, nothing has come of it yet, and I fancy what is needed is the man who will set itgoiug and curry it through. He has not jet appeared.

— A German journal states that in the year 1889 the quantity of cotton produced in the whole world amounted to 11.400,000 bales, while in 1870 it reached only 6,200,000 bales. — The dolphin is said to be the fastest swimmer in the seas. Ie has been observed to dart through tho water at a rate computed to be much greater than 20 miles an hour, and is often seen swimming round and round a vessel which is sailing at highest speed. — Artificial legs and araa were in use in Egypt aa early as n,o, 700. They were made i by the priests, who were the physicians of that parly time,