VISCOUNT CRAIGAVON

Otago Witness, Issue 3957, 14 January 1930, Page 62

VISCOUNT CRAIGAVON

ARRIVAL IN DUNEDIN. AN INTERESTING VISITOR. Viscount Craigavon, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, and Viscountess Craigavon, arrived in Dunedin on Satur day morning by the night express from Christchurch, and subsequently went to the Grand Hotel, where they were wel corned by the Mayor (Mr R. S. Black). Cr F. W. Mitchell, and the town clerk (Mr G. A. Lewin). The visitors are being accompanied on their tour of the Dominion by Mr D. Ardell, of the Internal Affairs Department, who is repre senting the Government. After the reception the distinguished vis'tors were taken for a motor drive around the city and Its environs, the firnmorning enabling them to see the vari ous places of interest at their best. A journey down the Peninsula and back round by the St. Clair golf links was fol lowed by a call at the University and a* other educational institutions. Viscount Craigavon was then the guest of honour at a civic luncheon, and he left in th? afternoon for Invercargill. It may be explained that the shortness of Viscount Craigavon’s visit to Dunedin is that he is out here primarily for a rest holiday, and that he desires to get into the back country as much as possible. This morning he will leave Invercargill for Queenstown, where two days will be spent prior to a three or four days’ stay with Mr P. R. Sargood at Lake Wanaka. Before returning direct to Wellington (Dunedin will not be revisited) he is to spend four or five days at the Mount Cook Hermitage. CIVIC LUNCHEON. AN IMPRESSIVE ADDRESS. A large number of representative citizens attended the civic luncheon in the Somerset Lounge, and they had the privi lege of listening to an impressive address by Viscount Craigavon. The Mayor, in welcoming Viscount Craigavon, said that it was visits such as this which made them feel that they belonged to one glorious Empire and one flag. The fight which their guest had put up in the past 33 years was viewed with admiration and envy. He referred to the patriotism of New Zealanders, and stated that the children of the country felt that Great Britain was home just amuch as did their parents and grand parents. Keen disappointment was felt that Lord Craigavon was not making longer visit. They knew that he had been very busy for a long time, and h.deserved a rest. He had come to th< right country, for they regarded New Zealand as the most beautiful land in the world, and they hoped that Lord Craig avon would blaze the trail for many others to follow.— (Applause.) The onl) way in which the Empire could stan 1 solid was by the various parts knowing each other. Visitors from New Zealand had received wonderful treatment in the O 1 ’ Land, and the only way in which they could repay those courtesies was bt getting people at Home to come out to getting people at Home to come out to New Zealand.— (Applause.) They thanked their guest for his visit, and would like him to know that they appreciated what he had done for the Empire. “ My Lord Provost, and if you are not one you ought to be one,” Viscount Craig avon began in reply, “ I have to thank you for a very pleasing speech of welcome to this city. It is one I shall appreciate all the days of my life. I have to thank Dunedin for doing me a great favour. When I was a boy at school my parents sent me to Edinburgh. There was one hefty master who, with a Bible in one hand and an old tram trace in the other, managed to give me that education which in those days was considered suitable for boys who came across from Ireland. The master received a call, and that call was to Dunedin. The joy that it gave m? was perhaps as great as the joy I ex perienced when I came to your city. Tn my childhood's days I knew of Dunedin, and I always experienced a desire to pay a visit to New Zealand. I had the highest expectations when I 'ic* sail. They have been more than realised, and I shall never regret the step that my wife and 1 took wiien we staited on this long journey.” They could not help reflecting when he left the Homeland, continued Lord Craigavon, what the conditions must have been in the days when the pioneers had left the Old Country, and he had also wonder/d why greater advantage was not token of the conditions of travel to Zew Zealand at the present time. He thought that people in the Homeland were neglectful of the great dominions which now formed one common Empire. He would endeavour to persuade those who ought to come to New Zealand to make the journey, and he would do all he could to break the stampede which took place every year to foreign countries. New Zealand had all the attractions 'of the South of France and the Lido in every part and intensified tenfold. In no part of Europe was there anything like what could be seen in New Zealand. If a start were made on the proper lines the proper people could be brought to New Zealand—people of the stamp which had mad<; Great Britain what it was, who Lad an interest in Imperial affairs, and appreciate what it meant to have stability. He would do his best, and his wife was also intensely interested. He thought that she would be ** a regular

tiger” when she returned Home in fighting to get the right people to come out. He could not say too much regarding the kindness of the civil authorities, and he did not see what he had done to deserve it.

Many references nad been made to the part he had played in smoothing out matters in Ireland, Lord Craigavon proceeded. He had trained himself from an early agd to observe metriculously a verse in the Bible which said that one must be born again, and he had tried not to dwell on the things of the past and always had a vision of the future. He believed that that was a satisfactory mould in which to model life because nearly all the neurasthenic upsets which took place arose from worries about things that had happened. Therefore if the sorrows in his country were forgotten difficulties would be overcome. If they were born again and faced what was before them there was no limit to what New Zealand and Ulster and other parts of the Empire might do. He- had made far more speeches in New Zealand than he had ever intended, lie wanted them to remember that his object in coming out here was to secure rest in the peaceful atmosphere of the Dominion. “ Now, I ask you,” said the speaker, amidst loud laughter, “ I ask you.” . When he had landed in the Dominion a mayor who would have frightened anybody but himself—(laughter)—that was the Mayor of Auckland—seized him with the right hand of fellowship, took charge of him, and ran him round the country—past dangerous precipices, round hairpin corners. Here they stopped, and he was told to look over the edge of the road down several thousand feet; there he was shown a landslide that had narrowly missed engulfing someone; at the thermal spring he was told they had a ccuple of earthquakes during the night, and that a girl had nearly lost her "life in one of the moving crevasses — (Laughter.) In the South Island he was -shown a huge glacier where he was warned that if one slipped at the danger spots he would be gone for ever. He asked them to visualise these places, and if they would do that they would have an idea of what was meant by a quiet, restful, peaceful holiday.— (Loud laughter.) He had Leen told to wait til! he got to Mount Egmont. He had been told that if you did not see Mount Egmont because of mist it meant rain, arid it was hoped that he would not see it. (Laughter.) If, however, you did not see it you should wait for ’a little while—just sit down and wait. A friend of his had told him he had to sit and wait for three weeks before he saw the Mount. He had got down to the Canterbury plains, and if, sav, there were 150 butter factories here you would offend 149 if you only visited one.— (Laughter.) The speaker went on to say that despite all this, he could tell I hem with all sincerity that he had enjoyed every moment of his stay in this wonderful country, and he could only wish he could prolong what would have been the holiday of his life time.— (Applause.) He had circled the globe, and he had studied with meticulous care the conditions in most of the dominions, and he believed that a word here and a word there did more good than all that could be published in the press or by letter writing. He did not want them to think that the Old Country could teach the dominions everything. The Old Country could learn from her virile dominions. Theirs was a particularly happy country, and what were they living for except to make other people happy?— (Applause.) He had been impressed with the cleanliness of everything out here, and especially in the great cities. They were told‘at Home that they could not expect to have the same cleanliness in the dominions on account of the climate. Yet he found that the rainfall at Hokitika was something hke 140 in a year.—(Laughter.) f ’I t lC “- V I,ad IBlin in Ulster it would ncak nun from being Prime Minister in about three days, because they could not diaiu it away in time.—(Laughter.) 1 he speaker went on to refer to what was being accomplished in Ulster. He said that he believed the people out here were on the average better off than they were at Home, but that, on the other hand, they were doing very well in Ulster since they had taken' over nine years ago. Their education system was Iwsed on that of Scotland, and he main tamed it was a magnificent system. And then they had what was absolutely necessary in their country—a very wonderful system in connection with unemployment insurance. Some people at home had referred to it as a dole. That was a really very incorrect description. Many of them insured their lives they had endowment policies, life policies, and so on. The Unemployment Insurance Acts provided for really a similar tvpe of insurance for the ’working classes against unemployment. He eould assure them that the name of Ulster for the building of ships and the making of linen would not be what it was if it were not for the Insurance Acts. The State, the employer, and the employee each paid one-third as a contribution, and when there was a lack of orders at the works the skilled men were able to stand by in comfort for the slack period and were ready at a few hours’ notice to have the works in full swing again when the orders came in.

They had been able to pass an Act which relieved the whole of their agricultural land from local rating—there were no local rates on agricultural land in Ulster. He believed that should be their aim—freedom of tenancy for the man who worked the land—freedom from all rates. He thought it was a step in the right direction. He mentioned these

things only because he might be able to drop a hint of value to the Dominion. These were all problems well worthy of thinking out. He might say more, but he had to go to Invercargill that afternoon and, through the mercy of God, had to make two more speeches there.— (Laughter.) He could speak for a long time, but if he spoke for hours he could not put his thanks into words. He referred to the beauty of Dunedin, and stated that it was a great advantage to live by the sea. Nearly all the most important cities in history had been by the sea. Dunedin was indeed blessed with a wonderful situation, and he believed that it had a wonderfully good Mayor and town clerk. He would go home with very pleasant memories of a town which he had known a great deal about in his youth.— (Applause.) Tlie Mayor stated that the master to whom Lord Craigavon bad referred was Mr E. E. Moiv.son. who had been on the staff of the Leys’ High School. VISCOUNTESS C RAIG A VON. Viscountess Craigavon was entertained at a luncheon party at the rooms of the Otago Women's Club as the guest of the members. Lady Ferguson occupied the eliair and extended a welcome to the visitor, who made a suitable acknowledgment.