DISTINGUISHED VISITORS TO DUNEDIN

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5572, 18 September 1889, Page 2

DISTINGUISHED VISITORS TO DUNEDIN

i Dunedin, to-day. Lord Onslow will be in Dunedin in the middle of November and will stay until the end of January. He has invited all the Australian Governors to be present at the opening ceremony. The Grand Pacific Hotel, Ocean Beach, is being prepared for his use during his stay. He visits Westport, rireymouth, and Hokitika, and the Countess and Lord Cranley will make a journey to Mount Cook meanwhile.

It is ;")<> years this month and the beginning of next month since the late New Zealand Company despatched the first five ships from Great Britain to these shores, laden with living freights, to found an Empire in the Southern Ocean. The vessels were :— Aurora, 148 passengers; Adelaide, 170 passengers ; Oriental, 154 passengers ; Duke of Roxburgh, 107 passengers ; Bengal Merchant, I<>l passengers, and it is no exaggeration to assert that it comprised a body of settlers who, for intelligence and energy of mind, as well as for rank and character in society, have not been equalled since the days of the early colonisation of America. The Tory, with the preliminary expedition, having on board the leader of the colonists (Colonel William Wakeiield) left England on sth May, 1837, followed by the Cuba surveying staff, left England on the Ist August, 1839. The result of the ex [edition was the purchase by Colonel Waketiekl from the aborigines of New Zealmd of the Port Nicholson district in Cook Strait. :