THE COLONIST. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. SATURDAY, JULY 27, 1912. LORD ISLINGTON.

Colonist, Volume LIV, Issue 13480, 27 July 1912, Page 4

THE COLONIST. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. SATURDAY, JULY 27, 1912. LORD ISLINGTON.

The news of Lord Islington's impending departure from the Dominion will bo received with' general and sincere regret, for although no official announcement lias yet been made, it seems certain that tho Imperial Government has to fill a temporary but most important post in India for which Lord Islington possesses outstanding qualifications, and that he has practically decided to accept it. It has been Now Zealand's g6od fortune to have in its successive Governors men who were naturally not less than by training well equipped to represent the- Sovereign in this distant portion of his Dominions in a way that has maintained towards that office the warmest regard of the public, and lifted it high above tho merely ornamental position .to which under other circumstances it might have degenerated. They have entered fully into tho life and aspirations of the community and contributed in a considerable measure to the strength of the bond of Empire, of which the Throne is tho cornerstone. Lord Islington followed a Governor who had succeeded in an unusual degree in winning tho esteem of the country, but those who had watched Lord Islington's career in Imperial politics, and his services to the State in other directions, prophesied for him a not less distinguished term of. office- as a colonial Governor. Ho has completed but two years' service in that capacity, and ho lias already won golden opinions, both as {read of tho State and in his private activities. When Lord Plunket's period of office expired, and tho choice of tho Imperial Government fell upon Lord Islington, or Sir John Poyndor DicksonPoynder as he then was, the political correspondent of a London paper Wrote of him as "a man who never does a, thing b'v-y,-," and went "on to say that lie cor.ld not conceive that ho "would over be guilty of ovei'-stepping the legitimate bounds of his constitutional influence ; his attitude of mind is, in fact, more suitable in a..Governor than in an active politician. Ho will be found to favour all causes, and to bo genuinely interested in everything that makes for tho moral well-being of tho people." How well His Excellency has borne out the judgment of this writer it is unnecessary to emphasise. Both personally and officially ho has made himself extremely popular among all classes of the community, and he has displayed a deep interest in many phases of our national

life. Lord Islington has always been a strong believer in Imperial federation, an ideal that it has ever been the object of Now Zealand statesmon to further, and ho has seen more of the aspects of Imperialism than falls to tho lot ofmany men. He is no stranger to India-,, where the post it is expected/he will occupy in tho immediate future will carry hinK His interest in the then engrossing subject of tho relations between England in India and her Asiatic neighbours led him to th© East in 1895, when ho made a lengthy tour of the North Western frontier, examining all the pussos and strategical approach,es along a distance pf 1300 miles. He was also in India on other occasions. The work of Royal Commissions and private businoss have taken him several times to the United States and Canada : and tho West Indies, and, too, ho has j seen something of South Africa in the making. According to' the statement made by the Prime Minister yesterday, it is expected that Lord Islington's tenure of the Governorship will expire in December, by which time his successor will have been selected. ' •