SOJOURN AN INSPIRATION

Taranaki Daily News, 4 June 1934, Page 4

SOJOURN AN INSPIRATION

TERM OF GOVERNOR-GENERAL

REGRET AT LEAVING NEW ZEALAND

“TASK REGARDED WITH ALARM.”

PRESENTATION AT AUCKLAND.

By Telegraph—Press Association. Auckland, Last Night.

Lord Bledisloe opened the new wing of the St. John .Ambulance station today after the building had been dedicated by Archbishop Averill. Instead of the traditional key presented on such occasions Lord Bledisloe received a miniature figure of a Maori warrior beautifully carved from one piece of heart of kauri, standing about six inches high. The model used was the fighting Maori seen on the new shilling pieces. Acknowledging that their sojourn m New Zealand had been an inspiration. Lord Bledisloe. informed the gathering of the regret Her Excellency and he would share when the tune came for their departure from New Zealand. His Excellency was replying to a vote of thanks moved by the Primate of New Zealand, Archbishop Averill. “Your Grace, you are the most embarrassing person,” said Lord Bledisloe. “I find it almost impossible to reply in suitable terms to your much too laudatory vote of thanks. I should like at least to say this: Both my wife and I are beginning to regard with some alarm the task of tearing ourselves away from New Zealand —a task which unfortunately will have to be undertaken within the next tew months. “I feel I can say,” added His Excellency, “that our sojourn in New Zealand has been a great inspiration to us. It has shown us in every class of life what the British race, including the Maoris under British influence, is capable of in this distant part of the Empire. Quite frankly we shall feel better equipped to carry on any public work that may come our way in the days that lie ahead as the result of the valuable experience of living amongst the kind-est-hearted people in the Empire.”