THE Thames Star. TUESDAY, JULY 1, 1924. THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL.

Thames Star, Volume LVII, Issue 16138, 1 July 1924, Page 4

THE Thames Star.

TUESDAY, JULY 1, 1924. THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL.

“With malice towards none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as Ged gives us to see the right.”— Lincoln.

The regret expressed by Lord Jellicoe at the approaching conclusion of his term as Governor-General of this Dominion will, we are sure, be heartily reciprocated by all classes in this country. These antipodean islands have had seventeen governors, and only two of them, the first and seventh, have been Navy men. Captain Hobson, so far as history can tell us, had rather a hectic experience. It was his task to impose law and order upon a community which was inclined to resent any authority, and to pacify or overawe fierce natives who outnumbered the white settlers twenty to one, and he discharged his duties very capably. Lord Jellicoe’s lines have been east in pleasanter places during his vice-regency. His great task, the supreme command of the British Fleet, in the greatest naval war in all history, was completed, and he came to us crowned with Tahrels. New Zealand regarded it as a signal honour that so distinguished an admiral should be sent to represent His Majesty in this distant Dominion, and it has since learned to like Lord Jellicoe on his own account, apart from his splendid achievements. His Excellency has made himself thoroughly at home amongst us; has appreciated our good points and overlooked our shortcomings, and has shown himself a good sport and a shrewd observer, with a sense of hu-mour-.denied to some of his predecessors. The Governor-General’s testimony to the characteristic loyalty of the people of this country, given in his farewell message, is the more gratifying because the impression has been given by some of the leading public men of the Dominions in recent utterances that the unity of the Empire depends upon the domestic fiscal policy of the Mother Land. So far as New Zealand is concerned that is not true. We should welcome an arrangement calculated to improve inter-Empire trade and to distribute population more evenly among the British Dominions, but we do not regard our membership of the Empire as a commercial affair, or even as a matter of naval and military protection. It is a matter of relationship; of national tradition and sentiment. Lord Jellicoe realises that, and he will be able to tell the people of Britain when he returns that whatever the politicians may say New Zealand’s attachment to the Empire has not been deviated a hairbreadth by all the talk of food duties and Singapore. We have our opinions on these matters, but we do not make .such considerations the price of loyalty.