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Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue XXVI, 1 August 1871, Page 2

The telegram announcing the projected departure from Auckland of his Excellency the Governor has a peculiar interest, as this time he comes not to make a merely flying official visit, but to occupy the vice-regal residence prepared for him and his family at the seat of Government. We are glad to learn that preparations are being made to give him a suitable welcome, it would be afl.ee tation to deny that his Excellency has not hitherto met with that reception here which, as her Majesty's representative, is due to him. and which is enthusiastically accorded him in every other town in New Zealand. The indecent criticisms to which he has been subjected by our evening contemporary, and the want of cordiality that has hitherto marked all our previous receptions of him, contrast most unfavorably with the enthusiastic welcome he receives everywhere else from the press and the public. We are glad to note that such expressions of discourtesy and disloyalty are now all but universally detested, and that the great body of the people are animated by other and belter feelings. His Excellency must doubtless compare his reception here with what meets him everywhere else, and were it only tor ouv own credit we are bound to show on this occasion that we are ashamed of " the wretched past 1 ' by greeting him, it may be with less magnificence and ceremony, but with as much genuine loyalty and respect as ho can anywhere receive. A city that professes to be the capital of tho colony should be distinguished above all other centres of population for loyal attachment to Hoi' Mnjesty's representative in the colony. We may not be — in fact we arc not — so demonstrative as our fellow colonists in some other towns ; but we believe we are expressing the sentiments of nearly the entire population when we say that Sir George Bowen, Lady Bowen, and

their children will, on their arrival to take up their residence among us, meet with a reception far more worthy of Wellington than on any former occasion. That the Governor of the , Colony should always reside at the seat of Government is evidently not required, when representative government is fully developed ; but that he should have his official residence, and hold meetings of his Executive Council there (unless when the interests of the colony call him elsewhere), tho Constitution Act and the Royal Instructions alike require. We think Sir Geovge Bowcnhas most faithfully discharged the duties of his high oflice, even when absent from Wellington, in making himself acquainted, by per sonal inspection, with the resources, the state, and the requirements of every part of the colony, and that the official reports of his tour to her Majesty's government must be of inestimable service. While as Governor of New Zealand, his views of his duty, his sympathies, and his endeavors have been limited only by the boundaries of the great country over which he has been called to presi.de, it is but fair to remember that by his constitutional administration of the Government, he has avoided those unseemly breaches between the Queen's representative and colonial Ministers which inflicted the dire disasters on the colony from which w<" I are only now happily recovering. Without referring at all to qualifications purely personal, the colony has therefore every reason to be satisfied with his administration, and it is^the distinction, as it is the clear duty, of the capital city of the colony to give, in the best way it may, fitting expression to its grateful regard. Nor can we conceive a more fitting occasion than the present, when he comes with his family to permanently occupy the vice-regal residence which the colony has prepared for him.