A.—No. 1
38
DESPATCHES EROM THE GOVERNOR OE NEW
glorious. Wc rejoice in tlie marked proof which Her Majesty has given of her confidence iu tlie loyalty ofthe Colonists of New Zealand, in permitting His Eoyal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh to fulfil the intention ho has long entertained of visiting these shores. We trust that by the blessing of God, and by tho pursuit of a wise and just policy, your Excellency's Government may be enabled to restore peace and good order to this country, and to remove all hindrances whicli obstruct the growth of civilization in this land. We also welcome your Excellency personally, us one who is capable of appreciating, and prompt to sympathize with, all the efforts that are being made to promote the advancement of true religion, and the spread of a sound education among the people of both races in this country. The interest your Excellency is known to take in all such good works, is calculated to give great encouragement to those whose office specially calls them to labour for the wider extension of those inestimable blessings. We pray that such wisdom and firmness may be bestowed from above on your Excellency and your Advisers, and such success granted to your endeavours, that your period of government in this country may be marked by the complete restoration of concord between the two races, and by a signal advancement in Christian civilization, in moral and material prosperity, and in all the arts of peace.
His Excellency's Beply. My Lord Bishop axd Gentlemen, — I beg to tender my sincere and respectful thanks for this address, and for the welcome which vou have accorded to me on my first visit to the Province of Canterbury. A faithful son, as I humbly trust, of the English Church and of the University of Oxford, that main stronghold of our Church, I rejoice to find myself in New Zealand among so many men nurtured under the same influences, and formed by similar institutions. I gladly remember, moreover, that several of the clergy now foremost in the ranks of the Colonial churches were my own contemporaries at school or college. I particularly rejoice to meet again the Dean of Christchurch, my old friend and schoolfellow, and respected for the longest and best part of the lives of us both. I ask permission to congratulate the clergy and laity of this diocese on the election of their Bishop to be Primate of New Zealand, a wort liy successor in that high office to that great Prelate whom the Mother Church has regained after his noble efforts of above a quarter of a century in this country. In conclusion, my Lord Bishop and •gentlemen, I assure you that your prayer will strengthen and support me in my earnest endeavours toperform my duty to both races of the people of this Colony.
Address from the Heads of Cueist's College. To His Excellency Sir Geobge Febgtjson Bowen, G-.C.M.G-., Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over the Islands of New Zealand. Mat it please Tont Excellency, — We, the Warden, Sub-Warden, and Fellows of Christ's College, gladly embrace the opportunity now afforded to us of joining in the cordial welcome with which the inhabitants of" Canterbury have desired to meet your Excellency, on the occasion of your first visit to this part of the Colony of New Zealand. Knowing that the public institutions of every kind which conduce to the well-being of the Colony are subjects of deep interest and solicitude to your Excellency, we are well assured that among them all, none are regarded by you as of greater importance than those which maintain and promote the cause of education. We can therefore confidently rely on the sympathy with which you will be disposed to regard the efforts of the governing body of Christ's College to promote the best kind of education according to the highest attainable standard of learning, morals, and religion; and to afford to a Colonial population, in however small a measure, some compensation for their distance and almost complete separation from the venerable academic institutions of the Mother Country. We desire to offer to Tour Excellency the assurance of our earnest wish to co-operate in all useful measures which may be devised for raising the standard of education, and diffusing the benefits of it throughout the whole Colony of New Zealand. We would further give utterance to the fervent hope and prayer that it may please God to crown with success your efforts to remove all causes of civil and political disturbance in the Colony over which you preside, and to secure for it the blessing of settled peace, without which the most serious impediments must be offered to all religious, intellectual, and material progress among the inhabitants of this country.
His Excellences Reply. Mr. Wakdkx and Gentlemen, — Ton will find in me one who, if not so well fitted as your indulgent kindness hopes, is at least cordially disposed to appreciate and encourage the efforts made by the governiug bodies of this and of similar institutions to fulfil the ends of their formation, by elevating the moral and intellectual character of the people, and bv diffusing through as wide a sphere as possible the blessings of a sound and liberal education. I hare road with much interest and satisfaction the regulations connected with the scholarships, exhibitions, and examinations, under the control of Christ's College. These regulations and examinations appear to me to be admirably adapted to the important object which they have in view: that is, so soon as the circumstances of this Province will permit, to extend the present course of training in the Grammar School into a more prolonged and higher course of College education. I earnestly pray that the blessing of Heaven may prosper your endeavours to promote that moral and intellectual culture, without which no advantage of wealth or of social position can confer personal happiness, and no political privileges can insure immunity from national decay.