SIR ARTHUR GORDON, K.C.M.G.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 2, Issue 301, 24 March 1881, Page 1 (Supplement)

SIR ARTHUR GORDON, K.C.M.G.

We have much pleasure in presenting our readers to-day with a necessarily brief description accompanying the portrait of our distinguished visitor, his Excellency Sir Arthur Gordon, who performed the ceremony of opening our Industrial Exhibition this morning. His Excellency’s tour through the Middle and Southlslands of New Zealand has been a most successful one, and will add greatly to his popularity as a Governor. His Excellency Sir A. H. Gordon, although a Liberal in politics, can boast of patrician blood from paternal and maternal sources. His father, the Earl of Aberdeen, K.G., was Premier of a powerful Ministry from 1852 till 1855, and died in 1800, universally regretted by his opponents as well as by his own party. His mother was the widow of Viscount Hamilton, father of the present Duke of Abercorn, K.G., and sister of the Earl of

Morton. The present Earl of Aberdeen is Sit Arthur Gordon’s nephew, while, directly and indirectly, he is related to many other noble families. Entering at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1847, he tock his degree as M.A. in 1851. Private Secretary to his father while the latterwas head of the Government, he was a member of the House of Commons from 1854 till 1857, as representative of Beverley. In 1857 he became an unsuccessful candidate for Liskeard. A personal friend of Mr Gladstone, he accompanied him on his special mission to Corfu, which resulted in the cession of the lonian Islands to Greece. While absent from England in IStiO, he was requested to stand for the County of Aberdeen, and although he declined the honor, was nearly returned against a local candidate having all the advantages of a personal canvass. In 1881 he was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick, and discharged his duties there with such success that, in 18C6, he was transferred to the Governorship of Trinidad, aud from thence to Mauritius, where he held the vice-regal office from 1871 till 1874. In 1875 ho became the first Governor of Fiji after its annexation by the Imperial Government, and First High Commissioner of Polynesia. When the Imperial Government appointed Si Hercules Robinson to the Governorship of Hie Cape Colony, Sir A. H. Gordon was chosen as his successor as representative of her Majesty in New Zealand. We have not had sufficient time as yet to form a just estimate of Sir Arthur’s character as the Governor of a colony where the will of the people is made known through, representative institutions, but his previous career in the Government of a sister colony should be a guax-antee that Sir Arthur’s political faith is sound. Sir Arthur is now making his maiden tour of the Middle Island, and we feel confident that the citizens of this important town have given him a right hearty and loyal welcome, and one that he is much pleased with.