Sir George Bowen.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 189, 24 June 1873, Page 7

Sir George Bowen.

Speaking of Sir George Bowen, the Melbourne correspondent of the Daily Times says :—" His speeches are lively and amusing, and do not resemble a funeral sermon preached by a Methodist parson, like some gubernatorial discourses it has been my lot to listen to. Let me give one or two instances. At the Ballafat banquet) in the course of his reply to the toast of his health, Sir George observed :—' During the last 48 hours I am afraid you have heard ray voice so often that you must be rather tired of it—(No, no),—so instead of making a speech I will tell you an aneodote. My own predecessor in New Zealand (Sir George Grey) and I being both called George, we were once spoken of by a brilliant politician theie 5 of whom you must have heard—Mr James Edward Fitzgerald— as George the First and George the Second.—(Laughter.) Now, this saying of Mr Fitzgerald's reminded me, I con* feßs, of a remark in one of the books of my friend and contemporary at Oxford, Pro=feasor Goldwin Smith, to the effect that the two Georges were Constitutional rulers, and why 1 Because they were both fools, and both foreigners.'=»-(J.atighter.) While at Chines his health was proposed by the Mayor, and his Excellency, in reply, said he was very much amused at the diversity of tunes which in different places had been played in connection with this toast, Here, it was the " Fine Old English Gentleman,'* and at Ballarat, " For he's a Jolly Good Fellow,'* When he was Governor of New Zealand, where, as they knew, the Maoris kept up some disagreeable ' practices, the tune was always " The King of the Cannibal Islands."—(Laughter.) Altogether, there was amidst some "gush," a good deal of bonhommie and good nature in his speeches, and they certainly have made Sir George exceedingly popular throughout the Ballarat district."