A MATTER OF TITLE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3129, 6 July 1917, Page 4

A MATTER OF TITLE

DOMINION AND GOVERNOR- . GENERAL. - The recent change in the status of the King's representative in. New Zealand was mentioned by the Hon. Sir Francis Bell in the House of Representatives yesterday. Sir Francis said that he realised thnt most of the people of New Zealand, like himself, were quite indifferent to matters of title. He himself had been rather sorry when New Zealand •ceased to be a "colony" and became a "Dominion." (Hear, hear.) But he had come to believe later that the change of status had been to the advantage' of the country, and he felt that the latest change should be accepted as a real evidence of the. earnest desire of the Imperial statesmen to show their appreciation of the growing importance of New Zealand. It would be ungracious not to recojve the change in the spirit in which, it had been made. ; . ... . The Leader of the Council added that the Governor-General had well earned the honour' done him. "I am no courtier, and none of us are courtiers" said Sir Francis, "but I.will say this for His Excellency the Governor-General, that he had a very onerous duty cast upon him when the war broke out. It was a duty far beyond what a Governor rn ordinary times would have had to conduct. He was the means of communication between the New Zealand Government and the Secretary of State for the Colonies, as the possessor of the cypher. ■ Night and day he was near his cypher. He was reduced in a sense to the position ot a clerk, but he never objected to the onerous work placed upon him. He set himself to do his best for the Dominion and the Mother Country. "If he seemed to intervene, as many people thought he did beyond the measure that would be tolerated from a Governor in time of peace, we should recognise that he was called upon to do a great deal more, and even to. intervene a great deal more, than a Governor would do in normal times. He was a soldier, and as a soldier he could not fail, when our military organisation was being initiated, to have his.opinion and to express it. I do think that if the Imperial Government desired also to recognise the services of the Governor of this .country, then he well deserved it at their hands for the work he has done for them. I think personally-and I spenk with a »reat deal of knowledge-that he deserved well of this country also."