THE GOVERNOR’S RECEPTION.

Evening Star, Issue 3072, 23 December 1872, Page 2

THE GOVERNOR’S RECEPTION.

By permission we are enabled to publish the following letter from his Excellency the Governor to his Worship the Mayor, with the reply Dunedin, Saturday evening, 21st December, 1872. j My dear Mr Mayor, - I In my official reply to the address lead by your Worship this afternoon, I could not give adequate expression to the sense which Lady Bowen and I entertain of the magnificent wel- i come accorded to us by the citizens of Dunedin. I Few public men anywhere have ever been j received in a more hearty manner than I was received here by the many thousands of my fellow-countrymen who thronged the quays and lined the streets of your city. A demonstration of this kind cannot fail to be personally gratifying ; while it becomes still more satisfactory when it is considered that, in seif-governing j Colonies, the Representative of the Queen is regarded as a connecting link with the Crown and with the mother country, and that, consequently, the marks of respect paid to him are proofs of national loyalty and patriotism. An eminent author in England lately wrote that “it is the unalterable desire of the people of Great Britain, and of the people of the British Colonies, that they shall never be separated by any action except the act of God.” I assure you that my family and I will always hold this day in proud and grateful remembrance.—l remain, kc., G. F. Bowen. His Worship the Mayor of Dunedin, kc. To His Excellency the Governor, — I have the honor to acknowledge your Excellency’s note of this day’s date, expressing your gratification with the reception of Lady Bowen and yourself by the citizens of Dunedin. On their behalf, andjpersoually, it has given me the greatest pleasure to have had the honor of welcoming you a second time to Dunedin; and I feel assured that the inhabitants of the City will feel highly gratified by your Excellency’s recognition of their loyalty and devotion to Her Majesty the Queen. I quite concur in the quotation you have given, which so emphatically expresses the desire for unity between Great Britain and her Colonies; and I venture to express the opinion that the people of New Zealand are not the least loyal of Her Majesty’s subjects. I have, &c,, H. S. Fish, Jun., Mayor.