THE NEW GOVERNOR.

Evening Star, Issue 3073, 24 December 1872, Page 2

THE NEW GOVERNOR.

An Adelaide correspondent of the Lj/tlrJton Times writes as fo lows, on November 30 : And so you are not satisfied with having one of our old settlers for your Premier, but are stealing our Governor as well. I sincerely hope he will have a pleasanter time of it with you than he has had with us. He is certainly not at all a popular man here and will leave the scene of his first Governorship without eliciting much regret from tho<e whom he has governed, nor I presume will he be sorry to go. for he has met with a severe domestic affliction here—the loss of his wife, Lady Edith Fergussou—and has boon subjected to a groat deal of unpleasantness in more ways than one. A soldi r who fought at the Alma a politician who has occupied a post of honor in the Home Government, an accomplished country gentleman, with a commanding presence and manly bearing, a scholar and a clever speaker surely should have had sufficient common sense and discretion to have played his cards better. He was reserved ; and the people called him proud ; he maintained about him those social barriers to which he had been accustomed in the old country, and those who were not permitted to break through them called him an exclusive snob ; besought to help the country by taking an interest in its agriculture, its railways, in the development of its resources the amendment of its politico, and the people resented his interference as an insult, and he. proud, haughty and imperious shut himself up like a snail in its shell, and feeling, f presume, that if the country would persist in going to the dogs, he may as well leave the road plear and let it go there as quickly as possible, dissolved the House whenever the Ministry chose to ask for the favor; and, as some say, treated many of our public men with the greatest hauteur and contempt, and speaks of our institutions “in a way that isn’t kind.” I believe him to be a thoroughly conscientious man, anxious to amend what he considers to be wrong, hut very impatient of being thwarted ; ten men like him would he of priceless value as settlers in any new country, hut having braius, and not being expected to use them, is one of the many restraints to which Governors have to subject themselves. And this was Sir James Fergusson’s first experience of vice-regal life. South Australia was hardly the place to have sent a man of Sir James’ stamp as his first sphere of office. We are blessed with manhood suffrage ; we are a people upon whose heads the “ horny hand of labour” has lain very heavily indeed for a great many years past ; with us nothing is common nor unclean. Jack is so very much better than his master, that his master panders to him in everything. No public man ever seems tp speak his mind or act independently. Other Australian Parliaments may be as had, perhaps they are ; I am sure ours yields to pone in honesty and conscientipusness; hut we have a sad lack of able men. Stafford, Vogel, Fox, Hall. Fitzherbert, Feathersfon, would either of them be leaders in a twelvemonth. I believe that fully half of our M.P.’s wou'd not have the slightest chance of being elected by the most radical constituency in New Zealand, It "will uofc be difficult for you to understand that a Governor like Sir James Fergur-son would not be a great favorite with the majority of our public men. He is not by any means one who would take with the general public in a country where manhood suffrage and non-conformity are dominant. I think he will be more popular with you than he has been with us, because you are a much more conservative people than we are, and because he will doubtless profit by the experience gathered here. Come what may. you will have as representative of Her Ma jesty a gentleman of large abilities, good birth, fortune, and soldierly bear ng, of blameless reputation and honour, who will throw himself heart and soul into everything for the advancement of the noble country over which he will rule.