SIR JAMES FERGUSSON.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 112, 9 October 1874, Page 3

SIR JAMES FERGUSSON.

The following is an Australian’s opinion of the Governor of New Zealand, as expressed in the columns of a Victorian contemporary :

The retirement of Sir James Fergusson from the Governorship of New Zealand has caused some surprise, but no regret. Sir James Fergusson is essentially a disagreeable man. He has a very high opinion of himself, his family, and his importance, and a very keen idea of the value of money. In his second marriage he took care to provide himself with the very opposite of “ a portionless bride with a long pedigree.” Although he is always prating of his patrician blood, and his high descent from the great Earl of Glencairn, he resembles much more the canny advocate who retrieved the fortunes of the Fergussons, and purchased a Nova Scotian baronety. He always reminded me in his dealings with the colonists of South Australia and New Zealand, of the great noble, who lived in feudal state, but was not above adding to his pecu, niary income by selling his cabbages and gooseberies. One day while walking through his park he met a little child walking away with a Jug in her hand. He asked who she was, took her in his arms and kissed her, saying, * ‘ when you grow up to be a woman always recollect that you were once kissed by the Duke of Loamshire, the Marquis of Normanville, the Earl of Thistleton, and Baron Llanelly, Knight of the Garter, and Lord Lieutenant of Loamshire.” Yes, sir,” replied the little damsel, “but you always take the penny for the milk.”