HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 167, 18 December 1874, Page 3

HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR.

In replying to the toast of his health at the citizen's ball at Auckland, on December 7th, his Excellency spoke as follows: " Mr Mayor, ladies and gentlemen, I thank you cordially for the kind manner in which you have received the toast which has just been proposed to you, and I thank you also for the cordial welcome which you have Riven us to your province. [Cheers.] I am not vain enough ;to suppose that this reception has been accorded to me, coming as I do among you as a perfect stranger, from any merits of my own, but I attribute it raihei to that feeling of loyalty which I know from experience exists in all her Majesty's colonies which I have had the opportunity Of visiting, I attribute it to that spirit ol

loyalty which induces you to receive with cordiality the person to whom her Majesty lias been pleased to entrust the Government of your coiony. I rejoice in that feeling I am not surprised at it, however, because I know that of all the countries in the world there is none which enjoys that free and entire liberty that is possessed by English people. (Cheers.) Of later years it has been the wise policy of the British Government to extend that liberal and fre« Constitution which the old country enjoys to her colonies. The colonies now possess a Constitution as free and as liberal as any in the world. If you have difficulties which you wish to overcome, if you have reforms which you wish to make, if there is any mismanagement in the Government of your colony, you have the remedy in your hands in a constitutional and proper manner. (Cheers.) Ittherefore rests with yourselves to take care that the Government is conducted in the manner you think best. I have heard eveu in England of some people who would uphold the Republican form of Government. I own myself that I look upon them as visionaries, because I maintain that, except in name, wc have in England the best possible system of republican Government without any of its evils. [Loud cheers.] We have a Queen who is beloved, and honored, and revered by all her subjects, who takes the place of the president of the republic, and in this manner we are saved all the difficulties and all the dangers which attend the election periodically of a new president. Bnt with that one exception I think that every possible good which can be obtained from a republican form of Government is better and more securely obtained by the constitution of England. [Cheers.] You, enjoying a similar constitution in the colonies, are naturally bound to the mother country. The bond which unites her colonies to England may be in some respects compared to a silken thread—it is light, but it is strong as steel, and as hard as adamant. It is formed by mutual self-interest, and mutual self-respect. | Cheers.] So long as that feeling exists I entertain no fear of any difficulty between the mother country and h«r colonies ; and long may the day be distant whenever a difficulty of any kind may arise. Having so lately arrived among you, I must be excused from entering into particulars of the country of New Zealand. I have read much aboui New Zealand: I have heard more from friends who have lived among you ; but at the same time I have a prejudice in favor of forming my conclusions from my own observations in preference to taking the views of others as my own. [Cheers.] It will be my anxious endeavour, as soon as possible, to traverse the land from end to end, and see, as far as practicable, all the resources and all the requirements of the country. I can only assure you that any ability that I may have, and any energy I may possess, will be devoted to the utmost of my power in endeavoring to assist you in developing and promoting the interests of the colony. [Loud cheers.] The Mayor, in proposing my health, alluded to the difference between the circumstances under which I have assumed the government of this colony, and those which obtained not many years ago. There is no one who can rejoice more in that difference than Ido myself. It is a lamentable thing in a country to see two races warring against one another, and I trust that the peace which now reigns is permanent, and that by a system of equal justice, and by equal administration of the laws to all, the Maori race will find that it is as much to their advantage, as I am sure it is to the advantage of the colonists themselves, that peace and good feeling should exist between the two races, (Loud cheers.) I will not trespass longer upon your time, as the Mayor has already alluded to attractions in the other room ; but I will again thank you cordially for the way in which you have received me in your province. I trust that though this is the first visit we have paid to you, it will be far from the last. (Loud cheers.) Before I sit down, let me propose "Success, prosperity, and happiness to the Province of Auckland." Drank with the usual honors.