SIR GEORGE BOWEN IN VICTORIA

Grey River Argus, Volume XIII, Issue 1524, 23 June 1873, Page 2

SIR GEORGE BO WEN IN VICTORIA

The Melbourne correspondent of the Otago Times gives the following sketch of Sir George Bowen in his public appearances in Victoria : — His Excellency does gush, in the most prolific and perfectly irrepressible manner. He has just made a journey to Ballarat and Clunes. It is unnecessary to say that he was well received. The representative of Imperial rule always receives a loyal and cordial reception in Victoria, and nowhere more so than in the diggings towns. But Sir George seemed quite carried away by emotion on being so warmly greeted by his new subjects. Among other places that he visited was a queer little township called Buninyong. Here Sir George lost his head altogether. He persuaded himself, or at least he said so, that he saw here the " three great industries centred, pastoral, agricultural, and mining." The place further reminded him of " the villages in the old country, the nurseries of British virtue and loyalty." At another place he could only see in the flowers on the banqueting table a reminder of how much fairer flowers were blooming in the cheeks of the fair ladies present — in all probability some of the more than middleaged passes young ladies who are generally to the front on these occasions. A Governor when entertained as a guest is expected to make himself pleasant, and an Irishman will be gallant, but still ho need not go so far as this. He need not persuade the cockatoo farmers of Buninyong that they are a " territorial democracy," and quote for their edification the Hues of Goldsmith, "Princes and Lords may, flourish," &c. By-the-bye, I wish the Governor's quotations were not so familiar and commonplace. Then it was not necessary to leave on the minds of the ladies of Clunes the belief that he would never enjoy a happy hour until he had the felicity of meeting them at a ball. Still I think there is this to be said for the Governor, that all this tendency springs from genuine good-nature. There is this further to be said, that his speeches are lively and amusing, and do not resemble a funeral sermon preached by a Methodist parson, .like some gubernatorial discourses it has been my lot to listen to. Let me give one or two instances. At the Ballarat banquet, in the course of his reply to the toast of his health, Sir George observed : — "During the last forty-eight hours I am afraid you have heard my voice so often that you must be rather tired of it. (No, no.) So instead of making a speech I will tell you an anecdote. My own predecessor in New Zealand (Sir George Grey) and I being both called George, we were once spoken of by a brilliant politician these, of whom you must have heard —Mr James Edward Fitzgerald —as Georere the First and George the Second-^ (Laughter.) Nqw, this saying of Mr Fitzgerald's reminded me, I confess, of a remark in one of the books of my friend and contemporary at Oxford, Professor "Goldwin Smith, to the effect that the first two Georges were constitutional rulers, and why 1 Because they were both fools, and both foreigners." — (Laughter.) While at Clunes his health was proposed by the Mayor, and his Excellency, in reply, said he was very much amused at the diversity of tunes which in different places had been played in connexion with this toast. Here, it was the " Fine Old English Gentleman," and at Ballarat, "IFor he's a Jolly Good Fellow." When he was Go? vernor of New Zealand, whore, as they knew, the Maoris kept up some disagreeable practices, the tune was aH'ays " The King of the Cannibal Islands." (Laughter.) Altogether, there was amidst some gush a good deal of bonhommie and good nature in his speeches, and they certainly have made Sir George exceedingly popular throughout the Ballarat district.