THE INVITATION TO THE RT. HON. W.E. GLADSTONE.

Kumara Times, Issue 2294, 4 January 1884, Page 3

THE INVITATION TO THE RT. HON. W.E. GLADSTONE.

The Governor has forwarded to Sir G. M. O’Rorke, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, a letter received from the Right Hon. Win. Ewart Gladstone iu reply to an invitation from members of the Legislature to visit the colony, of which the following is a copy ; Gentlemen—l have the honor to acknowledge with sentiments of respect and gratitude an invitation to visit New Zealand, which you have addressed to me on the part of the Legislative Houses of that advanced and important colony, as well as on your own part. It is unhappily impossible for me to comply with the invitation on account of the constant pressure of my official duties, which will not admit of my removal even to parts much nearer to this island and to this metropolis. It is not without much regret I make this reply to your courteous proposal, for I am very sensible of the practical benefits produced by interchange of visits between inhabitants of different portions of the empire in close sympathy as well as in enlarged information. I have many reasons for wishing to see this interchange frequent and extended, besides the fact that nearly forty years ago I was first placed in official relations with the colonies, and that early impressions thus produced do not easily depart; but all general considerations which I feel are to be appreciated in the case of New Zealand with peculiar force, from the fact that one of mv near relations has distinct interest in its prosperity, and has repeatedly visited its shores and that one of my dearest friends'was its first illustrious Bishop. I took a warm interest iu the proceedings connected with its earliest history, and I consider that if that history were worked out, many of the soundest principles which nDw regulate the colonial connection, promise to make it alike honorable, beneficial, and enduring.—l have, &c., W. E, Gladstone.