THE INVITATION TO MR GLADSTONE.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 6, Issue 310, 4 January 1884, Page 2

THE INVITATION TO MR GLADSTONE.

"* ■» — His Excellency tlie Governor lias forwarded to Sir G. O'Horke, a letter received from the Hon. W. Gladstone, in reply to an invitation from the members p£ the. legislature . to visit the colony.' It is addressed to the Speakers of the Legislative Houses of New Zaaland. Mr Gladstone says : — I have #}.c Jjpnor to acknowledge with sentimejits of respect and gratitude the invitation to visit New Zealand which you have addressed to me on the part of the Legisla-tives-Houses of that advanced and importan .colony, as well as on your own part, It ia, unhappily, impossible for me to comply with t£e "invitation on account of the constant pressure pi my pfficial duties, which do not admic-of'iny removal e.ye,n to points much nearei 1 this island and this metropolis. It is not without much regret that I make this ptspiy to your courteous proposal, 'and lam .very sensible of the practical beuefits produ.ced l b.y' an interchange of visits between inhabitants of dseFent "pprtiftng pf the. Empire in close sympathy as well as enlarged information. I have many reasons for wishing to see this interchange frequent and extended, beside the fact that nearly 49yearsago I was first placed in official relations with the colonies, arid that.' £he early impressions thus .' 'produced do not easily depart, ]3ut all general considerations which t ieel to' be applicable tell in the case of New Zealand with peculiar force, besides the fact that one of my near relatives has a distinct interest in its property, aij.d hss repeatedly visited its shores, and that one of my dqarest friends was its first and illustrious bishop. 1 took a warm interest in the proceedings connected with its earliest history, and' I consider that in that history were worked out many of the soundest principles- which now regulate the colonial connection, and which promise to make it alike honorable, and beneficial, and enduring.