VISIT TO EDINBURGH.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3765, 16 May 1907, Page 4

VISIT TO EDINBURGH.

Freedom of the City. Five Speeches by Sir Joseph Ward. A Complimentary Newspaper. The Acting-Premier (Hon. W. Hall-Jones) has received advice by cable of the visit of the colonial Premiers to Edinburgh last Friday, The Premiers were received enthusiastically. Sir Joseph Ward delivered tive speeches in the course of the day. The Premiers were entertained at breakfast by the University, over one hundred students being present. One ol the tables was presided over by Sir Joseph Ward. The Town Hall later was crowded on the occasion of the Freedom of the City being conferred on the Premiers. Sir Joseph Ward said nothing would do more to bring the Old World nearer than the display of good feeling, fellowship, hospitality, and goodwill extended to the representative men from across the seas. It would have a more lasting and beneficial effect than ordinary letter-writing. With reference to the Conference, he said that none of them was gifted with omniscience to enable him to foretell what work was already done. It meant that in the years to come, the advantages of responsible members of the Governments of the British Isles and ot the self-governing dominions meeting in conference, and exchanging ideas, even though they differed in matters oi importance, must have the effect ot giving them a greater knowledge of each other’s difficulties, and the possibilities of overcoming them. New Zealand would stand shoulder to shoulder, back to back, hand to hand in endeavouring to mould the different portions of the dominions into one indissoluble EmpireNew Zealand students at the University, the Town Hall, in the streets, and at the railway station greeted Sir Joseph Ward, and farewelled him with a Maori song. The “Scotsman,” in a leading article, sa3 r sthat Sir Joseph Ward’s speech was no rhetorical compliment, but a statement of weighty fact, followed upon a series of other demonstrations in other parts of the kingdom. It further refers to the fact that New Zealand sends over one hundred students to Edinburgh University, and asks : Who can foretell the strength and value of the influence these young men bring here and carry away with them? New Zealand has paid us perhaps the greatest compliment by imitating the very names of the city and the Chief features ot their topography, to which Sir Joseph Ward alluded in the course of his speech. The “Scotsman” adds:—We may believe Sir Joseph Ward that no newcomers are more appreciated in these new lands, and none make greater nor more whole-hearted citizens in the Antipodes, than those of our race and blood.