VICE-REGAL VISIT

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2362, 1 December 1921, Page 3

VICE-REGAL VISIT

INCIDENTS HUMOROUS AND OTHERWISE.

Foxlon "did itself proud” in welcoming our sailor Governor-General, Viscount Jellicoe, on Monday last. Governors in the past have come and gone, but none have won the hearts of the people so completely as our Governor-General, ft the sailor who was charged in the late war with the most momentous task that, has fallen to the lot of any sailor in our annals.” A glimpse at the physiognomy of His Excellency as lie spoke to the school children on Monday recalls a quotation from Mr A. Gardiner’s volume, “The War Lords”: “There is that about this small, alert man, with the clear, frank eye, the tight-lipped mouth that falls away in lines which seem equally ready to harden with decision or soften with good humour, that commands attention. His face, in Stevenson’s phrase, is a certificate. It suggests a spacious, mobile understanding, breadth of judgment, and large reserves of patience, good humour, confidence. He is not formidable with the thunderous gloom of Lord Kitchener, or the sardonic lightnings of Lord Fisher. There is about him much more of the quality of Sir John French, the quality of the plain man, human and friendly, in his attitude to the world, but with his emotions under the control of a firm will; wholly free from vanity or eccentricity, seeing things with rt large simplicity and comprehension, governed not by temperamental moods or inspirations that may he false, but by the calculations of an acute, dispassionate, singularly serene mind. He carries with him what one may call the candour of the sea, that feeling of a certain elemental directness and veracity common to men who spend their lives far from towns, under a wide sky and in companionship with the great natural forces that do not lie and that cannot be deceived.”

The Mayor possesses a sense of humour. He stores up jokes both new and moss-grown. He is also a lover of poetry, and by the way, a singer of no mean ability. At the civic luncheon to Their Excellencies he didn’t indulge his fancy in a little poetry, but he got off one or two jokes, and succeeded in breaking into song. He invited all to join in singing “Auld Lang Sync.” His Excellency, by reason of a cold, struck a chord an octave below, but Her Excellency did the verse full justice, and even Cr. Coley’s lips moved! The scribe doesn’t know what, sentiment inspired the Scottish bard to write “Auld Lang Syne,” hut in some way it flashed a gleam of the silent vigil in the North Sea. Viscount Jellicoe is credited by our Palmerston evening contemporary with telling a story at the luncheon, which, however, was told by the Mayor. The Mayor made some reference to Monday being washing day, and went on to say that an erratic person of some influence had once been so anxious to meet the King and obtain a formal presentation that some of his friends decided that they would play a little joke upon him. Accordingly, an actor was commissioned to play the part of the King. Perfectly disguised and “made up” to represent His Majesty, the actor called on the erratic one, and was duly presented. “But where is the Queen? I should like to meet her, too,” said the ambitions one. Quickly the actor replied, “Oh, it is Monday to-day, and Iler Majesty could not come, as she is busy in the laundry!” The Mayor went on to say that a certain Governor visited a neighbouring town, and the Mayor, in the course of his welcome, expressed the hope that on the next occasion of the Governor’s visit he would not forget to tiring tlie Governess!

Viscount Jellicoe cross-tired as follows: —“People are very prone to make mistakes when delivering speeches. At one country place I visited recently regret was expressed by the mayor that I had not brought Lady Liverpool with me.” Then with a smile —“Of course, 1 did not tell my wife, Lady Jellicoe, about that. To-day is the first time she has heard about it!” Her Excellency joined in the general merriment which followed.

At. a later function a speaker well-monninglv emphasised the fact that Viscount Jellicoe “was only a man.” A by-stander remarked that it was the first time he had heard the sex of His Excellency questioned !

One of the most pleasant and touching incidents in connection with the Governor-General's visit to Foxton was his pleasant conversation with one of our pioneers, in the person of Mrs Procter senr. I lie l old lady was seated on a chair in the Triangle, during the civic reception, and His Excellency expressed his pleasure at meeting her, and finished b.v expressing the hope that his eyesight would be as keen should he attain her age.