DEPARTING GOVERNOR GENERAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4038, 7 January 1930, Page 3

DEPARTING GOVERNOR GENERAL.

AUCKLAND’S FAREWELL.

Auckland, January 5.

Farewell was taken of the Go-vernor-General and Lady Alice Fergusson at a large gathering of citizens at the Town Hall last night. The Mayor (Mr. G. Baildon) piesented to His Excellency an address from the city expressing esteem and affection ;for their Excellencies. The Hon. J. B. Dona < and the Hon. A. J. Stallworthy were on the platform. In replying, the Governor-General referred to the happy days he had spent, in New Zealand. Their Excellencies were received enthusiastically. Their Excellencies left by the Limited express last night for Wellington. On arrival at the railway station they passed between a long lane of cheefiing people. Her Excellency was presented with a beautiful bouquet, and Sir Charles Fergusson addressed the crowd from the station platform.

A .FAREWELL MESSAGE. TO CHILDREN OF THE BACKBLOCKS. BY THE GOVERNOR.-GENERAL. His Excellency, Sir Charles Fergusson, has issued a farewell message to the children of the hack blocks whom he has been unable to visit in his final tour of the Dominion. The message is contained in the annual magazine, of the Education Department’s Correspondence School, and is well worth the attention of town as well as country children, in fact, adults cannot help being inspired by it. The message is as follows: —“Children —Her Excellency and I have'been five years in New Zealand, and we have travelled through a great deal of the country. We have visited a good .many of the little schools in the back blocks, but you don’t ftp to school. You live in- your own homes, and so you do not hear what we talk abut to the children as we go round. This, then, is a special letter to you, all to yourselves. When I was coming out to this country I was told by the King that h'e wished me to see as much as possible of the children of New Zealand, as he liked to hear about them. In one letter I wrote to His .Majesty, I told him of a little school in .the north which I had visited. There were only 15 children in it, They made a little address to me, and asked me to remember them as “a little body of people trying to pattern their lives on the beautiful hills around them, trying to become strong like them, and as fresh and constant.” They hoped, they said, in doing so to become the sturdy citizens whom New Zealand wants, to grow up good men and women who would be useful to The country, and who would always be loyal to the King. It was a very nice little address, and I sent it to the King and he was very pleased with it. So- you -see that, although he lives far away across the seas, lie thinks of you'aud takes a personal interest in you all. You live, I expect, most of you, in the bush or among the hills. Some people might think that dull, but I do not. The bush as always so fresh and beautiful, with lovely trees and plants and flowers and birds; and the hills are so big and grand with the shadows of the clouds chasing each other over them. I think it is there that God seems very close to us, because He made all these things, and it is all so quiet and noble that- we can almost hear Him talking- to us. We remember that He has given us all these lovely things and this splendid country to live in; and we begin to understand that.He takes care of us and watches over us because only someone who loved us very much would give us these beautiful things to enjoy. Try and think of God like that, as someone vlio loves >you and is trying to teach you to love Him in all this ■beauty of nature around you, which He has made and given you. Think of Him as a friend who will guide and help you through all your life, if only you ask Him. Then I know you wish to be loyal and to show your loyalty to the King. Being ‘loyal’ means that you wish to serve him, to do something for him. You can do that by being good citizens, and a good citizen as one who does all his work in life, whatever it may be, heartily, and as well as he can, always remembering to be kind and helpful to other people and trying to make other people happy. If all people would live up to those principles, our country and our Empire would be happy, prosperous, and contented, united in love and loyalty to each other and to the King over us all. Good-bye. We wish you all success , and happiness in your lives, and' we hope you will always think of us as friends who love New Zealand, and you, too. (Signed) Charles Fergusson, GoyernorGeneral.”