SIR GEORGE BOWEN AND MR. DU CANE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume X, Issue X, 6 January 1875, Page 4

SIR GEORGE BOWEN AND MR. DU CANE.

At the luncheon of the Farlfament bourne on the 4th December, Sir George Boweo, in responding to the toast of bis health, said * — ( Mt has given me much pleasure to accept your kind invitation to be preseDt here to-day, especially as I am accompanied by 1 , riiy old friend and former Bohodifello^Mr Da Cane—.(oheers)^who is not only (aa yqu .knpw),,au able statesman, who has made his mark in political life, pn both sides of t^e but also a good cricketer. With me, Mr n.u jCftne^rf jpigeq , that our.; national sports flourish as fflueh.in Australia as in England. Many of you will recollect that root lopaagojb.e London Timps in a leading article pointed, put lhat Australia is much more English than Canada, or the United , States, becaus^ the JEnglieh sports ani games are far more cultivated here. than in America. (Cbeer6.) I need scarcely say that a horse-race in Australia is a very different thing from a Yankee trotting match, and that our Eogjish cricket differs widely from American base-ball. Np.dQuM it was. partly lin reference to these, differences that a recent American! traveller in Australia, on his return home, wrote to 'the: New York press that 'Victoria would be the most gloriouß county undep the sun, if it were not so blasted British.' (Laughter and cheers.) So, too, a well-known Scotch philosophical mdtcal, recently a member of the House of Commons, who was in Melbourne a few months Ago, wben I afikea him ]hiow' he liked AustraU^ic^pli^jr "Oh, vastly, but there iß.ao anjo^nt of jTohn Bullism about it that perfectly surprises me.' (Laughter.) My 'friend Mr Dv Caiae and I wil| Ijear witness, both in England and in. America, that there is nptbing of which Australians are more proud than of their * John Ballism'r and .of being 'blasted British.' (Laughter.) And in this, and in other still more important matterß,, .^pvernors will be implicitly beiieted. in England, for all know, that we 6re whttlly unconnected witb party politics, that we speiaik ai mouth pieces of no political party, of no social clique. What did the Times recently say on this point? Its words were, 'We are as proud, in England of , the integrity and impartiality with which our colonial empire is adminietered, that to impeach the equity or truth of a colonial governor would seem like challenging the calm, unswerving order of nature.' (Cheers and laughter.) And here I may perhaps be allowed to remark, en passant, that it might be well if our kind and clever * hosts on this occasion—the gentlemen of the press of Melbourne — were to adopt: these admirable seatiments of the leading journal of the empire, and to recollect that to attack a colonial governor is to fly in the face of Nature herself.,, (Loud, laughter.) Seriously, gentlemen, you may be assured that the Australians will ever find an able aod eloquent .champion io. Mr DuCane, who wii|dpu^lesß re-enter the House of Cpmmp^s and' English public life. As for. myself, it is known that after my continuous service in Australia and New Zealand of 15 years, I have been granted" leave of absence for seven months, which will enable me to spent three months in. London, for Victorians themselves certainly act on the good old Engljsb njaxim, that " all work and no ° play makes ' Jack a dull boy." (Laughter.) Many of the best friends of the colony believe that I shall be able to remove some misconceptions about, our affairs which recent events haye ; shown to exist among our feliowcpuntrymen at homo. It has been truly remarked in a Melbourne journal that no wise man is cy f er indifferent to the ppinibn of his banker, and that so long as Victoria borrows money in England we caonot be wholly careless as to what is thought of us there. Moreover, I know well that the people of this colony are bound to the mother country by ties far stronger than any money considerations — - by national brotherhood, by common loyalty to the Queen, by glprious^mempries and hopes. And trust me, gentlemen, that, whether in Victoria or in England, I will always identify myself with the community over which I have the honor to preside. Your honor will be my honor, your interests will ' be my interests, your prosperity will be my success, your fime will make my reputation." (Cbeers.) His Excellency concluded by proposing "The twp teams — Parliament and Press," a toast which was cordially honored. Subsequently, the "Health, of Mr Dv Cane/ late Governor of Tasmania, was proposed. In the course of his reply he' spoke thus:—" I was going to say I was one of those old English Tories, but, after the excellent speech of his Excellency Sir (Srebrge Bowen, I.feel, X.must. must borrow ah arrow from a Victorian quiver, and, using the more expressive vernacular of his Excellency say, I am one' of those 'blasted Britishers '— (laughter)— who look v pon the British Constitution as composed of the Qileien, Lords, and Commons, and — encifeet ; y ; (laughter) — and if I were asked which amusement 1 look upon as at once the most manly, the most rational, and the moat intellectual of all English 'am'usem'en.ta-- -if I were asked which was the one amusement of which Englishmen alone possess the key against all the rest of the world, and a^out which 'they can work themselves into a state of excitement unequalled . t Qolftpy,^thor epbiflot, I abould apswer |

also, if I may be to detain y,ou fo^ a few moments further, that there is ■ something7Jfl9J^i^^|e^h^f,, ll^prbpriate, as regards' my 'past career, ' in my .being present to-day at ( a match between yojur Parliament and Press. I cannot, 1 like bis Excellency, lay any claim to. be regarded as a member of the Press, but at least I cansay |hat J bp,ve; been the representative of, my old English county indays goije -by,, oot.^tily; miph my vote and Voice On the floor of' 'the .House of Corotpona, )butf also.; with my ba|t on the' green sward bojth of Lord's an|d the Oval. (Cheers.) ;; As a former member of the House of. Commons, I know sonaetbiu^ of the exquisite pleasure of| being Mii apd, the exquisite pawns' of being 'our (laughter); as also something or the exquisite. satisfactio? i of '.hard hitting,' with the delight of* 'catching ' or 'bowling out'your adversary, and seeing your deeds of the tongue glorified hod perhaps jp^ade intejilitjence nexjt : day. (Laughter and cheers.} J Let me say .also that," by' a curious coincidenceV as tt}e last cricket match I shall witness in Australia is that between the Parliar ment and the Press, so also u the very last match in which I wielded a bat was as a m&mjber ;.of the united^eam of the Lords and Commons against those famous ' wanderers,' the Zangari Club. Wbetj .ii^"Mit match in England be played I cannot say, but just now a sudden, and, I think, a brilliant thought strikes me. We have heard something of Victoria endeavoring, in the dark to annex Tasmania. His Excellency Sir George Bowen and myself will shortly meet each other for a short time on English soil, and I will venture to try on that occasion to annex Victoria. (Laughter.)— l will challenge his Excellency to meet me with his bat in a single- wicket match on either Lord's or ihe Oyal-^(Laughter)r-and if he is only as good with his bat as he is with his tongue, I feel I have ventured to make a very rash challenge, and am likely to meet something more than my match. (Cheers and Laughter.) I believe that every Governor is remembered by something in the course of his viceregal career leading to distinguish him from his contemporaries or predecessors, and since I have left Tasmania I have been reading my own character as depicted in '. the newspapers (Laughter.) One newspaper told me— l don't know whether it was meant as a cricketing allusion or not" — that henceforth, in time to come, I should be remembered simply as the Governor who tried to bowl out the Constitution of the colony with a sin gig telegram. (Laughter.) Well, all I will ask the writer ot that statement to do is to couple with that feat the fact that I stand at the present moment the only Governor of an Australian or any other colony who has ever achieved 60 runs in a single innings. (Cheers and laughter.) But I remember that on the green sward of my own ground at Home there were a good many flags, and the foremost of them was the true blue of Essex, whose motto was ' Facia non verba' — deeds, not words. (Cheers.) Therefore, you will allow me to wind up by expressing the sincere hope that both your Parliament and your Press may continue to flourish as the great and noble institutions they ought to be in any free country ; that cricket may take a deeper and deeper root as a good old English amusement on Australian soil ; and that your Parliament and the Press may never find themselves engaged in any other conflict than such as that they are fighting so amicably hereto-day. (Loud cheers.)"