SIR HERCULES ROBINSON. GOVERNOR – IN – CHIEF OF NEW SOUTH WALES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 57, 7 March 1879, Page 4

SIR HERCULES ROBINSON. GOVERNOR -IN - CHIEF OF NEW SOUTH WALES.

With thia inscription, <: Tis a Worthy Governor," and a3 a parting mpmornl, Sydney Punch of 15;h February, ifisuea en excellent full-length colored portrait of Sir Hercules Robinson, togetber with the following article:— A sad, but not the endiest, word in our brhva old mother tonuup is " Goo(?i by ," and seldom hns Mr Punch said it ! more eadly than he doee to-day to the good Governor and g°iiial gentleman who so soon will b« numbered with his absent friends. With ao pretence of praise* at p.^eft of adequate jadgroom, far less of course with any feeling of flunkeviam towtrd one one still in tbp high'-st place amongst us, Mr Punch would attempt in one way, as !iia nrfisr baa in another, a slight ekeieh of the man who for the last seven years haa been the light of our social life, and the leaven of much that haa been beat in our somewhat sluggish progress as a \ community. It cannot be a living i likeness, for who can paint the ineffable ] charm of manner or the ready warmth i and wealth of heart and intellect ?— and even for a full-length portrait of such a man os Sir Hercules Robinson there is here neither space nor skill. It can be at the beet but a sort of roughdrawn minature, to be hung lovingly ! in our hearts, to remember an old friend by, when old memories fill vacant hourß and he is far away. And there is this great thing to be sntd for such a likeness, that it is just as such a friend, not as the proud pro-consul and stately representative of a statelier royalty, not even as the imposing head of our yet more imposing society, leader of the local ton, and fountain of all our dearly-sought social honor and diatinctione, bat pimply, or at any rate mainly, aa an old and very true friend, that our departing Governor will be remembered by these best worthy of remembering him. Like many great men before him, Sir Hercules Robinson has found his best security for such fame and honor as his position could give him in the hearts of the people. In truth it is not much in the way of fame and honor that nowadays can fall otherwise to the lot of a colonial Governor. Fairly to rule is not a very difficult matter with a responsible Ministry and any member of very irresponsible members of Parliameot to rule for you; nor is it easy to i get up any large amount of enthusiasm for brilliant exploits or daring adventures, when there is no one to fight, and nothing to kill buttimeand the blues. It is purely lohiaown suong personal character, thrown into bolder relief, no doubt, by the fierce light that beats upon eveu a vice-regal throng but in co other way helped by his official position or perforroancae — that our Governor owes his firm place in the public heart, and the one word for that character is— manliness. " From grave to gay, from lively to eeverb" — whether relieving the dullness of a public meeting platform; shocking the sensibilities of the merely leuroel in the University Senate House; talking grave sense to Greybeards at the Council board or bright nonsense to grammar schoolboys; informing end deiightiog with soraethiog of their own bold spirit the v hardy settlers of the bush, or snubbing the snivelling impertinences of cantiDg critics; whatever his subject, or whoever his audience — talking literature to (he learned or »urf to the horsey, wisdom to the foolish or folly with the wise — teaching manners to irascible legal dignitaries, or plain lessons of habit and conduct to everyone — the one unfailing characteristic of his Excellency's every public utterance amongst us has been the clear, unmi3lßkeabJß riog of strength and truth. Wide and various ns the range of his speeches may have been, and "it DBS certainly been wide and various enough — from the future dominion of Australia to next year's Derby, University education to newspaper noodledum — unequal, too, as they must have beuD, they bave tt leest all hud this one (/reat virtue in common. And what a virtue it is! "That which is born of valor end honor," and where was there ever sorer need for such ttachiog than in this laud or boasted free speech, so fast becoming foul? "Live with the wolvee," says the Spanieh proverb, " and you will lfarn to howl," and if only aa tin antidote to much of the wolf-like public eloquence of the period, the manly speech of our cool, calm, courageous, but ever courteous Governor, must long have a pleasant music,-— " In sounds that echo still—" at any rate to those who, if still codderaned to live with the wolves, don't want to learn, to howl. As bis speech ia, ao is the man — manly and thorough to the backbone — strong, phyeically and mentally — keen, ' bright ana true as the steel he once wore — a gentleman unmistakably every inch of him, and something more — a man of men, born to command. Thia last, no doabt, was his fault here, and hia and our great misfortune, insofar that for any practical power of ruling he has been very much as the strong man bound. Between the enlightened despotism, or nB another etrong man by no means bound, Pringe Bibinarck, has has it, " the benevolect rational absolutism " (tempered, as it would be, by happy speeches and magnificent k race meetings) of such a ruler, and the high ] court of pandemonium iv Mecquarieeteet, who could hesitate ? On ilie one side clear duty and intelligence—knowledge to guide, and courage to dare ; on (be other—but the cboice is an im-

poeeible one, find comparisons are odious, as odiou6 sometimes ss (bo terrible difference they suggeflt. It j must bo enough for us that, where he could rule ho did, by virtue, not of ] plfice nbd closer, hui bf simple tact and fiasmeity — the higher force of the incßJculably higher mind. Witness only hia Istest public sprvico, (be bringing order out oi the chaos of our miserable | International Exhibition muddle, and tbb consequent Roving of the country for which, with lef-Gt to connect him with it, he tnc&t seemed to care, from wf;Hd-»i.]e ridicule nnd contempt. What other magician's wand could so readily hnvo laid nil those paltry pnssiocs and corflictinc peliy interest? or, greater ivond*-r still, hnve so suddeuiy transformed foes iato friends, pnf<--nt Rrumblfra aDd nr.alconfents info portly executive cnnmiist-ioaers and energetic committee-men, nil working like horses for the very project they had 88 vigorously opposed ? Theee are things that tell of the strong man armed with the irresistible force oi will and character — and there are many more than these. More English than the English in our love of old English epor(6, he 16 our beau-ideal of an old English sportsman ; and much as one dialtkes the cant of the " immorality of the turf," there is, of course, a " tons " in everything, and to this particularly Britißh eport amongst us he haß unquestionably given the very highest. Probably in no other way could a Governor have done better or more lasting service to the community than in thus identifying himself with its tastes and amusements — elevating the one, while he showed by example how the other could only be enjoyed to the full by being kept free from the slightest taint of baseness. Mr Punch does not in the slightest believe ia the necessary " contamination " of the racecourse; and for the canting compliment that there were no " mighty hunters before JSirarod," no honest racing men before Sir Hercules KoliicBon, he haß as thorough a contempt as the object of that very doubtfui attention himself. Still, if only to confound the detractors of a noble sport, our racing men are none the worse for a nobla example ; and long after hia Excellency's own race ia run, his memory will bo kept green at the turf he loved, as one whose love of bright houor was only equulled by his hate of humbug and scorn of cant. So, as we have all seen and known biro, in his habit as he lived amongst up, a briirhf, true, brave, British genlerasin, Mr Punch bids him heard y " Gooii-bye ! "' That ha has before him a career of far higher usefulness no one cm doubc ; that anywhere he will leave behind him more grateful memories or truer friead^, uo one — and least of all, it is to be hoped, hitnsclf — will believe.