OUR NEW GOVERNOR.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 189, 10 August 1880, Page 2

OUR NEW GOVERNOR.

IN.Z. Times, August 9.] It may now bo regarded as certain that the twelfth Governor of New Zealand, the sue cessor to His Excellency Sir H. Robinson, whose brief rule here will end three weeks hence, will be Sir Arthur Hamilton Gordon,

K.C.M.G., now the first Governor of Fiji and High Commissioner of Polynesia. It was stated a few days ago tbat Sir Arthur had been offered Sir Bartle Frert/s appointment at the Cape, and it may be presumed he declined it through the policy that is being carried out there not being in accordance with his views. The offer was then ; made to Sir Hercules Robinson, who accepted it, and he is to be succeeded here by Sir Arthur Gordon. Our new Governor has acquired the character, in the several Crown colonies over which he has ruled, of being a resolute and able administrator, and that that was the estimation in which he was held by the Home authorities was shown by his being chosen, on Fiji becoming a British Colony, its first Governor, when social, commercial and political conditions in the island had fallen to a very low level, and when there was the certainty that whoever was sent would have not only to reign but to govern, to evolve order in everything out of what was almost chaos, to erect the edifice of good and settled government after first cleansing an extremely foul Augean stable, and to deal with a variety of questions, some of them affecting property and the settlement of which od a basis of equity and justice was certain to evoke the bitterest hostility from those whose interests were affected. That in his difficult office Sir Arthur Gordon has been eminently succesful, the contrast of the condition of Fiji to day with its'stateon bis assuming the Governorship five and a half years ago is the amplest proof, and the manner in which Sir Arthur has discharged the office of High Commissioner of Polynesia— one of the most important appointments under the Crown —is further testimony to his ability. He has the benefit of an experience such as has been possessed probably by no other Governor ever sent to these colonies. Associating from the first with the leading men of all parties in England, he was secretary to his father, when at the head of the British Government during the important period of the Crimean War. Then followed, a number of years in which he sat in the House of Commons, next some special diplomatic service, to be succeeded by twenty years Governorship of dependendencies in various parts of the world. Sir Arthur Gordon passed through bis probation in public life with Mr Gladstone, he sat side by side in the House with the present Lord Chancellor (then Sir Roundell Palmer), and there are few men of any eminence in politics at Home, more especially on the Liberal side, who are not his personal friends. It will thus be seen that though we lose a Governor who has won a high place in the esteem of every colonist in the 6hort period he has been here, he is not to be succeeded by a nonentity, but by a man who hus proved his worth in high stations for a quarter of a century. Sir Arthur has never previously been in the colony, he having gone to Fiji on the appointment by way of Sydney. Lady Gordon, however, about two years ago spent several months with her two daughters at the residence of Sir George Grey, at Kawau. It may be mentioned that Sir Arthur has recently returned to Fiji from a visit to England, where he was raised a step — from Knight Commander to Grand Commander— in the Order of St. Michael and St. George. Our new Governor, too, achieves a pecuniary promotion in coming here, the Fiji Governorship being worth £5000 against £7500 in New Zealand. The following ia the entry under Sir Arthur Gordon's name in " Men of the Time " : — " The Honorable Sir Arthur Hamilton Gordon, G.C.M.G., youngest son of Georgo, fourth Earl of Aberdeen, some time Prime Minister of England, by his second wife Harriet, daughter of the late Hon. John Douglas, was born November 26, 1829. In 1854 he was elected in the Liberal interest for Beverley, having defeated Mr G. W. Hastings, and retained the seat until the general election of 1857, when he unsuccesscontested Liskeark against Mr Ralph Grey, who was afterwards appointed a Commissioner of Customs. Sir Arthur Gordon was assistant private secretary to his father when Foreign Secretary, and also when Prime Minister, and he was specially attached to Mr Gladstone's mission to the lonian Islands in 1869. He was appointed Governor of New Brunswick in 1861, Governor of Trindad in 1866, and Governor of Mauritius in October, 1870. In 1871 he was created a Knight of the Order of St. Michael and George. When the Fiji Islands were erected into a separate colony called the • Colony of Fiji,' Sir Arthur Gordon was appointed its first Governor and Commander-in-Chief, February 4, 1875. Sir Arthur married in 1865 RacheL Emily, eldest daughter of Sir J. G. Shaw-Lefevre, the Clerk of the Parliaments."

Lieut. Cecil Horn, of Auckland, and late in command of H.M.S. Sandfly, has been appointed Sergeant at Arras for the House of Representatives. A ludicrous incident occurred at an inquest at Hokitika the other day. The coroner, by mistake, made out the warrant for the burial of the hotel-keeper, at whose house the inquest was held, instead of the deceased. A citizen of Plymouth, Ind., fired six shots at a supposed burglar, ard then his wife called out. — " See here, Sa*n, if you don't stop shooting at me, you'll have the house full of neighbours."