DINNER TO SIR GEORGE GREY.

New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 803, 24 December 1853, Page 3

DINNER TO SIR GEORGE GREY.

Thf, following is a copy of the Invitation to Ihe Public Dinner fixed for Monday next, which was addressed to His Excellency Sir George Grey. It harmonizes well with the Farewell Addresses from various elasses of the community which we this day publish. To Hxs Excellency Sir George, Grey, K.C.Ba Governor of New Zealand, &c,, See., &c. f Sir, — We, the undersigned, residents of Auckland and its neighbourhood, cannot permit your Excellency to leave our city, on your proposed visit to England, without giving expression to our earnest sense of the benefits which have been conferred on New Zealand through your able, wise, and successful administration of the Government during the eight years in which you have been Her Majesty’s Representative in this country. In the peace, and the rapidly advancing agricultural and commercial prosperity of New Zealand in general, and the Auckland District in particular, there is a tribute to your Excellency’s ability and zeal in (he discharge of the duties of your high office, which has attracted the attention of surrounding Colonies, and which it especially becomes us, the immediate partakers of these advantages, to acknowledge. To your Excellency’s paternal care for the Natives, who form so important a portion of the population of this Province, we attribute not a little of the advance they have made in that Christian civilization from which numerous benefits have already accrued, and from which we are warranted in anticipating increasingly happy results.

In your Excellency’s recent Cheap Land Regulations we recognise a boon long desired by the Settlers, and now conferred in a manner equally honourable to your Excellency’s sagacity and firmness, and in accordance with the anxious wishes, and, we believe, the best interests of all classes of the community.

Although differences of opinion inevitably prevailed on particular points in the policy of a Government surrounded by difficulties so great as those with which yonr Excellency has had to contend, yet, many who at various times did not fully concur in the measures adopted cannot withhold on this occasion their cordial agreement in the testimony to the general results of your administration, which is so conclusively borne by the contrast which the prosperous and tranquil condition of the country now presents to the state in which your Excellency found it on your arrival here in 1845.

Our best wishes and prayers for the health and happiness of your Excellency and Lady Grey will accompany you wherever your lot may be cast.

We trust that wherever you may be, you will be gladdened by hearing of the progress of a colony, the future advancement of which impartial history will trace up in a large degree to the foundations laid under your Excellency’s rule. As a favour to ourselves and many others, which we earnestly hope your Excellency’s arrangements will permit you to grant, we respectfully ask that yon will honour us by your presence at a Public Dinner, which it is proposed to hold before your Excellency’s departure, to afford the residents of Auckland and its vicinity a parting opportunity of meeting your Excellency. We have the honour to be, Your Excellency’s grateful and obedient servants, Wm. Powditch, J.P., M.P.C. John Woodhouse. J.P., John Rout, J. W. Bain, J.P., M.P.C., J. A. Gilfillan, J.P., M.P.C. John Morgan, Minister of OiaW. S. Grahame, J.P. whao James Burtt, U.S. Vice-Consul, Chas. Baker, Missionary, WaiJames Simms, apu, Patrick Donovan, M.P.C. Peter Robertson,

Henry Keesing, C. J. Abraham, Archdeacon of Wra. Chas. Dudley, Clerk, the Waitemata, Waimaie, 11. W. St. Hill, Minister of St. Rich. J. Taylor, Tamaki, Marks, Remuera, James Dilworth, M P.C. Thos. Keightley, G. A. New Zealand, Bishop of Joseph H. Fletcher, Wesleyan New Zealand, Minister. John Frederic Lloyd, Minister William Walters, of St. Paul’s, Auckland, John Bolous, Alfred Jones, Robert Vidal, Thomas James Jaggar, Thos. C. llallamore. Geo. M'Elwalne, S. A. Wood, M. Somerville, Henry Had low, Jno. M‘Dowell, W. C. Wilson, Thos. Gibson, T. M. Philson, M.D. David Bruce, Minister of the Fred. Thatcher, Minister of Presbyterian Church, St. Matthew’s, Auckland, Wm. Connell, J.P., M.P.C. Henry Niccol, Rich. Ridings, J. A. Wilson, Missionary, Arch. Clark, J.P. Auckland, T. Buddie, Wesleyan Minister, J> A. Wilson, Jun. W. Hughes, Albert William Hansard, W. R. Gundry, Thos. Canty, A. G. Purchas, Minister of St. Henry Hayr, Peter’s, Onehunga, Robert Hayr, J. Williamson, M.P.C. Archibald Somerville, John Hoop. James Beveridge, John Saucrbicr, J- Hargreaves, J.P. G. A. Kissling, Minister of St. Every Maclean, B rnabas, Auckland, W. Mason, J.P., Tamaki East R. B. Lusk, Head. J. Chadwick, William Atkins, Tamaki West, Thos. Russell, Solr., Henry Matson, J.P.,lirookside, John De Courcy Ireland, Thos. Somerville, Robert Scott, E. Constable, Waiuku, Wm. Martin. J A. Langford, Merchant, 0. A. Harri', James Halyday, A, Lister Kaye, Edward George, Onehunga, Edw. H. Heywood, Clk. Thomas Kevan, H. Ellis, Abraham Keesing, Richd. Matthews, Ralph Keesing, J. A. Smith, John C. Blackett, Sami. Hayward Ford, Joseph Crlspe, Edw. Mayne, Glenbum. Auckland, Dec. 20, 1853. The following Reply was received from His Excellency’s Private Secretary : Private Secretary’s Office, Auckland, Dec. 20th, 18/53, > Gentlemen, — I am desired by his Excellency Sir George Grey to state, that to so kind an invitation as that forwarded by the inhabitants of Auckland through you, he can only reply, by expressing his very grateful thanks for the feelings in which it originated, and for the manner in which it was convened to him, and that he shall have much pleasure in accepting it. I have the. honour to be, ' Gentlemen, Your most obedient servant, Jas. H. Wodehouse, Private Secretary. J. A. Gilfillan, and 1 VV. Connell, Esqrs.)