SIR CHARLES DU CANE AT HOME.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4456, 1 July 1875, Page 3

SIR CHARLES DU CANE AT HOME.

The Essex Weekly News gives a_ lengthy account of the rejoicings and festivities attendant on the return of Sir Charles Du Cane and Lady Du Cane to their home at Braxted Park In responding to an address of welcome, Sir Charles made a speech to his tenantry, in which he said I trust whatever we may hear of elsewhere, that the relations between employer and employed are not destined iu the parish' of Braxted to degenerate into a mere hard-and-fast commercial Tiargain. (Hear, hear.) I trust that both the tenants aud laborers on this property are still prepared to look up to Lady Du Cane and myself as the heads of your family circle ; I trust that you are still prepared to regard us- in that light, aud that you feel still that. the relation hitherto existing between us can be maintained without either loss of independence or selfrespect on the part of any one of the contracting parties. At all events, I have come back again prepared to fulfil my part of the contract. Aud, if I may take this opportunity of saying so, I trust, too that the laborers ou this property will remain, as they have hitherto done, happy and contented under those that employ them. But Ido not ask them to, do so merely from that tame spirit of hereditary bond service which tells them that the whole duty of the laborer to society is ‘ Be contented with their rations, Always know their proper stations. And bless the squire and his relations.’ (Laughter.) Let them bless the squire and his relations by all means—l would much rather they did that than the other thing—(laughter)—but let them do so because they feel that the squire and his relations do thenduty honestly and conscientiously by them—because they feel that their welfare, both moral and physical, is honestly studied iu this parish —and, above all, because they are encouraged in those habits and feelings of self-respect without which no man, to my mind, can be a man in any useful and practical and manly sense of the world. (Hear,- hear.) These are the sentiments with which we have come hack to Braxted. These are the sentiments upon which I endeavored to act when I lived among you six years ago ; and we hope we shall be able to carry them none the worse into effect now for the knowledge and experience we have gained iu that vast antipodean world, where the love for England, the love for English institutions, the love for English manners and Customs, and last, but not least, the love for good English sports and amusements, is so deeply rooted in the hearts and affections of the people. That very love for all that is English in that far distant country has only strengthened the conviction which I have always entertained that there is no position more enviable or more honorable than that of an English country gentleman and his wife living on their estate, surrounded, respected, and beloved by their tenantry and their neighbors, and doing - their best, as becomes them, both ty their practice arid example, to do good to all those who live around them.” (Applause.)