THE GOVERNOR

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8340, 29 January 1913, Page 8

THE GOVERNOR

CIVIC RECEPTION IN CHRIST CHURCH.

LAYS FOUNDATION STONE OF CONSUMPTION HOSPITAL.

Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, January 28. The Governor, Lady Liverpool, and staff arrived to-day from Wellington. immediately the Maori was berthed representatives of tho Lyttelton Harbour Board went on board to welcome Ins Excellency to the port of Lyttelton. The party, which comprised Messrs K. Moore (chairman of the board) and C. Allison and Mr Cyrus J. R. Williams (engineer and secretary) and Captain A. >l. Xhorpe, harbourmaster, were formally presentee to his Excellency the Governor and thp Countess. No reception was accorded his Excellency on arrival at Christchurch, though several gentlemen met him quietly. His Excellency immediately upon arrival was driven to Te Koraha, Mr A. E. G. Rhodes’s residence, where ho will stay during his sojourn in Christchurch. A civic reception, which took place in tho City Council Chambers at noon, was attended by a representative gathering of citizens.

The Mayor presided, and there were present members of the council and of other local bodies in the district, a number of business men and other citizens, including a fair proportion of ladies. The Government was represented by the Hon. E, Heaton Ehbdes, PostmasterGeneral, and the Hon. E. M. B. X'isher, Minister of Marine, and there were also present General Godley Mr Justice Donniston and Bishop Grimes. To the address of welcome his .Excellency made the following reply: “I thank you for your whole-hearted expressions of loyalty which you have tendered to me as representative of the King on my arrival in this city of Christchurch. 1 can assure you that both myself and the Countess of Liverpool will make it our pleasant duty at no distant date to come and visit this prosperous centre, combining as it does everything which tends to build up and foster a great and industrious community. The period of sixtytwo years since the province of Canterbury was first settled, has indeed been a memorable period. But for the unswerving and indefatigable zeal of those who were first to commence the work of settlement, the development and prosperity which we see to-day would not have attained the high standard of which this Dominion is so proud. In spite of undoubted difficulties those who laid the stable foundations of this great advancement never faltered in their endeavours to carry out the traditions which have always characterised our race and which those who are with ua to-day will undoubtedly hand down in their turn to the generations who shall follow them. It will indeed be a source of gratification if any of the great problems which so materially affect the well-being and prosperity ox the community can be effectively solved. By the united and willing exertions of all concerned a happy solution will be found to many of those varied questions which. at first sight appear impossible to surmount, and by these means those ties of social happiness will be strengthened. Each will tend to consolidate the Empire of which we are so justly proud." Continuing, his Excellency said he wanted to add two or three informal words to. the formal reply which he had made to the address. Ho entirely endorsed every word which the Mayor had said in regard to the great and indefatigable efforts which those who first came from the Old Land put forth when they came to the Dominion over sea. They established also these cpstoms and institutions which showed that they had not forgotten the traditions of the land and race from which they came. It was a very proud heritage that was handed down to us, and he knew that all would hand it on to those who camo after. On behalf of Lady Liverpool and himself he would like to thank the Mayor and the people of Christchurch very much indeed for the very kind welcome accorded them that day. ,-As hb had said in Auckland last week, and would like to repeat, no one who came from the Old Country could feel a stranger or lonely when he landed on the shores of blew Zealand. (Loud applause.) This afternoon his Excellency laid the foundation stone of the King George Coronation Memorial Hospital for Consumption on Cashmere Hills. There was a large attendance of the public. An address was presented to his Excellency, after which speeches were made by the Mayor (Mr H. Holland), Dr Blaefcmore (officer in charge of the Consumption Sanatorium). Hon. E. Heaton Ehodes (Minister of Hospitals), and Mr F. Sorrell (chairman of the North Canterbury Hospital and Charitable Aid Board). Then his Excellency addressed the gathering, and duly declared the stone J 'well and truly laid." The Hon. it. Heaton Ehodes, Minister in Charge of Hospitals, said that the institution marked one more step in the campaign against consumption. During the last session of Parliament the medical superintendents from all over the Dominion had met in conference in Wellington to discuss the tuberculosis question. The result of that conference, he said, would shortly be made public. He assured them that the recommendations which would be made .to cope with the disease • would be given effect to, and ho said they hoped to bring about a decrease in the number of cases of consumption, if not to stamp out the disease altogether, tte said there had been a decrease in deaths from consumption in late years, but ho hoped in future the decrease would be even mors marked.

He concluded : "It augurs well for this institution that this should be your first public act, your Excellency, ,and the presence of yourself and Lady Liverpool will greatly encourage those engaged in this campaign." His Excellency held a levee this afternoon, and' will leave for the south tomorrow*