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Southland Times, Issue 574, 5 October 1866, Page 3

The following was the reply of His Excellaney the Governor of Victoria, to the address presented to him by the Ballarat Exhibition Committee on the occasion of its opening on the 29th August. He s lid : —

" It is in the first place my pleasing duty to offer to you my hearty thanks, not only for myself but also on behalf of Lady Manners-Sutton and my family, for your congratulations on our arrival in this colony, and for your good wishes for our future welfare and happiness, and I thank you for your cordial welcome to Ballarat. You may be assured that in accepting your invitation to take a part in the opening of the Ballarat District Exhibition, I was not unmindful of the objects for the promotion of which my co-operation was requested by you. I should not indeed, feel myself qualified on this, my first visit to Ballarat, to direct your attention to any of those local excellencies or local requirements which would naturally and properly be subiects of observation by those of greater local experience. But it is a fact admitted by all, that exhibitions such as that now about to be opened, and the exhibition with which it is connected, t l3va*-e the tastes of the communities which contribute to and take an interest in them, and exercise a powerful influence in encouraging improvement in every department of industry, and it affords me sincere gratification to be enabled, so soon after ray arrival in Victoria, and at this very early period of my administration of the Government, to participate in your endeavours to stimulate here and .throughout the ambition to excel, and still further to promote that appreciation of the value of science and of art, which so materially conduces to the success of industry, and invests that success with additional grace.'