DINNER TO MR FOX AT RANGITIKEI.

Southland Times, Issue 901, 17 February 1868, Page 2

DINNER TO MR FOX AT RANGITIKEI.

(From the Wellington Independent?) . A. Complimentary Dinner was given to Mr Fox at McDonnell's Coach and Horses Hotel, Rangitikei, on the evening of the 22nd ult, and was attended by between 70 and 80 persons. W. J. Willis, Esq., J. P., occupied the chair. After the usual loyal toats and the health ofthe Duke of Edinburgh had been drunk, The Chairman proposed as a toast " Hearty good wishes for the prosperity and long life of Mr and Mrs Eox." (Great applause) The toast was drunk with great enthusiasm. Mr Eox, on rising, was greeted with loud and long-continued applause. He said: I am deeply grateful for the manner in which the toast has been honored by the large company present, although it is not without diffidence that I rise to express my thanks for the kind manner in which you have received it, and for the way in you have drunk the health of Mrs Eox and myself. It is such a long time now siuce I have heard tho sound of my own voice in public, that I feel an a nount of diffidence that you will hardly give me credit for. In addressing the many kind friends who have come to welcome me this evening, . I shall endeavour to give an idea of how ' I have spent my timef-pleaaantly enough I may confess — since I left the district some four years ago. Before doing this, however. I would allude to what Mr i j ......

Willis has.fc&hl rasper-ting my antecedents in the district. My experience, I believe, will carry me back farther than that of any other in the room, with the exception of my friend on the right, Mr James M'Donald, and three natives, that I see before rae. I believe lam correct- in saying that on the the very spot where I now stand^where I see before me such a large gathering and such a fine display — on this very 8pot„ nineteen years ago (in 1848), I spent my first night in the district io a fiax bush (applause). Along with Mr M'Donald, Mr Fitzherbert, and Mr Park, I was one of the first settlers in this district, when the land was unsurveyed and the only Europeans known were Mr M'Donald and Mr Scott. On that night nineteen years ago, on this very spot, we bad slept in a flax bush, and *if anyone nad told me that at the end of such a time, I would be treated there as I have been to-night, I would not have given it credence — I would have looked upon it only asthe fancy of a magician's wand (applause). £ would have thought the man who spoke of such a thing was dreaming. The progress evident since then on every side .•jpoke well for the willing hands and brave hearts of the settlers. I look upon Rangitikei of the present day as one in which as much improvement is to be seen as in any other district of the colony, and, I believe it is more sound than most of them (great applause). On quitting New Zealmd, both Mrs Fox and myself regretted much that we were unable to bid farewell to all our friends ; but with my health broken and my mind harassed by political warfare, I was only too glad to get to fresh air and new scenes — to get away from strife to " fresh fields and pastures new " in the province of Otago, where on the goldfields there I spent six weeks. "We know — indeed, we have been told on the highest of authorities — that money is the root of all evil, but money rightly used, as in Dunedin, is the source of much prosperity. The change I found in that settlement since it was first in- [ habited by a small fraction of the enterprising race that come from the north of the Tweed — was very surprising; from 1 the little fishing village of former days, where the inhabitants had been living on each other, Dunedin had grown in six years into a populous city, with public buildings, institutions, amusements, schools, hospitals, cabs, and railways, with a rush of population in her streets equal at times to Cheapside — the land seemed as if struck with the enchanter's wand. It spokes volumes for the character of the inhabitants — not only of the old identities — but also the new comers who spend their labor in drawing the rich ore from the earth. Mr Fox then went on to describe his journey into the interior of the province— how he had travelled two hundred and fifty miles to Lake Wakatip by one fine metalled road, and back again by another. After leaving Otago, Mr and Mrs Fox proceeded to the Australian colonies, where at Melbourne, he said, he found a change more wonderful than he had thought possible in the time between his first visit some twenty years before — it was without a parallel anywhere for the growth of wealth and prosperity and grandeur. It had sprung up almost in a day. From Australia they proceeded to Tasmania — which he described as a pretty, picturesque colony in a state of depression, so much so that most of the enterprising young men had gone to other shores, leading the population mostly composed of the old people and the girls. South Australia he described, as one ofthe most flourishing of the Australian group, though not capable of much further extension — it had not the. wealth of Victoria, nor the capacity for colonisation of New Zealand ; still, it. was an important wheat growing country, besides being the best and largest wine-producing colony. By way of King George's Sound — a port of call for the mail steamers, and whose principal settlement Perth, they did not visit, Mr and Mrs Fox passed over to Point de Galle, in Ceylon, where, by the courtesy of the Peninsular and Oriental Company they were allowed to stay some time, and penetrated into the interior as far as Colombo and Candia. By way of episode he would mention the fact of travelling over Ceylon by a counterpart of one of Cobb's coaches to be met with in every part of the world, and he did all he could to find out who, what, and where Mr Cobb really was, till at length he was forced to the conclusion that there was no Mr Cobb at all. (Laughter.) From Candia, the capital of Ceylon, they proceeded to Neiiralia, where they stayed for some time, close to the spot where Sir Samuel Baker, the discoverer of the" sources of the Nile, twenty years before, while pursuing the life of a colonist, had built a sawmill. It was while staying here that an accident occurred which, insignificant in itself, yet was sufficiently suggestive;. One morning at breakfast in the hotel he found a printed card inviting, his attendance the following morning to ar meet of hounds to draw a certain cover! This showed i how Englishmen will carry their tastes for dbg?an:d, : horses wherever they go. By a further furlough, or favor of the i Peninsular and -Oriental Company, who are willing to let their passengers go Where and stay as long as they wish on the line of rout, Mr and Mrs Fox proceeded to Bombay — a city moati thoroughly eastern, and one in which more of the variety of nationality is to be seen that in any other city ofthe Eastern World. At the time they arrived in Bombay, it was the scene of the utmost excitement,, brought on by immense speculation ; the very day they arrived, the •'■•" time-bargains," as they were called, had expired and ihe Exchange and every street were filled with excited people demanding or shirking payment. It was such a scene as might have been seen at the bursting of the South Sea Bubble Scheme, or during the great financial crisis lately felt in London. Caste is stroug in India, but rail waysr have already done much to break it up, and Christianity is gradually penetrating the whole country. 3?here is Que great

drawback to living in India — that it thi climate { oven* are nothing to it— ■total engines are nothing to it— it is the most terrible of visitations and shows itself ia a disease from which all Europeans suffer — that is, the prickly heat , under it one gets as pink as a camelia, and the worst of it is no one sympathises with you ; oh ! they say, it is lucky to have it, you are getting a new lease ef life! From, Bombay they proceeded up the Hed Sea and on across the Isthmus of Suez during the night, by Tailway, by which they saw most effectually that most Egyptian sight — darkness. From Alexandria they proceeded to Marseilles. Sooii after they had the pleasure of setting foot on the Bhores of Old England, where they were most heartily welcomed by their triends after ten years absence (applause). In the course of their stay in England they visited most of its counties, and saw more of the country than they ever did before ; it is ft fact, that those who live -in England all their days ofcen see the least of it. "While in England (continued (Mr Fox) some most important events occurred, birt as many of them were of a political character, I think it oniy proper to avoid them on this occasion, but I may say that while there I had to lift up my voice in defence of my fellow colonists (cheers). For years the colony had been maligned and slandered on every possible occasion by the fellow countrymen of those who are working their great work in the colony ; men seemed to take every opportunity of throwing obloquy and contempt on the actions of the colonists. From the "first time I saw this, I made up my mind not to allow a single instance of it to pass unnoticed by putting pen topaper (great applause), and it is matter of great satisfaction that as soon as the plain and simple truth was told the English public, they readily believed it, and since then there has not been another attempt made, so far as I am aware, to throw unmerited discredit on our colony. On this matter I may also state that Lord Carnarvon rose in his place in the House of Lords to acknowledge his mistake in reference to New Zealand, and make the amende due to the colonists (cheers). Leaving England for a time, Mrs Fox and myself started on a long contemplated continential tour, just at the time the great war broke out between Prussia and Austria—indeed on the very day for starting we were stopped from ascending the Rhine hy a telegram that war had opened oh that river. We then- went to Switzerland — whose charming, but not luxuriant beauty delights the tourist— a land of the grand, the impressive, and the sublime— a land of snow-peaked mountains, ravines, cataracts, and avalanches, with cultivation extending to the utmost limit on the mountain sides— where, indeed, is present every feature of sublimity as if fresh from the hands of the great Creator, and where stupendous and wonderful sights are all concentrated in such small compass that in a month you may visit the varied beauties of that most magnificent country. But Switzerland is not only interesting for its scenery — it is interesting for itß past history and present condition— it is the land where republican institutions have nourished longer than in any other ; f.»r five hundred years it has been surrounded by all the great .nations .of Europe with large standing armies, while it has needed none, nations jealous of each other, and jealous most of all of the little country that maintained intact the freedom and happiness of its people, while all around were contention and discontent (cheers). Thus it is that the fine character of tbe people, and the splendid character of the institutions that have taken root in Switzerland, make it of more than ordinary interest. Away from Switzerland we proceeded to Italy by the Pass of the Simplon, one of the roads made by- Napoleon, and one of the greatest works known before, the ; modern achievement ofthe Stenhensons had been introduced. By crossing the Alps. we stepped from cold Alpine grandeur into sunny, flowery Italy— passed, as it were, so great was the change, from one hemisphere to another; -and on returning in the month of May (in Europe) the same transition was experienced as if leaving! the delicious south for the bleak hyper-, borean climate of the north. From the Alps we looked down on great United Italy, where everything present seemed* to charm the mind of man. In Italy we spent some five or six weeks devoted fpr the most part to study the progress lately made under the free institutions of that, country which had risen against the great despotisms of the world. Italy is now no ; longer a bundle of petty duchies, tyrants' kingdoms, and papal prisons; but a free land— free from the foot ofthe Alps to the shores of Sicily (cheers), and more, than thait, for now the magnificent territory of Venetia has also been handed over to form the brightest gem of that Bplendid crown, of a United Italy. (Cheers). There you see none of those petty pro- : vincialisms" (Hear, hear, ~ and"applause) "■ which dismember a country — none of those" discreditable" hagglings of which" and where, is to. be the seat of Q dyernmehti (Laughtier and cheers). ; The one. — the present capital — was fixed and will remain that capital, till the .last remnant Mil haviß' been won, and without contention Florence will render up the claim to - that city further south. (Cheers). BeI sides, MQilited Italy haJs now got a great . ally in United; ;Grermany. In no other , part of "Europe— not in Britain even— - have such practical results followed that . campaign of nine day s^a campaign which broke and hurled back the bonds of . Austria — a result due to the character pf * the Prussian nation— and which ought to be a stimulus to us as to many others to seek that an extended, a national, educair tion should be provided for the rising generation, so that in af teryears they too may be able, if required, to repel any at- . tempt tb deprive them of their free insti- A tiitions. (Great applause). Mr Fox then *_ went on to describe the further travels 1 of Mrs Fox and himself through Egpyt and Syria, their visit to the Pyramids, Mount Sinai, and the Holy Land— a tour yrhxfy

tm^mmmfmtmammmm mmmm jm mmttmm mmmtmmmmmmmmm aammmmmm ke sketched briefly. It was a subject, he Said, he would not speak much upon to that meeting, but might have an opportunity of describing more at length to some of the Literary Societies and Institutions he saw in existence ih. the district. Passing through Syria to Beyrout they embarked on a Levant steamer for Athens, and from thence to Naples, which he described as something not unlike in a degree, but still surpassing, some of our colonial harbors — the beautiful "bay of Naples studded with islands, the long expanded town with Vesuvius in the distance, clear against the rainless blue, with its white puff of volcanic smoke appearing at intervals — all this Mr Fox described in a graphic manner, and in a way that interested all his audience. He said the old proverb " See Naples and die," might, in his experience, be changed to " See Naples and live as long as you can." On their return to England, the Paris Exposition was visited, which he accounted a great success — not so striking nor so interesting as the Loadon Exhibition of 1851— but a greater success in being better managed ; the French Emperor having made the most admirable arrangements for the carrying out of the Exposition and attracting a large number of princely visitors to Paris. One fact, established tyr Professor Playfair, touching the Exposition of 1867 was, that while in the Exhibition of 1851 there were only twelve things in which the English did not excel last year, proved that there were only twelve in which the English did excel,— a fact, Mr Fox said, which goes to prove a falling off in England through the fearful system of strikes, prevalent among operatives of of late years — by which the indolent man has kept the industrious working man back. (Hear, hear, and applause). Great changes had taken place in England during his absence — wealth has become supreme — colossal fortunes were being made on all hands by commerce and speculations, so that wealth holds now the coveted charm of power and influence.. Wealth was making itself felt on all hands to the extinction ofthe old gentry and even of the titled aristocracy of the land. There was one chan^3 in the Dolitical world of England that he would mention — although in doing so he hoped he would not be considered as touching on colonial politics, a great political advance, some might not consider it an advance, but he did by the appearance of the Eeform Bill from the Tory camp — a measure five hundred years in advance of the Chartists, far beyond the hopes even of John Bright — a measure which all but gives manhood suffrage to the people of Britian, and he would gurantee — as far as man's prophecy might go — that rapidly speedily, and vigorously a great reform or revolution would be carried out, so that the England of twenty or thirty years hence will bear no resemblance to the England of twenty years ago. Let the people of New Zealand, then, keep their eyes on the great changes that are taking place in England, and let us watch — not that we are to see our destiny in such, but for the guidance of our political actions — watch narrowly the radical changes that are taking place there. In giving some account of how they passed their time in the old country, he trusted they had been acquiring some information, which, in a manner, might be useful for their guidance here (applause). On returning to England from the Continent, they began to think what next they could do, and found that they had nothing to do in a country where every man has three other men to think something for him, and where there are three benevolent women to take care of every woman (laughter) — they found that they had actually nothing to do. He said : And yet as sentient, thinking beings, we wanted something to do, and so we made up our minds that our field of action was in a newer land — that this district was to be our home and field of action (cheers), here, to aid you all in working out the good of this country to the mutual satisfaction of all of vs — work which may not lade with our short lives, but remain from genera* to generation (long-continued cheering). Mr Chairman and gentlemen, I would not be doing my duty did I not in the most emphatic manner allude to what you, Mr Chrirman, have already mentioned of our escape on our return to New Zealand. We consider it as a direct interference of Providence that we were preserved for some future work. We consider ourselves as dead, but again preserved for some good in this country where we have cast our lot. Mr Fox resumed his seat amid loud and hearty cheering, which was caught up again and again.