OUR NEW GOVERNOR.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10016, 12 April 1910, Page 6

OUR NEW GOVERNOR.

AN INTERESTING SKETG 7| The following characteristic description of Sir John Dickaon-Poyn-der was published in "Vanity Fair" in 1906 under the title of "Men of the Day":— He is too sincere a politician to be quite successful. When Chippenham;.elected him in 1892 he was a Conservative with ideals always threatening combinatijn. He believed it to be possible to conduct the affairs of the nation on business lines; efficiency, with a capital E. was the political deity which he ignorantly worshipped. And thus it came about that, from a party standpoint, he rapidly went from bad to worse. He had tne inconceivable audacity to insinuate in the House that Mr Brodricck, instead of being a heaven-born marshal, had not the military intellect of a Snelgrove; he was progressive on the subiecfc of trams, and was quite offensive to Lord Hugh Cecil and that gentleman's friends on the subject of education, Finally, he declared himself a Freetrader, and thus filled the cup of his iniquities to the brim. The Government have put up a candidate against him in. his own constituency, while the Liberals in that locality have accepted him as toe r representative. He will be as unorthodox a Radical as he was heterodox in his Conservatism. This is the one fact which lightens the woe of the Central Conservative Office.

"But Sir John being a popular man, very wealthy,*and of a pleasant countenance, pursues his career undisturbed by cautions from the Cabinet, and the whisperings of Whips. He may not be quite so optimistic as he was thirteen years ago. if'et he stands by his opinions with a | cheerful serenity. Moreover, he makes practical application of them in matters that are outside politics. On the London County Council he was ever opposed to municipal extravagance. He had the audacity to suggest that the Council should leave business matters to business men. As chairman of the Great Northern Hospital, he ha 9 laboured t promote a better understanding between the great hospitals so that the charity of the metropolis may be divided to their common advantage under the general guidance of King Edward's Hospital Fund. He has j agitated to secure the regular employment of time-expired soldiers,and to retorm the financial method? of the friendly societies. He did good work upon the Royal Commissian on London Traffic, the report of which body will be published very shortly. "He comes of a good fighting stock, for of the five Dickson baronets before him three were admirals and two soldiers. It was in 1887 that he took the name of Poynder, for reasons connected with a great legacy. He has travelled all over the world, and is now interested in gardening. He went out with his yeomanry during the war, and was placed on Lord Methuen's staff, and returned with a D.S.O. He is a good sho!'. Even those who cannot tolerate his politics, like him."