OUR NEXT GOVERNOR.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2198, 19 January 1886, Page 2

OUR NEXT GOVERNOR.

(Evening Press).

Sir William Robinson, the Governor of South Australia, who is said to have been selected to succeed Sir William Jervois as Governor of New Zealand, is a man'of very independentideas.andof considerable strength of character, He is a brother of Sir Hercules Robinson, the most eminent and successful of Great Britain's Viceroys, next to Lord Dufferin j but he is twelve years younger .than Sir Herculeß, and is singularly unlike him in many respects. Sir Hercules is a tall, stout, strong man, with a cheery, blunt face, expressive of abundant mental and physical energy. Sir William is a alight, delicate-looking, nervous man, with a long, thin, aquiline countenance, entirely devoid of beard, and prematurely grey hair parted in the middle. He bears a somewhat striking re'semblanee to Irving, fcho actor. Sir Hercules is a statesman first,as sportsman agood second, and everything else nowhere. He loves racing and hunting aud every sorfcof robust out-of-door amußoment; and as a natural consequence he likes a good dinner and a good joke and merry company. Sir William's horse exercise is confined to a promenadeon a very quiet cob, and he is gravely concerned lest his aide-de-camp should hurt himself falling off his polo pony. His Excellency's tastes and pursuits are all intellectual and artistic. He plays really well, and is by no means an indifferent composer, Those sparo quarters of an hour which Sir Hercules spends " looking at the nags" Sir William spends at his'beloved pianoforte. He is fond of gardening, and is a good botanist, He also paints wi:h merit and originality, and reads and writes indefatigably. Any subject he takes an interest in he masters by patient Btudy, and it is the recreation of his leisure to prepare lectures or pamphlets which most men, even studious men, would deom uncommonly hard work. Though very liberal-minded and tolerant in all his notions, ho has a decided religious cast, and is very domestic and retiring in his habits. He has none of that bluff, hearty, frank exterior which makei friends for Sir Hercules without any other introduction wherever ho goeß. On the contrary, Sir William has a gontleness, which stupid people miatake for dullness, _ and a reserve which vulgar people mistake for pride. In reality he ii an exceedingly interesting man, with plenty of natural ability, and not a little humour, and ho is thoroughly unaffected and kind-hearted, and easy enough to get on with after the ice is broken, He has no objections to going into society, and makes himself pleasano in a quiet way, Though not a bon vivant, ho entertains elegantly, and can take his share of nice things, and he likes whist and plays a very fair game. He ib not " a-jolly-good-fellow" Governor, and he despises the arts of popularity; but he is a dignified representative of the Queen, a conscientious and capable official, and a high-bred English gentleman.