SIR GEORGE BOWEN.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1091, 22 July 1873, Page 3

SIR GEORGE BOWEN.

Speaking of Sir George Bowen, the Melbourne correspondent of the DailyTimes says : —" His speeches are lively and amusing, and do not resemble a funeral sermon preached by a Methodist parson, like some gubernatorial discourses it has been my lot to listen to. Let me give one or two instances. At tbe Ballarat banquet, in the course of his reply to the toast of his health, Sir George observed: —' During the last 48 hours I am afraid you have heard my voice so often that you must be rather tired of it—(No, no) —so instead of making a speech I will tel! you an anecdote. My own predecessor in New Zealand (Sir George Grey) and I being both called George, we were spoken of by a brilliant politician there, of whom you must have heard— Mr James Edward Fitzgerald —as George the Firat and George the Second.—(Laughter.) Now this saying of Mr Fitzgerald's reminded me, I confess, of a remark in one of the books of my friend and contemporary at Oxford, Professor Goldwiu Smith, to the effect that the two Georges were constitutional rulers, and Why ? Because they were both fools, and both foreigners.'—(Laughter) While at Clunes, his health was proposed by the Mayor, and his Excellency, in reply, said he was very much amused at the diversity of tunes which in different places had been played in connection with this toast. Here, it was ' The Fine Old English Gentleman,' and at Ballarat, 'For he's a Jolly Good Fellow.' When he was Governor of New Zealand, where, as they knew, tbe Maoris kept up some disagreeable practices, the tune was always ' The King of the Cannibal Islands' — ■(Laughter.) Altogether, there was amidst some 'gush,' a good deal of and good nature in his speei v3s> and they certainly have made Sir George exceedingly popular throughout the Ballarat district."