THE NEW AGENT GENERAL.

Waikato Times, Volume XVI, Issue 1335, 20 January 1881, Page 3

THE NEW AGENT GENERAL.

Sir F. Dilxon Bull has taken his departure from New Zealand, and is now on his way to England to assume the AgentGeneralship. His departure from the Colony was not marked by any great demonstration. Some friends of his got up a " penny subscription " so as to present him with a testimonial, but it was a failure in every respect, as there is but little doubt Sir Dillons Agent Generalship will prove. AMr Henry Jagger, of Invercargill, in writing to one of the papers there on Sir F. D. Bell's appointment, asks — " Is the value of the services rendeied to one's country, to be guaged by the amount received for those services ?" and then goes on to say : -"A year or two since a return was made to Parliament of the moneys received by some of our leading patriots. SirF. D. Bell's name figured for some £16,000, and, like CHiver Twict, he was clamouring for more in the shape of a pension. I suppose the appointment to the Agent- Generalship is the solatium in lieu of that. As one of the oldest electors in the Mataura district, I look back and ask myself, What did Sir Francis Dillon Bell do for the district during the 18 or 20 years he represented it in Parliament? I know that the Mataura — I believe the largest and<*nost fertile district in the colony — was retarded in its progress by Sir F. D. Bell. There was no man, in or out of Parliament, who opposed the defer-ed-payraent so bitterly ; and he stood in the front ranks in opposition to every liberal measure that was sought to be introduced. Possibly a large number of people think that these are valuable services rendered; but to the earlier pioneers of Southland — those who really were the first of the 'adventurous band that rescued the country from a wilderness,' not with the money of the State but their own energy and muscle— to those, I say, the idea of Sir Francis have rendered the countrysome service must seem a mockery. Twenty years ago no part of the world could have had a brighter outlook than Southland ; but the incompetency of some of her leading men, and the self-seeking of Sir Francis Dillon Bell, have kept her from being one of the formest places in the Colony," It is veryeyidenj: that Mr Jagger has -watched -Che 1 career o£ our, new Agent-General very closely. Seeing that afl hit life Sit DUJoniluis \Uen l sham, it is hardly, to be'iex^cted^ \?UI suQfieed drw, o^tMtthe^'Golony. will de* rive mupVberiefitVfKto MaS^eyYicds".^ $udget, ■ ■■ ' - -" V