RECENT VICE-REGAL VISIT

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Volume 59, Issue 229, 30 October 1930, Page 8

RECENT VICE-REGAL VISIT

RF.PLY TO WHLCOJIE ADDBJSSS. His Excellency the Govemor-General, Lord Bledisloe, having noticed that the actual text of the address of Avelcome from the Mayor and citizens of Hastings was available bub that no full copv of His Excellency's reply was publislied, has forwarded us a copy of bis reply, which reads as follows : — Mr Mayor, CouncilJors and Burgesses of the Borough of Hastings — Your loyal and friendly Address of Welcome has given much pleasure to Her Excellency and myself. We have beei\ eagerly Jooking forward to our firat visit to your attvactive town and Xfistrict, of which we have heard much. I regret that our sojourn amongst you is so short — and rendered even shorter tlian we had intended by Parliamcntary exigencies — and that I shall have but little opportunitv of seeing for myself your renowned sheep and dairy farms and orchards. I hope, however, during ' my visit to the Royal Show to establisli friendly contact with some of your leading agriculturists, and to acquaint myself more fully with their special problems. Such expenence as I have gained, both as a pvactical tarmer in the Old Country and as a student of agricultural problems on tours of investigation in many clifferent parts of the world, is — for what it may be worth — freelv at the disposal of the iarmmg communitv of this Dommion, and nowhere more than in this renowned and lertile area of Hawke's Bay- It is particularly gratifving to me to note in your Address on the one hand the generous tribute which you pav to the sturdv, far-sighted pioneer settler of seventy years ago, and ;on the other your frank recogiiition of the debt which the town of Hastings owes to the pastoral and agncultural district which surrounds it. The resourcefulness and courage, euterprise and thrift which characterised the earlv settlers still animate, and I trust will alwavs distinguish, the farming comnmnitv of New Zealand, for 1 am confident that tliey are qualities essential to their futiire prosperity and well-being. Moreover, upon the fullest well-xnformed svmpathy between town and country depends the effective solution of most of the more serious problems which await this fair Hominion in the future. Her Excellency deeply appreciates, and is much encouraged by, your kinclly allusion to her mterest in socia) welfare — an interest which she shares with so many of her own sex in this land of generous heax-ted women, with whom it is her sincere desire always to co-operate. , , It is His Majestv's earnest wish to see all classes of the communitv m this loyal Hominion happy and prosnerous, aiid it will be my constant effort J as liis~-vepresentative to promote in j every way possible the achievement of this ideal. We tliank yon cordiallv for your warm welcome to Hastings.