40 Timehri. 



throughout the colony for the purpose of according to Your Excellency a 

 cordial and sincere welcome as the Representative of His Gracious 

 Majesty our King. 



As villages we came into being during the reign of His Majesty's 

 illustrious grandmother, Victoria the Good, whose memory we are now 

 celebrating ; and during that same reign we so developed as to obtain a 

 large measure of self-government under the guidance of the Local 

 Government Board, for which we are grateful. 



The Village Chairmen's Conference is the outcome of the desire on 

 the part of the villages for an intelligent co-operation with the Board. 



Your Excellency will no doubt be pleased to learn that a large num- 

 ber of " Our Boys'' at the front to-day, went from these villages, and 

 that whatever the needs of the Empire may require in every particular 

 the Government may rely on our support and assistance. 



We look forward to the time when under Your Excellency's benefi- 

 cent rule, the outstanding difficulties of drainage and sea defence will be 

 removed, and these villages take their proper place, as the backbone of 

 agricultural development in the colony. 



We wish for Your Excellency health, strength and a prosperous 

 career as Governor of a colony the inhabitants of which take no second 

 place in their loyalty and devotion to the Throne. 



We are Your Excellency's humble and loyal servants. 



(Sgd.) J. McFarlane Corky, 

 President. 

 B. S. PiERCY, 



Vice-Pres. 



E. D. MlLLINGTON, 



Secretary. 

 W. H. Hinds, 



Asst. Secty. 

 Joshua Thompson. 



His Excellency':* Reply. 

 In returning thanks to the several bodies His Excellency said that a 

 Governor's first year in a colony, especially in one like his, was always 

 his studious year. It was the year in which he should gain a detailed 

 knowledge of every part of the colony so that he could form a definite 

 opinion of his own. Ee had begun lo make observations, and had 

 already seen the necessity for increasing the depth of water over the bar. 

 at the mouth of the river. Before forming any definite opinion on any 

 particular point he would study everything carefully and hoped that 

 when he move i in any direction he would have thrf support of the 

 majority of people in the colony. 



Oil the invitation of Dr. Nunau some of those present visited the 

 Museum which was brilliantly lighted. 



The gathering afterwards dispersed. 



