✨ Opening of Parliament Speech
THE
NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE
EXTRAORDINARY.
Published by Authority.
WELLINGTON, THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 1925.
THE Fourth Session of the Twenty-first Parliament of New Zealand was this
day opened by the Governor-General, when His Excellency was pleased to
make the following
SPEECH.
HONOURABLE GENTLEMEN OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL, AND GENTLEMEN OF THE
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,—
It is in a spirit of thankfulness that in the opening paragraph of my speech I
am able to record the complete recovery of the King from the effects of the serious
illness from which His Majesty suffered during the earlier part of the present year.
The great pleasure I have in meeting you for the first time in the General
Assembly, of which under the Constitution I am part, would be greater for me,
as I know it would be for you, had there been still present with us the distinguished
man who was my Prime Minister when I assumed office as Governor-General.
For more than twenty-one years Mr. Massey had been the Leader in the House
of Representatives of one of the great political parties, and for nearly thirteen
consecutive years had been Prime Minister of this Dominion. In time of war, as
in times of peace, he proved himself to be a true servant of the Empire, and it is
not only among the people of this Dominion that the loss sustained by his death is
realized. The messages of sympathy during his illness, and of condolence after his
death, received by me from Their Majesties the King and Queen, from the leading
statesmen of Great Britain, from the Governors-General, Governors, and Ministers
of the other Dominions and Colonies, and from the Governments of the Allies of
Great Britain, and of the United States of America, have testified the world-wide
sense of the value of his public service. This is not the time or the place to record
his life’s work, or to attempt adequate expression of the public sorrow. With my
Ministers, I adopt the concluding words of the message from the Prime Minister of
Great Britain: “Mr. Massey’s death will not be a loss to New Zealand only. The
whole Empire will mourn him both as a man and a statesman, and many of us will
long cherish the memory of a most genuine and lovable personality.”
Acting on the advice of my Ministers, I proclaimed a portion of the Crown
reserve at Point Halswell, in the Harbour of Wellington, to be a burial-place for
Mr. Massey and his widow. Included in the legislation to be submitted to you
will be an Act specifically appropriating to that purpose the land so defined.
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Online Sources for this page:
VUW Te Waharoa —
NZ Gazette 1925, No 48
NZLII —
NZ Gazette 1925, No 48
✨ LLM interpretation of page content
🏛️ Opening Speech of the Fourth Session of the Twenty-first Parliament
🏛️ Governance & Central Administration25 June 1925
Parliament, Governor-General, Speech, King's Recovery, Massey's Death
- Massey (Mr), Former Prime Minister, deceased
- Governor-General