At a banquet given last Monday to Colonel Gerard Smith,
the new Governor Designate of Western Australia, Mr. Chamberlain, who presided, delivered both a very lively and a very instructive speech, in which he remarked on the great difficulty and responsibility of using "what is pleasantly called the patronage of the Colonial Office." "I am not fond of the word," said Mr. Chamberlain, "and I dislike ex- cessively the impression which it appears to produce on certain of the public that the Secretary of State for the Colonies has always in his gift a number of eligible and
lucrative appointments which are at the disposal of any one who has anywhere failed in other walks of life." He had come to the conclusion that a large portion of his time must now be devoted to explaining to a number of estimable gentle- men why it is absolutely impossible for "me to appoint nine- 'tenths- of them to positions in the Colonies," and why, in the case of the other tenth, it will be impossible for him "to remove them at once to some more favourable situations and to healthier climates."
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