Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1889 - 1931), Monday 10 August 1903, page 4


THE NEW GOVERNOR-

GENERAL

LORD NORTHCOTE.

LONDON, August 8.

It is officially announced that Baron Northcote will succeed Lord Tennyson as Governor-General of the Commonwealth in December

The comments of the newspapers show that Lord Northcote's selection gives general satisfaction. Besides his social gifts and personal advantages, stress is put upon his training as affording him an excellent preparation for his new post. His ripe experience and tactful political sympathy are dwelt upon as valuable assets in the chief of a free and democratic federation.

Lord Northcote (Sir Henry Stafford Northcote, Bart.), is the second son of the late Sir Stafford Northcote, M.P., who, after a long and honorable career in the House of Commons, was made Earl of Iddesleigh

in 1885. Lord Northcote was born on November 18, 1846, and was educated at Eton, afterwards going to Merton College, where he graduated as Master of Arts. He became a clerk in the Foreign Office in 1868, and three years later accompanied the Marquis of Ripon to the United States, whither that nobleman went to arrange the Alabama treaty. Subsequently he was made secretary to the British Claims Commission, and while in Canada he met Alice, the adopted daughter of Lord Mount Stephen,

Lord Northcote, the new Governor

General of Australia.

whom he married in 1873. When Lord Salisbury went to Constantinople in 1876 as British Ambassador Extraordinary, at a time when the position of affairs in Turkey menaced the peace of Europe, Mr. North-cote went with him as private secretary, and in 1877 he became private secretary to his father, when the Earl of Iddesleigh held office as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Beaconsfield Cabinet. Lord Northcote held

this position for three years, in the mean-while being appointed acting third secretary in the Diplomatic Service, and a Companion of the Bath.

In 1880 he stood in the Conservative interest for one of the Exeter seats, and was elected second on the poll, and when Lord Salisbury came into office as Premier in

1885 Lord Northcote was made Financial Secretary to the War Office. He was Surveyor-General of Ordnance in the Salisbury Ministry of 1886, but tendered his resignation at the time when his father, a few days before his death (in 1887), was being jockeyed out of office. Ultimately, however, he consented to retain his post until the position was abolished, and (on November 23, 1887) its holder, by the express wish or her Majesty Queen Victoria, was created a baronet, so as to continue the name of "Sir Stafford Northcote." In 1891 he was made a Charity Commissioner, and in 1899 he was chosen to succeed Lord Sandhurst as Governor of Bombay, with a salary of 10,000 rupees per month and allowances. Early in the following year (January 20, 1900) he was raised to the peerage as Baron Northcote of Exeter. His

lordship is still in Bombay, and in his capacity as Governor he took a prominent part early this year in the magnificent Coronation Durbar held by Lord Curzon at

Delhi.

Lord Mount Stephen, whose adopted daughter Lord Northcote married, is a well-known and immensely wealthy Canadian banker. He went to the Dominion in 1850, and in conjunction with Lord Strathcona, the High Commissioner for Canada, was connected with many important and extensive financial operations. He is president of the Bank of Montreal, and was head of the syndicate which contracted for the construction of the Canadian Pacific railway. Lord Mount Stephen has made several princely donations to public objects. He is now 74 years old, and was made a baronet in 1886, becoming a peer in 1891. He has no children of his own. Lady Northcote, his adopted daughter, is also childless.

Lord Northcote comes of a very ancient Devonshire house, the first ancestor of whom record is found having been resident at Northcote, in the parish of East Down, Devon, in 1103, just 800 years ago, when Henry I was King of England. When the first Edward ascended the throne the Northcotes were a flourishing family, while so early as July 16, 1641, John Northcote was created a baronet. He was a Sheriff of Devon, and a member of Parliament under Charles I. This baronet's eldest son married a sister of Lord High Treasurer Godolphin, first Duke of Leeds. The first Sir Stafford Northcote, the fifth baronet, was born in May, 1936,

and he was followed by two other Sir Stafford Northcotes, the latter of these being the celebrated statesman, who was created Earl of Iddesleigh, and whose second son is Lord Northcote, the new Governor-General of Australia. Lord Northcote is one of a large family. His eldest brother is the present Earl of Iddesleigh. A second brother, the Rev. John Stafford Northcote, is honorary chaplain to the King, and is married to a daughter of the late Dean Farrar. Another brother married a daughter of the hon. Hamilton Fish, Secretary for War in the Administration of General U. S. Grant, and a sister of Mr. Stuyvesant Fish, president of the Illinois Railway

Company.

Lord Northcote is a prominent Freemason,

and has been provincial grand master for Devonshire since 1899. He is also a Knight Grand Cross of the Indian Empire, and is a member of the Atheneum. Carlton, St. James, and St. Stephen's

clubs.

Sydney, August 9.

Lord Tennyson was yesterday informed by cable from the Secretary of State for the Colonies that the King had approved of the appointment of Lord Northcote as his Excellency's successor as Governor-General. His Excellency, who is personally acquainted with Lord Northcote, stated that he was very pleased to hear of his appointment as his successor. Lord Tennyson is sorry to have to keep to his original intention of leaving in December, but owing to urgent private affairs his departure for England is

necessary.

Sir Edmund Barton, referring to the appointment, said he thought it would be a successful one. Mr. Chamberlain telegraphed

to the Governor-General recently, asking whether the appointment of Lord Northcote as Governor-General would be acceptable to the Government, and informed him that his lordship's Governorship of Bombay had been conducted with marked success. From all Sir Edmund Barton could gather Lord Northcote was a man of proved ability and capacity.

Melbourne, August 9.

The appointment of Lord Northcote as Governor-General was known to the Federal Government some days ago. The Government were consulted by the Imperial authorities to ascertain whether the appointment would be agreeable. The Government offered no objection. Their action towards the selection was, it is officially explained, one of neutrality.

Mr. Deakin, in a brief rhapsody, declares that the new Governor-General comes from "the hoary and weary age of India to the eager youth of these southern lands."

Sir John Forrest, who is not equal to this kind of language, says, that when in England he met Lady Northcote at a reception given by the Duke of Marlborough at Blenheim. Both himself and Lady Forrest were much struck by her brilliance and charm. Although at the time Lord North-cote's name was mentioned in connection with the Governor-Generalship a stronger candidate was supposed to be the Duke of

Somerset.

The salary of the new Governor-General is £10,000 a year. There is also an appropriation, of £6,015 annually for the maintenance of the Government Houses in Melbourne and Sydney. The appointment. is "during pleasure."