I have on behalf of the people of the colony conveyed to Colonel Baden- Powell their warm oppreciaiion of the noble way in which the defence of Mafe king has been maintained by him with the loyal co-operation of his officers and men. In congratulating him I have assured him that his magnificent achievement will never be forgotten by the people of this colony, and that he has our highest respect and good will. The school committees throughout the colony have been requested to give the children a holiday in celebration of the happy event." The Mayor then said he was sure the sentiments in that telegram would be re-echoed by those assembled, and in no part of New Zealand was the news of the relief of Mafeking more welcome than in Woodville, because some of our own lads were there doing their best to bring about that relief. There is one thing, he said, which this war had clear. ly shown, and that was this : thnt there is a prominent trait in the character of our people which time has never effaced, and he hoped it never would. We learn from our earliest history that whenever a common danger threatened the old land of our forefathers that, no matter what internal differences they might have, they always presented an unbroken front to the enemy. That trait had been very visible in the present war. —(Cheers), So long as the British Government was endeavoring to ob tain justice for their countrymen in the Transvaal, then they | sawt the whole Empire calmly watching events and feeling assured that Great Britain would use all honorable means to pre vent bloodshed. When once the gaunt let was thrown down, however, and war was forced upon them, then their kins men in the cold regions of Canada joined hands with those in the sunny lands of Australasia, thus unitedly sup porting the Mother Country to uphold the honor of the old flag, and to secure equal rights and justice for their fellow colonists in the Transvaal. He held that it waß no small privilege to be borp under that flag, and felt proud in belong.- ing to a race whose sons had succeeded in planting it in all parts of the world. 