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with a statesman of your ripe judgment, breadth of view, and constructive genius. Wishing you many years of service for the country we both love,

I am

yours sincerely,

BEN. H. DEARE.'

It is worthy of notice that during the three years I was Minister there was no Surgeon-General with whom I had so many fights. I think you really get to the heart of an Englishman if you give him one or two hard knocks, and he pays you back in kind. You become good friends after such a tussle. My experience tells me that this is the royal road to his heart. It engenders mutual esteem and confidence.

However that may be, it was not all plain sailing with me in the administration of a great department, where I was endeavouring to instil the breath of a new spirit, fostered by my lifelong association with popular ideas. I remember that, on one occasion at least, there was a passing breeze between myself and an acting Surgeon-General. It was in connexion with the transfer of a Civil Surgeon. There was a difference of opinion between him and the Magistrate of the district, and I had to decide the point; I supported the Magistrate's point of view for administrative reasons, which seemed to me to be sufficient. The Surgeon-General was unyielding. We discussed the matter, but he was unwilling to give way. I then said to him, 'If you are unable to persuade yourself to see eye to eye with me, will you please take it as an order from me?' He readily assented with the discipline of the great Service to which he belonged. But this was only a passing incident, and left no unpleasant memories behind. Our relations continued to be as friendly as before.

What I tried to create was an atmosphere of trust and confi- dence. We were new to the office and the office staff. They were tried veterans in their work. I was a stranger to it. They had an advantage over me. I had none over them, except that I was in the position of their Chief, and had behind me a more or less well- known record of public work. The office was well disposed; their good will, however, had to be cemented. There was an air of con- fidence all around; but it had to be consolidated and deepened. I remembered a well-known passage in one of Herbert Spencer's books in which he says, 'If you want to win over people, you must seem to love them; and the best way to seem to love them is really

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