PRINCE RETURNS.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 103, 30 April 1920, Page 6

PRINCE RETURNS.

ROTORUA TRIP ENDS WELL. GREATLY ENJOYED BY H.R.H. FINEST HE HAS SEEN. Rotorua's Maori welcome to the Prince was the finest thing of the kind he has eeen. This was the opinion H.R.H. expressed to his hosts at the close of the memorable gathering yesterday. Wednesday's downpour of rain looked like, meaning a disastrous end to weeks and weeks of preparation, but Thursday ws II glorious day—one of tho choicest from the early winter basket when Rotorua air is like champagne, the lake sparkles beneath a vivid blue sky, and the. wind from the south has just sufficient tang in it to make a smart walk out to Whaknrewarewa a pleasurable way of unending the last hour before dinner time. It. was on one of these typically Lakeland days that H.R.H. had his great Maori welcome and saw the preyser villages at their best. True to his decision to see people "just as they rcallv are," he slipped out of his hotel with a companion late yesterday afternoon when the official round was over and stepped out tho road between Rotorua and •'Whakn." He was taken to the geyser terraces and boiling mud holes by the 'hack way, instead of going over the bridge by the entrance gate, and so escaped that, larse and curious tail which eleuths Royalty a mile off and taff* round in its wake. Pohutti hnil just finished a sinpnlnrlv (.'rand shot, with the sun jl'st in the risjlit quarter for that top lighting effect which is the most effective view of the famous "soap , eater," but the neighbouring spouter which fakes its name from the feathers worn by the Prince, of Wales was obliging enough to niako an opportune display. j

RETURNED POT.DTERS AND .VETERANS. After the bio- tribal display of the morning the Prince still had a few small functions to attend. The first was a gathering of the school children, who made a pretty sight, each child carrying a union flag". Then ho returned to .Arnwa Park, and there inspected a large parade of officers and men of the Maori l'n'»n'ion. which did such splendid work in Fiance as Pioneers. Quite a lot of tlie men wore decorations, and the Prince added three more to the number. Next to the veterans of 1914-19 were the veterans of the "seventies," under Major biir.'o. who was one of those plucky colonists out after Te Kooti's scalp. A t-mall party of returned nursee and several members of the Police Force who had seen service in the late war were also inspected by 11. R.H. QUIET FAREWELL.

Jhe uncertainty of everything end even-body owing to the railway strike resulted in a very quiet departure of the Royal guest from Rotorua. No announcement was made of the time of departure, and II.R-H.'e exit was somewhat like that of the Arab in Byjron's poem. Towards midnight ho walked clown to the station, and after chatting to some of the young ladies *f the Arnwa trihe who had been taking part in the morning's festivities, and had Btrolled down to the platform on the off , chance of once more seeing the Princely visitor who had made such an impression in the kaianga, he hoarded the train and did not appear again. The train left at om> o'clock this morning and reached Auckland at eight, after a eueceseful run. THe running of a Royal train, or rather series of trains—for a Royal train means three, the pilot, the train itself, and an emergency train—entails a lot of work on the officials and staff. Both are entitled to the gmatest credit for the way the train was fittedgtmt and the way it was run. Another official who earned the gratitude of those travelling with the Royal party, was Mr. J. Hialop. the Under Secretary of the Internal Affairs Dpnartment, ,en whose shoulders much extra work was thrown when the plans were upset by the strike.