CORONATION MESSAGE

Evening Star, Issue 22631, 24 April 1937, Page 13

CORONATION MESSAGE

THE GIRL GUIDES BEARER WELCOMED / A representative gathering of Dunedin Girl Guides numbering between 300 and 400 assembled in the Council Chambers of the Town Hall last evening to welcome the bearer of the Girl Guides’ Coronation message, which _ is being borne throughout the Dominion by representatives of the New Zealand Girl Guides. This message, which takes the form of an illuminated address to their Majesties, and which' it is intended to present to them upon the occasion of their Coronation, was despatched originally from Wellington, and after traversing the North Island was sent across Cook Strait to Blenheim. After being carried to the main centres, it arrived on Thursday at Oamaru, whence it was carried by easy stages to reach Dunedin yesterday afternoon. The mayor (the Rev. E. T. Coxl, Miss V. M. Barron (provincial commissioner), Mrs D. Lane and Miss Z. Hart (district commissioners), and Miss K. Standage (district captain) formed the party which welcomed the bearer of the message in the Council Chambers. The latter was challenged in truly medieval manner, and upon the correct reply being given, the message was accepted. During the affixing of the municipal seal the Mayor delivered a short address. He congratulated the Girl Guides on their loyalty, and added that their sentiments in this direction took a novel form, in which the virtue lay that they had won the interest both of the Guides and of their friends. Everyone was proud of the Throne and of the Royal Family, and it behoved true Guides never to approve of sneers levelled at what the_ present day termed Victorianism, since its ideals were those of the Guides—devotion to God, to the nation, and to good living. Queen Victoria was a monarch, _ not only, among the long line of British rulers, but among the Sovereigns of the world. Edward VII. was famous among the nations as “The Peacemaker,” George V. was typified in the words of the National Anthem, “ gracious and noble.” Edward VIII., though uncrowned, would in years to come be regarded as a king who had done a wonderful thing in renouncing his throne because an outside affection bade him do so. Although most people did not approve of his choice, it must be admitted that be had done what past monarchs would have found means of circumventing. The Coronation ceremony had been described by foreigners as the most brilliant function one could witness in the world, and since the great majority could not bo present, the next best thing was to express in a manner such as the Guides, to the King, his Queen, and other members of the Royal Family, their loyalty and affection.

The sealed message was then handed over to he conveyed a further stage southward.