PRINCE OF WALES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIV, Issue LIV, 15 June 1920, Page 5

PRINCE OF WALES

Electric Telegraph— Copyright) (Australian A N.Z. Cablo Association) (Rec. 1.20 a.m.) MELBOURNE, This Day. Despite the early morning departure of the Pirnce, he was farewelled by crowds thronging the piers and foreshores of Pori Melbourne. The Renown, with her long row of lighted portholes, pvsented a picturesque spectacle moving down Hobson Bay. A slight fog was experienced at firstbut ideal conditions are prevailing up the coast. VISIT TO .NEW SOUTH WALES (Pv Electric; Telegraph— Copyright). (Australian & N.Z. Cable Association)

SYDNEY, June 14. The weather outlook for Lie Prince's visit is dubious. It has been showery since early morning and the rain has sadly bedraggled the bunting and soddened and discoloured the paper decorations, winch had reached an advanced stage. The Prince arrived at Jems Bay and was enthusiastically received. (Rec. 11.10 a.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. The Prince inspected the Jervis Bay Naval College and highly eulogised the work performed dining the war. “You men,"’ he said, “have joined the finest services Tn the world.' 1 The Empire could not exist without the navy.” PRINCE CAPTURES MEL BOURNE It is not exaggeration to say that Melbourne lost its collective head over the Prince, writes the Sydney correspondent ol the Christchurch Press. _ Australians are naturally suspicious of anything savouring of the aristocarcy —but the charming smile and simple, unaffected manner of the young heir to the Throne found a way straight to their warm hearts. The crowds, indeed, were so enormous, and so demonstrative that they made the performance of the Prince’s onerous public duties very difficult, and contributed in no small degree to his threatened collapse. He was late for almost every public engagement—simply,because the people thronged around him so that his carriage could not get through the streets. He never failed to stand up in his car, saluting them and smiling his famous smile. He refused to have an escort of mounted police ; he thought they might hurt the people—and so he paid the penalty by having the people almost trampling on him in their eagerness to get near him. The authorities tried to help matters by having foot police move along rapidly beside the car. But the Prince noticed that these men ■were distressed by their heavy work, and the fast space- and so he stopped his car and made them vide on the footboards. It is a little incident like this that finds the heart of the Australian people. He has begged the crowds to spare him a little and keep back—but they only cheer him the more and crowd closer.

AMONG THE DIGGERS " Many thousand of returned soldiers met the Prince in the Exhibition Building last Monday evening. They greeted him uproariously. He 'spoke to them first from .the platform, and then lie went down into the body of the hall and visited the different groups. He paused for a moment and shook hands with the head of each 'table, and passed on, encountering a great deal of goodnatured chart from the Diggers. Several shouted joufc tips for the races, which the"Prince will attend at Flemington on Saturday, and one buttonholed the Prince confidentially, and told him to be sure and back Pram for the Steeple. The Prince enjoyed this part of the programing immensely and returned to the platform flushed and smiling, and completely at ease. He departed a little later amid vociferous - cheering, and the singing of “He’s a Jolly Good Fellow 7 .” ‘ ■

UNFORTUNATE SCENE AT TOWN HALL The Prince had a less happy experience that same evening at the Town Hall. There was' a Hospital Funds Ball there, and all and sundry Ifad been allowed to buy tickets. Too many people wane present—many of them with no conception of good manners. The floor was so crowded with w 7 ould-be dancers that practically no dancing _ could take place. Members of The committee tried to clear the floor a little. Then the Prince and a big official party arrived and confusion became worse confounded. The dancers made a little space. and the Prince led the Lady Mayoress out : to dance. The people crowded around to that extent, stating and jostling, that the Prince and partner were forced to stop. The crowd moved back somewhat, and again the Prince tried to dance. Again the unmannered men and women crushed forward, and the Prince, with every evidence of annoyance, led his partner from the floor. After a discussion the official party moved towards the supper-room ; even then, they got through the jostling mass w 7 ith the utmost difficulty. While they w 7 ere i.at supper, the crowd- was appealed to to make room, and the committee was anxious to rope off a space; but the Prince would nob allow 7 that. The people, he

was sure, would make room. He re-entered the ballroom with a young lady, and tried to dance. Again ■ the people pressed on to the floor, and lie had to stop. Sir Lionel Halsey mounted a dais' and asked the gentlemen present to clear the floor —the dancers to dance, and the onlookers to get back to the sides of the room. An attempt was made to do tills. But only a few measures were danced before the implacable pressure from behind forced those in front out on to the floor again, and the Prince found himself and his partner hemmed in by the loutish crowd, stared at as ii he were a zoological specimen. The Prince and official party left tiie Town Hall almost immediately.