RECEPTION OF HIS EXCELLENCY SIR

New Zealand Herald, Volume V, Issue 1362, 28 March 1868, Page 3

RECEPTION OF HIS EXCELLENCY SIR

G. F. BOWEN. The following letters have been placed at our disposal. Similar letters have been issued to the Bines and Cavalry Corps : Militia and Volunteer Office, Auckland, 27th March, 1868. Sir, —I have the honour to forward copy of a letter (annexed) from his Excellency tho Governor, and request you will take an early opportunity of reading the same to the corps under your command. —I have, &c, M. Tiche, Major and Adjt. Captain Guilding, Commanding Naval Volunteers, Auckland. Government House, Auckland, March 26, 186 S. Sik, —T am directed by Governor Sir George Bowen to express to you, and through you to tho officfrs, non-commissioned officers, and privates of the several corps of Volunteers of all arms that wore under your command yesterday, Hia .Excellency's thanks for their attendance, and liia high appreciation of their appearance and ellicioncy. The Governor deeply regrets that circumstances beyond his coi.trol coinbinod to delay his arrival in Auckland, and thereby caused some inconvonience on previous occasions. Bis Excellency, however, feels the more gratified at tho numerous attendance of Volunteers, who, in many instances from a considerable distanco, and at very Bhort notice, assembled to do honour to tho Eepresontativo of tho Queen.— I have, &c, AIGBKNOK LEJirBISKE, Private Secretary. Major Tigho, Commanding Volunteers.

H.U.H. THE DUKE OP EDINBURGH. The following appears to have been very carefully compiled, and will now bo a matter of interest to all. It was published in the South Australian Berpsler on the occasion of the Prince's visit to that colony :— The Canadas had been almost a century under the British Crown before they had .the honour of being visited by a Prince of the blood royal. South Australia has not been quite a third of a century in existence, and already a Royal salute has echoed across the Gulf of St. "Vincent. All hail to the Galatea, and the sailor Prince who commands her! A rather invidious comparison has been drawn between the visit of his Jioyal Highness to Australia and that of the Prince of Wales to Canada, based on the fact that the latter was a special mission, while the former is only a naval cruise. South Australians would be the last men in the world to notice such alleged distinctions. Had they been asked beforehand in what capacity they would prefer to receive his Eoyal Highness they would have unanimously responded—in his own character of a sailor Prince. In common with all Englishmen, we specially admire the courage and skill of the. quarter-deck. Most of us, in our long journey bitherward across the Atlantic, have witnessed the grand defiance which the old flag throws out to the storm, and have felt that none but a brave man could choose the ocean for his home. Though many thousand miles distant from the scenes of Trafalgar and Camperdown, we retain all our Anglo-Saxon pride in the " wooden walls of old England." Ihey have been welcome visitors to our shores,

and wo trust they always will be. The best claim the Prince could urge upon our loyalty next to being the Queen's son is that he has been found worthy of a high position in the Queen's navy. Imagine the effect it would hare produced upon us had he come by the overland route as " a distinguished first-class passenger," with the Colonial Secretary nudging at his elbow and a long train of titled officers at his heels ! As simple Captain of the Galatea he will not only be more in his element, but will elicit more genuine respect from the people he comes to visit. The Duke of Edinburgh's position in the navy is not one of mere form, and bis rank of PostCaptain is not, as Lord Brougham described the Duke of Cumberland's title, one of courtesy. He has passed through all the preliminary grades from that of midshipman. He has undergone very creditable examinations, and has seen a considerable amount of service on foreign stations. The naval profession was his own choice, and from the time he adopted it he has manifested a true sailor's interest in it. As midshipman and lieutenant he cheerfully fulfilled the duties of his position, and showed an intelligent respect for that rigid discipline which so greatly promotes the efficiency of tho English navy. His associates were not selected on account of their aristocratic connections. He had to begin by taking them as he found them, and his intercourse with them has produced mutual attachments much stronger than any that could have been founded on titles. When he obtained a ship of his own, he did not have it fitted up and officered so as to form a little floating Court. He used his new influence to obtain promotion for several deserving men who had served with him in the Hacoon. A reference to the Navy List for the current year will prove what some of our pseudo-aristocrats will be very unwilling to credit —that the officers have not a single title to divide amongst them. They are plain sailors, serving though they be under a Eoyal Captain.

Those who remember as if it were yesterday tho gazetting of Prince Alfred as a midshipman in the Euryalus will be surprised to hear that that event occurred nine years ago. With the exception of last summer he has served in three difl'ercnt ships before he obtained his own. Properly speaking, his naval career commenced in 1556, his first professional tutor having been Major Cowell, U.K. He spent the winter of ISSG-57 at Geneva learning modern languages. After a short period of travel he was placed under the Rev. W. It. Jolley, of Alverbank, who qualified him for his pass examination, which he underwent with credit on the 31st August, 1556. He was appointed a Naval Cadet) and two months later he joined the Euryalus, a screw steam-frigate of 51 guns, Captain John Walter Tarleton,' C.B. The first public event in his life was his visit to the Capo, whore ho received an enthusiastic welcome. From the Euryalus he was then transfered to the St. George, in which he had a considerable amount of cruising in the Mediterranean and elsewhere. During this period he had also several opportunities of travelling privately in America and the West Indies. In 1862 he became perforce a political character, when the insurgent Greeks did him the honour of electing him to the throne left vacant by the lata King Otho. By the advice of the English Government, he politely declined to exchange his midshipman's cap for so precarious a crown. In the following year (1563) he was promoted to a lieutenancy in the Racoon —a steam of twenty-two guns, Count Glucken, commander. Hero he had three years more of cruisinp, chiefly in the Mediterranean, his only leave of absence being for a few months, which he spent at the Edinburgh University. On the ISth February, 1866, the Eacoon returned to Portsmouth, and was paid off. The Boyal Lieutenant, now on the eve of his majority, had a summer's holiday before him. Immediately after his return he obtained his Captain's commission—the prelude to greater honours. On her Majesty's birthday" (May 2-1) she was pleased to grant him a peerage under the treble title of the Earl of Ulster, Earl of Kent, and Duke of Edinburgh. The Edinburgh title has been worn by four of his royal relatives. It was first conferred in 1726 on Frederick Lewis, son of George Prince of Wales 1729, but he died during his father's lifetime (1751) and the minor titles were inherited by his son, afterwards George the Third. When the latter came to the throne in 1760, all his previous titles merged in the Crown. Shortly afterwards the Edinburgh dukedom reappeared with a slight variation, George the Third having in 1764 created his younger brother, Prince William Henrv, Duke of' Gloucester and Edinburgh. This one died in 1805, and was succeeded by his son William Frederick, at whose death the title again became extinct. North Britons will therefore see that the present dukedom is the third compliment of the kind which their favourite metropolis has received from tho Crown. A fortnight after his creation the young Duke took his seat in tho House of Lords (June 8), having been introduced by his brother the Prince of Wales, and by the Duke of Cambridge. He does not appear to have found the legislative eloquence of the partisans an irresistible attraction. It was in the city rather than at Westminster that his entrance into public life was celebrated. He had not been many days a Peer when he was made a Freeman of London. On this occasion the worthy Aldermen outvied themselves in the magnificence of their hospitality. The freedom of the city was, as usual, followed by the freedom of the city companies, and the great feast of Gog and Magog by a series of smaller leasts. His Highness was made m course of two months, a naval captain, a Duke, a full citizen, a grocer, a fishmonger, and a member of various other " incorporated trades. The next and highest social dignity to which he as an Englishman could aspire was the chair at a public dinner. On the 16th June he made his debut in this important capacity as chairman at the annual dinner of the Boyal Caledonian Society. There he won the Caledonian heart by appearing in Highland costume, and by making a 'terse effective speech on behalf of the Asylum. With the shrewdness of North Britons the Directors sent round a subscription list immediately after the royal appeal, and in a few minutes they got it back with a thousand pounds upon it. The patronage of charitable institutions and the honorary membership of societies that were thurst on his Bcyal Highness proved not only his popularity, but the good opinion that was entertained of his abilities. The Society of Arts enrolled him in the long list of distinguished names in its Executive Committee, and during his stay in London lie presided at various Committee meetings in the Central Hall of Arts and Sciences. A graceful compliment was paid him by the Eoyal Albert Yacht Club, founded in honor of his father's memory, in asking him to become Commodore. His interest in his profession was tested by various other claims of a similar nature. In June 1866, he accepted the invitation of the Mercantile Marine Service Association to distribute the prizes at their Training School in Liverpool. In December he was elected President of the Koyal Naval Scripture Readers' Society—an institution which, though of recent origin, is said to be doing a large amount of good.

Before the end of 1866 the Duke's holiday -eras drawing to a close. The Galatea, which had arrived in autumn from the "West Indies, was assigned to him, and on the 16tli November he hoisted his flag on board, taking with him several of his fellow-officers of the Eacoon. Her outfit was completed in January of the present year, when she was commissioned for " particular service," the nature of which has since been made known to us. On the 23rd May, his Eoyal Highness left England for the Mediterranean; on the 11th June the Galatea started on her voyage round the world ; and on the morning of the 30th October she anchored in Australian waters.