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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 7885, 2 March 1887, Page 4

It will be noticed in the cable messages that an announcement has been made in the House of Commons that Queen Victoria will attend a Jubilee service in Westminster Abbey on the 21st of June next, and that the day will be proclaimed a general holiday. It may therefore, be taken for granted that this has been decided upon, and will in most places be observed as Jubilee day. As the 20th June, 1837, was the day of Her Majesty's ascension to the throne, it might naturally have been expected that this would have been selected as the date on which that propitious event should be commemorated. But, as is well known, Queen Victoria has a characteristic regard for exactness in all matters • and, seeing that thQ jubilee of her reign would be completed only with the expiry of the 20th, she naturally selected the 21sfc as the proper day for the Jubilee recognition. The same feeling seems to have guided her in respect of the Jubilee day as swayed her in respect of the Jubilee Year. It was the desire of not a few that the year which signalised her entrance upon the J übilee of her reign should be the year of commemoration; and it was thought by many that the observance of it during the Indian and Colonial Exhibition, which marked an important era in the history of the Empire, would be a happy and pleasing coincidence. The idea, however, did not find favour with Her Majesty, who preferred that the fiftieth year of her reign should have been completed before the Jubilee ceremonies should be observed. The 21st of June, therefore, will not only be distinguished as the commemoration of an unusually prolonged and beneficial reign, but will also prove the commencement of a new epoch. And of this all may feel assured, that from every part of her vast Empire the warmest congratulations, and professions of renewed loyalty,will on that day be conveyod to Her Majesty, while the devout feeling cherished in the hearts of untold millions will be that which is expressed in the familiar words " Long live our Gracious Queen."