THE NEW ZEALAND HERALD AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, JUNE 26, 1902. GOD SAVE THE KING !

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12002, 26 June 1902, Page 4

THE NEW ZEALAND HERALD AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, JUNE 26, 1902. GOD SAVE THE KING !

To say, that the sudden postponement of the Coronation came as a shock to every man, and woman and child in the colony is to state mildly the painfullness of the impression produced. Now that we feel the sefciousness of the King's illness we c'fth. all see that the shadow of this pmblic calamity has been forecast and that the faithful and loving members of the Royal Family must for some little time have been hiding aching hearts beneath brave and smiling faces. But it would be idle to pretend that any dire foreboding had found entry into the thoughts of our people, who waited eagerly and loyally to watch with the insight of sympathy the crowning of our King in distant Westminster and to celebrate -with right goodwill that great national demonstration. Love is always blind. The chill which was announced ten days ago as having prevented His Majesty from attending the great Aldershot review ; the active assumption of Royal duties, then and since, by Queen Alexandra, usually so retiring; these incidents in themselves would have been disturbing were our eyes hot so fixed upon the coming of Coronation Day. Even the startling rise of the premiums for assurance against losses arising from a possible postponement of the Coronation failed to create any serious alarm, for the official bulletins uniformly made light of the indisposition, the members of the Royal Household came and went at public functions with impenetrable cheerfulness and the King himself continued to supervise the arrangements for the great ceremony. More than this, His Majesty actually showed himself in public during the present week: only yesterday our London messages informed us that King and Queen received an enthusiastic reception on their return from Windsor to Buckingham Palace, and that "the King is looking well." To the very last moment His Majesty strove with silent and unpretending courage against pain, weariness and disease. At the last, his strength could do no more and the postponement announcement flashed round the unwitting Empire and fell like a thunderbolt among us. The bitter disappointment which has followed upon the first stunning effect of the news covers a deeper and keener feeling. We had set our hearts upon the formal crowning of Edward the Seventh, and the national heart is essentially primitive, i prone to be swayed by its emotions and to rebel against the inevitable. We feel ourselves deprived of that which we thought ours, suddenly shut away from a stirring demonstration of the unity of our Empire, of its loyalty to the Crown, of its jubilation at the beating of victorious swords into bread-winning ploughshares. And we nurse that disappointment, nurse it and rehearse it, dwell upon it and foster it, because of the grim fear which it cloaks, because of the phantom which whispers to every loyal ear that will listen. What of the King ! We expected much of Victoria's son and successor and he has fulfilled our every expectation. He came from her deathbed to take oath that he would govern according to the laws, to voluntarily pledge himself to walk in her footsteps, to dedicate his remaining years to the welfare of the British peoples. That oath he has kept. That pledge he has made good. That dedication—is this to be the token of it, this falling in harness, this breaking down upon the very threshold of the Abbey ? All hope for the best, but how is it possible to avoid this underlying dread of the worst 1 The very, heroism with which the

Umg has striven, to stifle his physileal weakness fills us with dismay even while it appeals with pathetic force to our strongest national sympathies. Our Royal House has ever been famous or its stubborn courage for the dogged "pluck" which holds to the end and persists to the uttermost And we see now through the rent red which KinEdward would have kept before our eyes, which was woven in pain and suffering and anguish and sorrow by the kingly determination that so fa as lay in mortal power our Coro- . nation Day should neither be disturbed "ny fears nor spoiled by disappointment. For this, he * kept bravely afoot until the only hope l' ay in restful recuperation. 'For this' the Queen took his place at the saluting point and spoke bravely to his soldiers, drove to races 'and smiled, .on cheering multitudes walked through hospitals and comforted the sick with kind words his son and daughter with her, i, on e knowing of their hidden grief. For this, he went up to London and " looked well'' to those who welcomed him and who had no inkling that he was making a last desperate effort. During the few months of his sovereignty the King has acted wisely and spoken well and done his utmost for us all, but never has Ihe tried more bravely or more strenuously to do his duty than in this ; never has he been more bravely and strenuously supported by his Queen and children. We know this: We know that if it had been humanly possible Edward the Seventh would .to-day have been crowned at Westminster. What wonder then that Our disappointment covers an intolerable fear which it would be accounted of illomen to put into words ] Only yesterday morning we looked forward confidently to the Coronation of to-day. To-day we pray that, if it be possible, the King's life may be given us. Beside that prayer, all material losses and personal disappointments fade into insignificance. King Edward thought so much of these things for us that the sense of them has wasted away. And we look back, across the gulf of thirty years, to the unforgotteu j weeks when the British peoples : watched beside the sick-bed of their . Heir, when forty millions knelt in I supplication for Albert Edward, Prince of Wales. Then,- that prayer was granted. In spite of years and infirmities, he may again be spared to dispense justice and inculcate mercy, to clear the road to Peace and gate the way. to War. For the We which is so blind in its security is equally blind in its fears. All that science can do is being done. All that affection can do is being done. And the deep-set sympathy of a world-wide, people smooths thfe pillow.of their King. And when all is said and done, much as we think ' of the ancient ceremony at the Abbey, much as we desire to see Edward the Seventh crowned as is the custom of the British, with all historic rite and symbolic ritual and constitution-guarding declaration, I he could not possibly be more our ' ! King than he is' now. So that we can Say to-day with all our hearts and voices, with a fervour which we could not have felt in quite the same way had matters gone on uninterruptedly, with a loyalty and sympathy which no crowning could increase and no anointing deepen :| " God save the King ! Long may he' reign !"