LIFE OR DEATH !

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12003, 27 June 1902, Page 4

LIFE OR DEATH !

Our cable messages from London; will fill our readers with the most grievous anxiety. It is, unhappily, no longer possible io doubt that the life of the ling is in the deadliest peril, and taat unless a change for the better intervenes the worst fears may bo realised. In the face of this overshadowing national calamity, our disappointments at the unavoidable postponement of Coronation to some future occasion become trivial and nsismificant. The desire and prayd." of every loyal citizen concentratl themselves upon the passionate hqse that our King may be spared to us, and that this cup of sorrow be lot put to the lips of his brave wife and devote?! children. It is at iioments such as these that we realise how our national thought cejtres in the Monarchy, and what ve owe to a wise and patriotic Sovereign. The Royal line is firmly root<d in the loyalty oi our world-wide people, and its sceptre passes mm one to another and carries our Mlegiance with it* But though our loyalty is imper-i sonal our affections are very personal. It is the' [' Prince of Wales"' whom we have j known for sixty years, as well as the King Edward whom we have kiown for seventeen months, who liei at death's door. It is the familiar face for which we( fear, the familial personage whose* loss we dread, made dearer and more valued by having proved himself worthy to reijm, entitled to our trust, capable for the high office thati he holds. Not only in Auckland and in New Zealand, but in every British land and wherever men of our* nation are to be j found, hearts will to-day be heavy 'and faces will today be gloomy, because from houi* to hour we shall wait fearfully td hear what may befall our King.