A SIXTY YEARS' RECORD.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1321, 24 June 1897, Page 31

A SIXTY YEARS' RECORD.

[From "The N.Z. Times," June 19.] &

TO HER MAJESTY. <3reat Sovereign! seated on thy Northern Throne, Who holds the circuit of the earth in fee ; Unchallenged wields the sceptre of tho sea ; Great in the nation's greatness, thou hast shown "Wisdom and goodness, that all thine own. With Heaven's guidance still vouchsafed to thee; Thy people love thee, Euler of the free, O'er Empire wider than the world has known. For sixty years a Queen ! Thy subjects send From Arctic circle to Equator's line, Glad gratulations for that reign benign ; And from these islands by earth's farthest end "We ioin and breathe the prayer —God still defend Our much-loved Motherland and thee and thine. John Bell. <3> : THE QUEEN IN THE PROCESSION OF THE DIAMOND JUBILEE. I. Pathetic to tho depths of unshed tears, "Which welling in the heart reach not tho day, The solemn triumph sounding in her ears From the heart of Empire, and from far away, Where May's November and November May, As in these isles, where Ruapehu roars His jagged peaks of ice and gleaming snow In the first glimmer of the dawn alone— Recalling all those sixty years ago, "When shout 3 of triumph woke that day of June, Instinct with hopes of prospects yet unborn. When she was placed on her ancestral throne: Those hopes have ripened into shocks of corn, And tranquil eve hath crowned a glorious noon. 11. What scenes innumerous do possess her soul, More life-like than the life, surpassing rhyme ! What names illustrious blazon on the roll! What energies, what agonies sublime ! You cannot backward put the clock of Time—'Tis gone, and all recorded, yet is there ; The glowing hours of the golden prime, And all .the glowing hopes her youth did wear: There, is the gladness of the marriage day. The happy hours of mind enlarging mind ; And there the sudden call of one away, The anguish of the other left behind ; There God inscrutable, yet just in power, j And solace of her life from hour to hour. 111. Bo from the march past of those sixty years Before her, swells within an undersong I know not -what of thoughts " too deep for tears," While all those ringing and continuous cheers, As in the great Procession borne along Unto great London's heart she slowly nears, Do show the flight of Time but more endears Her to the People she hath served so long. At length, where great St. Paul's, its dome, upsprings. The Btat«ly Pageant pauses on its way, While the glad ohoir the great Te Deum sinprs, The People's thanks to God this wondrous day, For her the choicest of that line of Kines That o'er our kingly race hath held the sway. A.G.T.

GOD BLESS THE EMPRESS-QUEEN. (Written For The Diamond Jubilee, s June 21, 1897). Up, up the Royal Standard ! let it float upon the breeze, From thctisand masts of thousand ships that walk the pathless seas ; Shine out, O! sun, upon it, and kiss each crimson fold, Flame on its rampant lions till they gleam like burnished gold; Ring out, O ! bells, your music from a thousand steeples high, And let the roar of thousand guns go reeling through the sky This day of days, the brightest that her empire yet hath seen, When all the world, saluting, criesj " God bless tho Empress-Queen." The Queen thai sixty years ago, a maiden young and fair, In purity and gentleness was cabled the (Jrown to wear, Crowned in her happy wifehood with a noble Consort's love, Crowned in her gracious motherhood with joy all joys abovo, Crowned with the crown* of sorrow, whose diamonds are tears, Crowned yet again by hand of Time with silver crown of years, Crowned with the crown of Empire unto earth's remotest parts, Crowned with the loving fealty of hundred million hearts. Up, up tho Red Cross Banner ! give its red folds to the wind, From England to Australia, from Canada to Ind, " From Afric's sunny fountains" to the Islands of the Sea Let it float out to the breezes, tho emblem of the free ; And land and sea shall greet it, shall answer , shore to shore, Island to island echo, ocean to ocean roar, And this, the prayer of all tho earth, the universal song—- " God bless the Queen and Empress!" the winds shall waft along. Up, up the Red Cross Banner of tho Empire of tho Seas, " The flag that's braved a thousand years tho battle and tho breeze," Tho oriflame of freedom that " floats not o'er a slave," Tho symbol of the union of a nation true and brave ; For rod as is its bunting is the crimson stream that runs—- " The crimson tide of kinship " —through the veins of all her sons ; And throughout the widest Empire that the world hath ever seen, That pulses to tho anthem, " God bless our Empress-Queen !" Up, up the Royal Standard! lift the grand old Ensign high, Their cross and crown the emblems of the faith that shall not die, Memorials for ever of a promise that is sure — " The throne that's built on righteousness shall always stand secure " And that this—King David's blessing—may rest upon the throno That now hath stood for centuries above tho stone o? Scono — Rest on our Queen and Empress—o'er all tho world to-day Will to tho Throne FJtornal her loving lieges pray. Will pray the great All-Father, the mighty King of Kings, To keep His royal servant 'neath the shadow of His wings ; That He —the only Helper, the one unfailing Friend— With arms of love and mercy will sustain her to the end, Through the valley of the shadow, by Faith and Hope made bright, Will with His right hand lead hor into everlasting light, And give her of His mercy with the Master's glad "Well done!" The crown that never fadeth, in the land beyond the sun. William Jukes Steward. Ashburton.