ROYALTY IN DUNEDIN.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4394, 27 June 1901, Page 4

ROYALTY IN DUNEDIN.

The fourth of our great centres has now been reached by the Royal visitors, and the tour of New Zealand is practically over. The time has therefore come for comparing the behaviour of the great centres of population; and the first thing that strikes one is that there is hardly room for comparison. All received Royalty in the same spirit, details differing, of course; but there was everywhere the same spontaneous cordiality. In Dunedin yesterday the same thing occurred, in respect to the cheering, that has occurred at every one of the other centres. From the instant of the appearance of the Royal carriage to the close of the procession the volley of cheering was continuous, rolling round in company with the Duke and Duchess. That is the common feature of the New Zealand celebrations. Otago had one advantage, inasmuch as she received the visitors by night, at an appointed hour, in a manner arranged. The consequence was that Port Chalmers sent a welcome to the slowed-down Royal train which for grandeur of pyrotechnic display' beats the “record” of arrivals during the visit. Nothing finer than those coloured lights which lighted up the compact little town was seen throughout. It was typical of the unfailing character o. the loyalty which was everywhere so conspicuous throughout the colony. At Dunedin the Duke seems to have entered more fully into the spirit of colonisation for which those settlements were, in common with the rest of Australasia, remarkable in their early days. In this respect his reply' to the Dunedin Corporation appears, if we may judge by the reports that have reached ns, to have been the best in that style he de-

livered throughout his visit. The electric moment of the tour came during the dinner to the veterans and returned contingenters. When the incidental music reached “Rule Britannia,” the old soldiers and the young dropped knife and fork, sprang to their feet and joined in the music—ran away with it—and the band was heard no more. That was the climax of the four triumphal progresses through the colony, and it showed how much the people of the®® outlying countries think of the Empire, which is greater than anything ever seen in the history of the world, and how highly and justly they regard the freedom which the Imperial rule guar&c. tees. That is a good note, and it is good that it should bo the last note of the Royal visit to the most British and most loyal of the colonies.