The Prince and the School Children.

Otago Witness, Issue 2455, 3 April 1901, Page 17

The Prince and the School Children.

TO THE EDITOR. Siu.—Referring to the excellent proposal to bring the country children to welcome the royal visitors I should like to offe:- one or two suggestions for consideration The board set up a committee to ooiisr.lt with the country committees as to the numbers h'kely to come in. Mr J. F. M. Fraser's idea is that the children should spend two days in town—thousands of them billeted in the town schools. This 1 am convinced is unnecessary, and if too much is attempted the phn will break down of it° own weight. Two days in town in the dead of winter for thousands of children is surely unnecessary. Eveiythmg except their Royal Highnesses can be seen in Dunedin at any time by our country children. Having seen the royal visitors, the children should, the same day, ba returned home. From Oamaru on the one hand and Clinton and Lawrence and Hyde on the other, and all places intermediate, the children could come to Dunedin and return the same day. And what I suggest is: that all the children I from the outlying districts beyond a day's J journey by rail should be billeted, not in Dunedin, but in the towns on the railway j nearest their homes Oamaru would thus bil- , let fora night on their way in and for a night on their way home the children from IVga- i para and Duntroon Fcctions, Hampden and | Palmerston the children from Macraes and such places; Ilydp, Milton. Lawrence, Bnlthe children from the Catlins, etc. ; Giinton from the surrounding districts. The&e towr>3 would be places of rendevous going and coming, and would entirely relieve Dunedin of the pressure of thousands of country children who, their own function ended, could not fail to be a danger to themselves and a very pprious responsibility to those charged with their care and kwp for two whole days in a crowded cit3* This would not hinder any who made arrangements to accompany parents and look after themselves from doing so. Besides, if they were to be two days in Dunedin, some of them -would be four or five days from home, knocking about the railways and *(reets. As it is a national function, and the railways, like the schools, are v.ader Government, I assame the children %vould tra\el for, £ay, sixpence each return. Ap to what to do with the children when gathered in Dunedin, this an ill depend on the time allotted to them by the civic authorities. I assume that half an hour or so would be all they would actually consume of the time of their Royal Highnesses Given good weather, they might be reviewed by the Duke in some of the open spaces ; but if the Agricultural Hall i« available, an address from the children of the province might be presented there. As to the form—l do not mean the words,—l make two suggestions. The address to the future King should be signed by every pupil in the province. This may seem a little absurd and impracticable; but it is neither. Sheets pi-epared could be issued to every school by the board, and these, with the address, could be bound in the highest style of a.-t the colony can produce. It will be within thr recollection of come that the children of Auckland, numbering many thousands, sent a similar address to her late Majesty on her jubilee. Further, I offer one suKgestion more, and that is that the children at the same time, should offer for the acceptance of her Royal Highnesp tho Duchess of York a specially prepared album of New Zealand scenery, such as has never gone out of the colony, the photographer and binder combining to make a rare work of art. And the cost of this, perhaijs £50. the children will gladly bear themselves, by contributing a penny each with their signatures to the address. Dunedin knows how to train a children's choir. The singing of two pieces and tho National Anthem—the presenting of the children's sou\ enu—would this take Ions?? and all the children away home by trains al 3 or 4. I think 50.000 children were massed in Dublin to see the Queen—but they must have been sent home the Kime day.—l am, etc.. P. B. Fha?ek. March 27.