PRINCE ON THE RENOWN

Southland Times, Issue 18810, 1 May 1920, Page 6

PRINCE ON THE RENOWN

OFB DAY IN AUCKLAND

FUTURE MOVEMENTS UNDECIDED

plana are uncertain pending the issue of (he railway strike.

(Special to the Times)

RETURN TO AUCKLAND. NIGHT JOURNEY FROM ROTORUA ROTORUA, April 30. The Prince of Wales’s train left for Auckland at 1 o’clock, this morning, pre ceded by trains ut 10.10 p.m. and midnight. The Governor-General left by the latter, and waa followed by an emergency train at 1.45 aun. The Prince walked to the station at 12J50 a.m., going through the yard via the Whaka road. The party included some Maori girls who started native songs and entered into the spirit of things. The Prince shook hands with each member of the informal escort, who cheered him and other members of the Royal family. A considerable number of people remained on the platform till the departure of the Prince’s train, but he did not, appear. When it went there were a few cries of “Good-bye Digger.” FUTURE MOVEMENTS UNCERTAIN. PRINCE REMAINING ON THE RENOWN. AUCKLAND, April 30. The Prince’s train, which left Rotorua at 12.55 a.m., reached Auckland at 8 o clock without incident. Further movements are uncertain. The Pnnce meantime will remain on board the warship.

THE DAY IN AUCKLAND.

PROSPECTS OF NORTH ISLAND TOUR-

AN OFFICIAL STATEMENT.

AUCKLAND, April 30. By the irony of fate the Price of Wales after having his visit to Rotorua spoiled by the rain on what should have been a big day and having yesterday clouded b3" the 1 uncertainties arising out. of the railway i strike position, found himself practically at a loose end in Aucklaind to-day, with ciear skies overhead. Reaching Auckland at eight, o’clock he walked out of the station quietly with his stall and proceeded to his quarters aboard the Renown. Though the hour eras early a crowd quickly gatnered and as the Prince crossed Queen’s Wharf, I the wtUcrsiders received him with cheers. Later in the day he went out to the golf links at One Tree Hill and enjoyed a round with the officers of the Renown. In 1-hc ovmiiiK ho nttcnilf'*! a private daroe on board tho bat-tie-cruiser. Sir William Fraser, Minister in charge of the tour with Mr McVillcy, Ci&noral Manager of the Railways, were in close touch with Wellington during tho day. When the news came 'in the morning hint the strike was settled, an announcement was made that the Royal train would start south at 3.t5 and that the programme Tor Taranaki and Hawke’s Bay would be completed as originally arranged, except that it would be a ( day late ail along tue. line. Then it was i found that the reported settlement only ap- | plied to a portion of the striker-, and the j hour of departure was postponed till 5 o’clock and finally it war- stated that no start would be made till morning. Tint Governor-General had_ a conference i with Sir Will!am kntwr and hn.ally the followin'-' official statement was issued. The Government de-sirc to make pubh. the fact that the Prince of Wales wishes to cc.rr v out the whole of ins tour in tiic North Island, if this can be done without prejudice U> the rem-unuer of his programme. If the strike is settled by tomorrow, he will leave Auckland by train on Sunday atternoo and will carry out the whole of ?he North Island programme, making up the two days which will have been leva, by giving up his deer-stalking expedition at the. end of next week. If llie ..strike is not stttk-d to-morrow, he will proceed to Wellington on ILM.S. Renown so to carry out the programme prepared for him in that city on the dates origin ai ly inlend er 1. DISAPPOIN TED CKILDRKN. AN APPEAL TO THE RAILWAY MEN. WELLINGTON. April 30. The Officers of the Education Boards Association and Federated School Committees have issued a joint apneal to railway men on behalf of the children who have been working hard to receive the Prince and now will be latterly disappointed. SYDNEY’S WELCOM.E. SYDNEY, April 30. (Received April 30, 9.23 n.m.) Tho executive committee planning the Prince of Wales welcome proposes to erect fifty arches along the route, giving each street a distinctive colour scheme. THE ROYAL VISITOR.

THE PRINCE’S STAFF,

IT is Royr.l 3 lighness Prince Edwanl Albert ChrLtiar. George Andrew Patrick David, j’riiuv of Wuics, Karl of Chester, Duke of Cornu - ; 1 !!. Du;:.' nf Rothesay, Karl of Game!;, Baron of ilenfrcw. Lord of ;he Isles and Great .-tewaid ox Scotland, High Steward of Windsor, K.G., G.M..W.G., G .‘.A. 8.E., Military Crons, Person :d A.D.C. to 11.51. the King, Colonel V.eb.h Guards, Col-nne!-iu-Chicf Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry', C-olonci-in-Cbief Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry, Colonel-in-Chief Cadet Corps of United Kingdom, a Captain Royal Navy, and Colonel Grenadier Guards, is the eldest son of the Xnig. and was Isom at White Lodge. Sheen, on .June 23, 1894. The Heir Apparent to the Throne, if the eldest, or cities I. surviving son of the Sovereign, bears regularly the title of Prince nf Wales hut by individual investment and not by birth. The investiture of the present Prince of Wales took place at Carnarvon Clastic on July 13, 1911. He is by right Duke of Cornwall in the Peerage of England. The title of Prince of Wales was originally' borne by those native rulers of that territory, who governed it as suzerains of the English Crown; and the commonly received story of the transfer of the title to the heirs of the latter is that Edward L, when expecting the birth of his second son, promised the Welsh to give them a Prince “free from any blemish upon his honour and unable to speak a word of English.” The title thus dates from the year 1284. The series of Scottish titles was conferred in 1469 upon the eldest son of the King of Scotland and thus they naturally passed with James I to the Royal House of Great Britain; in fact, there was prefixed to them, on the union of the two crowns, the still loftier title of “Prince of Great Britain and Ireland,” though this lias never succeeded in supplanting the older one. The insignia of the Prince of Wales comprise, in the first place, the special feature known as the Prince of Wales’s feathers, consisting of three ostrich plumes. At the base of these is an antique coronet, pendent from which is a scroll with the motto “Ich Dierr” {old German for “1 serve”") —both feathers and motto having been taken by the Black Prince from the head of the King of Bohemia, who was slain in the Battle of Crecy. In 1901 there was added the badge of a Bed Dragon, designed to ,

The Prince of Wales returned to Auckland from Rotorua yesterday

morning, and will remain on the Renown for the present. His future

SOME POINTS OF INTEREST. Chief of Staff: Rear-Admiral Sir Lionel | Halsey, K.CJd.G., K.C.V.0., C.B. ] Secretary: Lieut.-Colonel E. W. M. Grigg, I C. M.G., C.V.0., D.5.0., M.C. I Personal Secretary: Sir Godfrey V. . Thomas, Bart., M.V.O. j Extra Equerry: Captain Dudley B. N, j North, C.M.G., M.V.0., R.N. Equerries: Captain Lord Claud Nigel Hamilton, D.5.0., M.V.0., atid Captain the Horn Piers Lcgh, 0.8. K., M.V.O. Staff of Rear Arlmiral Sir L. Halsey: See re tary P aym aster - Lieu tenon t- Co inniauder A. C. A. .1 union, 0.8. K., R.N. , F lag loci’tenant,; Sub-Lieutenant the j Lord Louis A-lountbatten, R.N. Some of these will, of course, not be strangers in the Dominion, incut. Colonel E. W. M. Grigg has been out here before, and so have Captain Dudley B. N. North and Paymastcr-Licui-Commander A. C. A. I .1 anion, who were in H.M.S. New Zealand I on her first wot Id-tour. Remote perhaps, but. none the less of . particular interest, is the connection with ; Now Zealand df Sir Godfrey Vignolcs : Thomas, Burl.. To follow it. nut concisely I and briefly one mu.-t revert for a moment j lo the year ISI2 —the- date of the birth of j Sir Gc-oige Grey. As everyone in the Doi minion knows, this G.O.M. of New Zealand was born at Lisbon .-.hortly after his father, j Lieut.-Colonel Gro;v had been killed at ; Budojoz when loading a storming party to 1 the walls of the town. Lieut.-Colonel Grey’s wife was the oldest daughter of the Rev. John Vignolcs. of Coruaher, near Tyrrell’s Pass, Co. Westmeath, and she had gone lo Lisbon to be near tier husband. The news of the latu r's death, was shouted from the street, billow while airs Grey was chatting with now officers of the Duke of Wellington, and very shortly afterward her son —Air George Grey—was burn. Five years after the death of Lieut.-Colonel Grey liis widow married Sir John Thomas, and Sir Godfrey Vignolcs Thomas, 91 hj Bart., of Coruaher. was. her grandson. The Prince of Wales’s secretary is the tenth baronet, and is looking forward with the greatest interest to seeing in New Zealand till the interesting associations of his kinsman. .Sir Godirey, who was born in XSS9, has always ! been in the Diplomatic, Service, and he was in Berlin until just before the declaration of war. During the war he held special appointments under the Foreign Office, and he became private secretary to the Prince of Wains last May. He made the trip to Canada and the United States in t.ne Renown, and at the conclusion of the voyage he received the M.V.O. Lord Claud N. Hamilton, D.5.0., Grenada;! Guards, is one o! the sons of the 2nd Duke of Abercorn, and he is always known as Lord Claud Nigel Hamilton to distinguish him from hts kinsman, the Slignt Hon. Lord Claud Hamilton (chairman of the G;eat Eastern Railway). The only son of the hitter--Major Gilbert C. Hamilton, (Jrenaflicr Gunn’s—is the son-in-law of Mr and Mrs Charles Elgar, of the Wairarapa, so that Loid Claud Nigel Hamilton may claim i hat he has New Zealand, connection. He served ihrouhgmi; the war, was twice mentioned in despatches, and was appointed Equerry to the Prince of Wales last ]

Captain Dudley B. N. North has many friends already in New Zealand, and he is of course, the son-in-law of the Hon. W. 11. Campbell, of Sydney. At the time of the hist world-cruise of H.M.S. New Zealand, he was Lieur.-Commander of the ship, and hirst Lieutenant in her during the action in Heligoland Bight on August 24, 1914. At the end of that year he received promotion to Commander. Relieving Captain H. E. Grace as Commander of the New Zealand, he was present in that capacity' at the Dogger Bank action on January 34, 1915, when the Bluchcr was sung, and at Jutland. For the latter action he was commended in despatches and received the Russian Order of St. Stanislas, while in recognition of till three engagements he received the French Croix de Guerre with Palmes. From January, 1917, to July, 19IS, Commander North was at Ihe Admiralty as Naval Assistant to the 3rd and 4th Sea Lords, and from July, 1918, to March 1919, he was Commander of H.M. A.S. Australia. Prior to appointment as Naval A.D.C. to the Prince of Wales, he was for a while again at the Admiralty. The C.M.G. was bestowed upon him for “valuable services ashore and afloat,” and the M.V.O. followed the Canadian tour. As an interpreter in German Captain North has done useful work. Mrs North, who had many friends in New Zealand, where on several occasions she acted as hostess during the visit of H.M.S. New Zealand, died in 1917. Paym aster-Lieut.-Comm an dor A. C. A. Janion has been closely associated with Admiral Sir L. Halsey ever since HJd.S. New Zealand first went out to the Dominion. He was private secretaiy early in the war, and was given the Croix de Guerre in 1917. In March, 1919, he was with Sir L. Halsey (Officers’ Pay Committee) as Payot aster-Lieut. - Commander. Sub-Lieut, the Lord Louis Mountbatten, R.N., is a brother of the Eari of Medina, who, as Prince George of Battenberg, was out in New Zealand, and who was serving in H.M.S. New Zealand during the first half of the war. Lord Louis was born in 1900, and is said to be a great friend of the Prince of Wales.

represent the Principality of Wales. JTho Prince of Wales also has his distinctive coronet, which resembles St. Edward’s Crown. LOCAL PREPARATIONS. PRIVATE DECORATIONS NOT EXTENSIVE. The preliminary work in connection with the decorations for the Prince’s visit has begun, and yesterday workmen were busily engaged at the Post Office erecting the electrical wires for the illumination of that building. This is the only class of work that can be proceeded with at present, and it is intended to complete it as early as possible in order that there will not he any delay in carrying out other work which cannot be done until the last moment. At present it is impossible to ascertain to what extent private business firms will go in the matter of decorating their premises, but from inquiries made yesterday it does not appear as if the private decorations will be on such an elaborate scale as they were on the occasion of the peace celebrations. While most of the large drapery establishments have expressed their intention of making special window displays ana of providing extra lighting, it is doubtful whether they will do any outside decorating. Some are inclined to wait and see what other firms are doing in this direction Defore doing anything themselves, and it is not. unlikely that if a few of the more important firms decide to decorate the exterior of their shops with greenery and bunting, others will follow their lead. With regard to illuminations, apart from those being arranged by the committee, the local electrical firms have received no orders from private business people for special illumination or t-heir premises, and as there is little time left boiore the Prince arrives, it is evident that little or no illuminating will be done by private firms.