TRIBUTE TO QUEEN VICTORIA

Southland Times, Issue 23826, 25 May 1939, Page 6

TRIBUTE TO QUEEN VICTORIA

UNTIRING WORK TO BUILD EMPIRE (United Press Association) AUCKLAND, May 24. The Governor-General (Viscount Galway), responding to the toast of “The British Empire” at the Empire Day dinner tonight, paid a warm tribute to the untiring work of Queen Victoria on behalf of the Empire. “It was under Queen Victoria,” his Excellency said, “that the Empire was made more or less in the form as we know it today.” During Queen Victoria’s reign there had been two lines of thought, said Lord Galway. There were the builders of the Empire, the greatest of whom was probably Lord Beaconsfield, and opposed to them were the critics, the Gladstonians, who favoured the spending of money at home and looked askance at Empire development. Today there was a broader idea of Empire, his Excellency said. While Britain was trying to look after and maintain the conditions of her native peoples so she had allowed latitude in the government of the Dominions, which were now welded into the great British Commonwealth of Nations. The Empire stood for peace, security and the betterment of the native races and the improvement of the standard of living of all within its boundaries.

Lord Galway said he was sure that all thoughts were going out to the present great expedition in Canada. That expedition was going to be epoch-making. It was the first time an English King and Queen had ever set' foot on the northern continent of America. The tour would be fraught with the greatest good, and he was sure the King and Queen would charm all with whom they came in contact. The tour of the United States would be of lasting benefit and would bring the two great Englishspeaking races much closer together. Apart from New Zealand, his Excellency said that of the Empire countries he was most greatly interested in Canada, for it was one of his ancestors who was second-in-command to General James Wolfe at the taking of Quebec. That ancestor was commemorated by the town of Monckton, through which the Royal party would pass and which, Lord Galway added, he hoped to visit one day.

EMPIRE DAY IN WELLINGTON WREATHS LAID AT FOOT OF STATUE (United Press Association) WELLINGTON, May 24. Empire Day was celebrated by the laying of wreaths at the foot of the Queen Victoria statue at noon by gatherings representing the Wellington branches of the Victoria League, the Royal Empire Society and the South African War Veterans’ Association.

Mr Tripp, president of the Wellington branch of the Royal Empire Society, read a message from the president of the Empire Day Movement (Viscount Bledisloe).