CULMINATION OF WORK OF EARLY PIONEERS

Sun (Christchurch), Volume VII, Issue 2127, 8 December 1920, Page 9

CULMINATION OF WORK OF EARLY PIONEERS

PEINCE TELLS STORY OF HIS TOUR. MONTH IN NEW ZEALAND FAR TOO SHORT A TIME. (A. & N.Z.) (Bee. December 8, 8.45 a.m.) LONDON, December 7. Large crowds lined the route and cheered the Prince of Wales while he was driving to the Guildhall to receive London's welcome home. Even the Thames Embankment, despite the cold weather, was lined by crowds who waited an hour for his appearance. Traffic was diverted, and policemen were stationed along the route at short intervals on both sides of the roadways. The city was a blaze of colour, and the buildings along the route were beflagged, some flying the Union Jack and the Southern Cross together. The Prince, in the uniform of a naval captain, drove in aria open carriage, preceded by a guard of mounted men in khaki with swords drawn. On arrival at the Guildhall the Prince received the Royal salute, and was given a warm ovation on entering the library. The Prime Minister (Rt. Hon. D. Lloyd George), in proposing the health of the Prince; said the Empire was the most remarkable in the world's history. It was loosely knitted. There was no dominion, but all the parts of the Empire were Dominions. There was no centre from which dominion was exercised, but there was an Empire partnership of all free nations, controlling themselves, free to choose their own path, free to choose their own population, and free to make their own history. Such a combination would be of the weakest if it were not cemented by strong friendship, and influenced by a mutual attachment and goodwill. Everything depended on the existence of the invisible attachment to the Empire. The great services of the Prince consisted in the fact that he had strengthened those invisible ties by qualities which the Empire now knew, as Great Britain knew before—by his charm, the remarkable charm, the winning charm, the joyous charm, of his personality. (Cheers.) > Mr Lloyd George hinted that the reaction following the "War had created a vital necessity of finding some method of keeping Great Britain and the Dominions together. The occasion demanded a man for an emergency, and the Prince of Wales was such a man. (Cheers.) He was just as much at home in the cities of the Dominions as in London, and just as much at home in the Dominions' wildernesses as in their cities, which was a . good omen, because the future of the Empire might well depend on the development of those vast regions. After the reading of the address of welcome in the library, the replying, said they met under happier circumstances than in the time of the coal strike, which had necessitated a postponement of the welcome. He added:— You addressed me in the name of the whole of the City of London, which I, in common with all my fellow Londoners, regard as the greatest city in the world. My distant travel gives me an ever-increasing appreciation of its influence and charm. I find I love it better every time I come back. The Prinqe thanked the Rt. Hon. D. Lloyd George for his presence and speech. Though he was sorry he was not visiting . India until 1921, he was delighted at the prospect of an undisturbed year in the Old Country—"a treat I have not had for six years!" The Prince raised a laugh by saying that when a man was handsomely entertained, it was usually because his hosts wanted to get something out of him. "I know," he said, "you want to get some account of my latest Empire tour out of me! My impressions are still rather kaleidoscopic, but I will do my best." He detailed his reception in the West Indies and the achievement of getting 11.M.5. Renown through Panama Canal, whence he went to Honolulu and Fiji, crossing two oceans, where every group of islands rang with the name of British sea captains and explorers. _ It made one realise the spirit of these men of old, who faced the uncharted seas in ships hot one 60th of the tonnage of the modern battle-cruiser. When I reached New Zealand and Australia, I felt that I had come to the culminating point of the untiring work of the early pioneers, for there were two great nations, settled and developing, in the very furthest quarter of the globe from their original home. When he landed at Auckland, the NeAV Zealanders made him feel at home at once. Within five days he visited the Maori people at Rotorua, a gallant and remarkable race who were not unknown in London. He was grateful to them for gathering in such large numbers to gyeet him. '.'l worked my way down the North Island to Wellington, the capital city," he said, "where I was specially entertained by Mr Massey and his Government. I spent a week in the South Island, touring, and finally crossed the Otira Pass to the Canterbury - Plains and Christchurch, thence going to Dunedin and Invercargill, where I almost felt back in Scotland. Auckland's kindness and enthusiasm were carried on everywhere. What impressed me was the intensely Old-Country character of the people." You have a pretty sound and powerful patriotism here in the City of London, my Lord Mayor, but I assure you you have your work cut out to show it more thoroughly than they do in New Zealand. It was with regret that I sailed from Lyttelton. A month in New Zealand was far too short. "I landed in Melbourne on the Queen's Birthday," said the Prince. "I had to spare you the details of my New Zealand travels, and must be still more sparing as regards Australia. I had a wonderful time in Victoria, but no better than in New South Wales. Comparison is odious, and both States together hold well over half the population of the Commonwealth. Sydney, as I told them myself, is indeed the London of the Southern Hemisphere. If there are any Sydney men preset, I wish to tell them that, not only did I see their harbour, but I appreciated it! (Great laughter.) I only wish you could see the kind, enthusiastic crowds of those two great cities. I was Avelcomed with the same enthusiasm, on a smaller scale, in the other States. "I was able to visit several goldfields and to get some idea of the life in the backblocks, on the sheep and cattle stations. It would take a man at least a year to see Australia properly. I was sorry to leave, having missed so much." Australia, said the Prince, was a land of great spaces, immense resources and vast possibilities. Its history was a centurv old, and the continent was as large as Europe, with a population much less than that of London, A striking indication of Australia's power and character was the size and beauty of the capital cities, which held one-third of the populations of their States. "I thought those cities an impressive sign of the quality of the people who were building them. The developed area is a splendid testimony to Australian worth. The population is but small in proportion to the size of the country as a whole, and of its cities. This is a situation which involves great responsibility, but the courage and self-confidence of the Australians is amazing. I can assure you it requires both assets out there to succeed.'' The Prinze then went on to describe his return journey. He recalled two features of his visit to Australia and New Zealand which, he said, he had very closely at heart. In both Dominions I was very much struck by the appearance and bearing of the children, and the wonderful way that the Governments are carrying on their education. One can truly say of their systems that they instil discipline and patriotism into their youth without militarism. Gatherings of thousands of school children were organised for me everywhere, and I never saw a single child which did not reflect on its happy face the widespread well-being which is the pride of those Dominions. This, indeed, is a happy augury for the future. You will guess the other feature. I have very closely at heart the Australians and New Zealanders who fought and won in the Great War. I felt I was a comrade to the "diggers." I first met-them in Egypt and France, but had not landed one moment before I was hailed as a "digger,' and by the time I sailed from Sydney in August I hardly knew how to answer any other name. Now I take that as a very great compliment, and hope they will always regard me in the same way, as I want all ex-service men of the Empire to look upon me as a comrade*