The Daily News THURSDAY, JANUARY 3, 1935. THE ROYAL VISIT.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 January 1935, Page 4

The Daily News

THURSDAY, JANUARY 3, 1935. THE ROYAL VISIT.

OFFICES: NEW PLYMOUTH. Currie Street. STRATFORD, Broadway. HAWERA, High Street.

To-day a son of the Empire’s Sovereign, Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, -is spending a few hours in Taranaki. While all the residents of the province would have liked the visit to have been a longer one they will be as truehearted in their welcome to the King’s son as those of any other portion of the Dominion. Prince Henry’s arrival marks the fourth visit to Taranaki of members of the Royal House since the passing of the “Great White Queen,” in whose reign New Zealand became an outpost of Empire. When the Duke of Edinburgh pioneered Royal visits to New Zealand in 1869 he would have found conditions in Taranaki very different from those that will greet Prince Henry to-day. Then strife with the Maori had scarcely ceased, there was soreness in regard to aid afforded the settlement by the Imperial authorities, while the fertile lands through which the Duke of Gloucester will travel to-day were then but the site of forests and swamps with here and there a tiny clearing showing more the faith than the accomplishment of courageous mankind. But by the time the present King visited New Zealand great changes had been wrought. Taranaki, with other portions of the Dominion, had borne witness to the tie binding New Zealand to the Motherland. The province had sent her sons to Africa to prove, if needs be, that British unity was something more than an ideal, and that it carried with it acceptance of duties as well as privileges. Since then there has been the sterner test of the Great War, and later still the trials of an economic depression that are yet not all behind the Dominion. Through all the varying circumstances of the past generation there has been constant proof available of the loyalty of Taranaki to the Crown, and in the welcome to Prince Henry there will be seen a realisation, apart from . any personal goodwill to the King’s son, of the service of the Throne to Empire unity and the abiding loyalty to the. Crown that is cherished. The Crown is the unchanging element upon which the loosely designed Constitution of the British Commonwealth of Nations can rest, and the more securely because of the personal respect and regard entertained by oversea Britons for the King and Queen and the various members of the Royal Family. In a democracy growing in the strength of liberty there have been, and will yet be, changes in the formal relationships between the selfgoverning portions of the Empire, but so long as their common fellowship of purpose and endeavour is maintained —of which common allegiance to the Crown is the great expression—-there is no need to fear political or legal change in status or association. The fealty to the Throne is the stronger because it is voluntary, and the average citizen of New Zealand is content not to bother himself about the letter of the bond between Dominion and Motherland so long as the Crown remains the head of the Constitution in which Dominion and Homeland claim equal status and equal liberty. It is Prince Henry’s good fortune to convey to the people of this province today greetings from his father the King, and by doing so in person to reveal the close interest displayed by the Sovereign in the furthermost parts of the Empire, The visit of the Duke of- Gloucester affords Taranaki an opportunity of expressing, through the Prince, the loyalty it has always felt towards the Crown. In ratio to population no part of New Zealand can claim to have spent more of its blood to preserve a province for the Crown than Taranaki, and that the outcome of the conflict with the Maoris has permitted and encouraged the two races to develop upon terms of amity and common loyalty to the Sovereign was demonstrated 20 years ago when the call to arms knit pakeha and Maori in common action for the defence of the realm. Both races are content to pay homage to the Crown, knowing as they do that such homage is a token of liberty and of mutual respect. By land and sea and air the advancement of science and mechanics is eliminating distance and bringing into closer personal touch the various portions of the British Empire. Their strongest national link, however, is still the Crown, and because Prince Henry is charged with a mission on behalf of the King; because he will be the bearer of intimate messages to the Sovereign from New Zealand; and because of his own personality that has made him welcome throughout his Empire tour, Taranaki will be happy to welcome him to-day.