NAMING THE BABY.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, 11 December 1925, Page 3

NAMING THE BABY.

PRINCE OF WALES’ TASKS. KISSING A BRIDE. Minor trials have been in plenty by the Prince of \VaJes cluiing his recent prolonged tour, but they have never in any way depressed his good spirits. Indeed, some of these little trials have afforded lum a good deal of amusement. For at a village on the veldt in South Ainca, a native woman showed the Prince wi h some pride her children, six boys and one baby girl. . The interpreter informed the Ennct. of their names. When he cam i to the baby girl he told the Prince that the child was yet unnamed and that tlrts mother would feel deeply honoured ti the Prince Would name her. The request took the Prince completely aback. He was for a moment quite unprepared with a suitable suggestion. But he was only nonplussed for the briefest space. He suggested the name Dawn; it was received with delight by the mother, and the baby was so named on the spot. On another occasion during a journey across South Africa an aged native was presented to the Prince, who, through the medium of the interpreter asked the native if there was any kind of gift he would like. The reply was a request for the Prince’s pipe. The dis tinguished visitor at once complied, but it meant that he was unable to enjoy a pipe for six hours, until the place where his personal luggage had been sent on to was reached. It was a fairly frequent trial of the Prince during this tour that the day’s set apart to give him a rest from the keeping of public engagements, had to be sacrificed in order that he might attend some entertainni'ent got ilp unexpectedly. One of these little entertainments yvas a native wedding. Hie ceremony had been hastily arranged to take place so as to coincide with the Prince’s arrival at the village. Hie Prince anticipated being able to take a day' off an.d enjoy some hours of really needed rest when he reached , the village. But on his arrival he was presented with the invitation to the wedding; he at once agreed to accept and duly bestowed a kiss—-another unexpected dutv—on the bride. At one 'little town the Prince had agreed to play’ a' round of golf with a local champion. Oil his arrival at the links the Prince found that an enormous crowd of all sorts and conditions of persons had assembled on the course to witness the match. This was somewhat disconcerting for the Prince, who never plays up to his best form before ft big gallery’. But there was another circumstance still more diseiAieerting—his Royal Highness found that he was expected to play’ not with his own clubs, but with a weird collection of “irons” not more than a- foot in length. The Prince put up with a bad defeat with the best of grace, gratefully accepting the strange clubs that wee presented to him alt" l ' the match. The worst trial that bcfel the Prince was the long delay’ in Chile, necessitated by the unexpectedJmnvy snowfall in the Andes. That delay meant the total upset of the Prince’s programme! in Argentina, which had to bo rearranged by’ cable. This was a necessarily difficult task, and kept the Prince’s secretarial staff at work day and night. The Prince himself remained up one entire night settling the details with his staff. A great trial to the Prince in connection with all his tours has been the long train journeys. _ His restlessness of disposition makes him detest sittnv’ still for hours in a train. He won t play’ cards, and does not l'ko reading. "When it is practicable the Prince alights from the Royal special and takes anything from a 1.5 to .11 -mile walk, while the special is sent ahead. During his tour the Prince m tins way w«ilke<l several hundreds or miles.