Wellington Independent THURSDAY, 16th APRIL, 1868.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXII, Issue 2668, 16 April 1868, Page 3

Wellington Independent

THURSDAY, 16th APRIL, 1868.

11 NOTHING ICXTENOATK; NOR SET DOWN AUQUT IK MAMOK."

It is curious enough that the letter in which his Eoyal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, conveys to his Excellency Sir George Bowen, the intimation that it had been finally determined he should proceed direct home to England without visiting New Zealand, should be dated Sydney, March 21st, and yet only reach Auckland on the 10th of April. A little better management would have ensured our receipt of the news here by the Rakaia, while the Auckland people could have got it much earlier than they did. The intelligence now received is simply an official confirmation of what was known before ; still, it is important, as setting all doubts at rest. The Duke of Edinburgh was to leave Sydney in the Galatea on tho 6th inst., and i 3 therefore by this fairly out on blue water in his noble ship, rapidly lessening the distance that divides him from home and his Royal mother. Thus — after all our eager anticipations, after all the preparations that have been made to give our Eoyal visitor a fitting reception — we are doomed to experience a disappointment, which must be borne with what philosophy we can muster. The Duke is not coming, and all our work has been thrown away. In vain has a Royal Commission been appointed ; in vain have the members of the Reception Committee appealed to tho patriotism and breeches-pockets of the people; in vain have loyal subjects gone to lavish expense in transparencies ; in vain have enterprising tradesmen filled their shelves and windows with recherche stocks of costly raiment ; in yam have the ladies of the " upper ten" tried the resources of their husbands' cheque-books, and taxed the brains and fingers of their milliners ; in vain have the Odd Fellows and Foresters settled the details of a grand procession ; in vain have tho children been drilled to chant Old Hundred and the National Anthem — for he in whose honor all this goodly display was to be made, is oft' in the Galatea, two thousand miles away, cleaving the blue water homeward bound. Everybody, indeed, from the highest to the lowest, is more or less disappointed. The day when the Premier fondly expected to receive his patent] of knighthood, and rejoice as "Sir Edward "William Stafford " is apparently as far off as ever ; and the creation of a colonial nobility is indefinitely postponed. Seriously speaking, the decision of the Duke not to visit New Zealand, unavoidable though it may have been, is very much to be regretted. New Zealand, more than any other of her Majesty's possessions, is a reproduction of Great Britain, in its soil, climate, people and institutions ; so it would have been Avell that the son of our Queen, in witnessing what has already been accomplished in the Britain of the South, should have been able to carry home with him some adequate idea of the bright destiny the future has in store for it. There is but little known of this colony at home ; but had a royal visitor travelled through it, and his progress been recorded, there is no doubt but that many of those who travel for pleasure would in future have turned their steps to our shores. Then much of what is known about the native question at homo, is so false and distorted, as to place the actions of the colonists in a most unfavorable light. The visit of the Duke might have done much to place affairs in their true light. He, at all events, would have been brought into communication with people able to give him sound information, on this and other questions affecting the interests of the colony. Moreover, he would have seen the natives face to face, and been able to judge how far the Exeter Hall picture of the noble savage is faithfully painted. Apart from those reasons, there is another one which made the colonists very anxious that the Prince should visit New Zealand. Almost simultaneously with his attempted assassination by OTarrell, the news reached Sydney of that wretched Eenian demonstration at Hokitika ; of the procession to the cemetery, its forcible entry, and the erection of amemorial cross in honor of the threefelons strangled at Manchester. Such news reaching his Eoyal Highness must have created a very unfavorable impression in his mind towards this colony — an impression which could only be" completely removed by a personal visit. The colonists would like to have had the Prince in New Zealand, were it only for the purpose of showing him that they were loyal to the core, and that the mere appearance of Ecnian sympathy in an overt act of crime, had evoked sucli a spontaneous and generous outburst of loyalty as no country and no age over before witnessed. AVo should like that the Prince had come here to learn and to witness this, and to tell the talc in England to tho credit of New Zealand. As the case stands, we fear the colonies will be unjustly aspersed by those journals at homo which delight in doing anything to our discredit. They will tell of that wretched Hokitika procession by two or three hundred men, but they will forget to tell of the cry of condemnation which "it aroused from the North Cape to the Bluff; they will tell of the seditious doings of a hair-brained priest and a county councillor, but they will forget that a thousand special constables volunteered at a moment's notice — that the law wae upheld, and its breakers committed for trial. We musb bear this as we may. The time will come when such misrepresentation will be of no avail, but that is not yet. The reasons put forward for the Prince's departure to England, we must perforce accept as sufficient. It is true that his wound had completely healed up, that he had been driven about in public, had attended church, and received an ovation on the occasion of visiting the

Galatea, so it might naturally be thought that a pleasant trip to New Zealand would have rendered his convalescence complete. Still, on a point like this, the opinion of the medical men must be accepted as conclusive, and it is said that the Prince had been unanimously advised by them that his health would not permit him to encounter the fatigues of a visit to New Zealand, and that he should go straight to England. H.R.H. writes to the Governor that he long combated this advice, and wishes it to bo known that he deeply regrets being obliged to abandon his visit to New Zealand on the present occasion, from which he had expected to derive the most sincere gratification. He had looked forward with deep interest fco visiting the Maoris as well as the Europeans, and fully intended to have carried out the programme which had been submitted to him by the Governor, and which included visits to all the principal places, in both the North and the Middle Island. The colonists Avill accept this explanation and reciprocate the regret which his Royal Highness expresses at being precluded from coming. Amidst our disappointment, it is satisfactory to know that had tho wishes of the Prince been allowed to settle the question, he would have come to this colony. But Princes have less liberty of action than men of humbler station. They are hedged in by a multitude of responsibilities, and they are surrounded by advisers whose opinions are entitled to much weight. Apart altogether from the state of the Prince's health ; it is probable that Commodore Lambert would think it clearly his duty to order the Galatea home to England direct, after what had occurred, aud to decline the responsibility of allowing her to proceed to New Zealand with his Eoyal Highness. At all events, the question is settled, and our hopes of a royal visit are dissipated into thin air. All that is left now for us to do is to wind up our preparations, pay what expenses have been incurred, return what is then left of subscriptions to the donors ; keep our transparencies for a loyal demonstration on the Queen's birthday, and let Eoyal Commissions and Reception Committees bo heard of no more in the land.