“WITH THE ROYAL TOUR.”

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXVIII, Issue XVIII, 3 May 1902, Page 864

“WITH THE ROYAL TOUR.”

The account of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall’s tour of the British Dominions—with the exception, of course, of their visit to this colony—has reached us here in a scrappy, disjointed form, chiefly through the medium of cablegrams and newspaper clippings. And so it is pleasant to get it as a whole connected narrative from the able pen of Mr E. F. Knight, the author of “Where Three Empires Meet.” In his faithful, vivid, descriptions of what he saw and heard in attending the Royal progress through the Empire’s possessions he makes us realise as we have never realised before how vast are these possessions, how varied, how rich in their natural wealth, and in that wealth created by the muscles and brains of the sons of Britain, who have made their homes there, how supremely loyal to the ideas which find expression in the unity of the Empire and its Monarchical Head. It is amusing, too, when it comes to his description of the Australasian colonies, to see ourselves as others see us, and to find him re-

cording, as the most apparent difference, at first sight, between an Aus-' tralian crowd and a New Zealand one, that the latter looked more “countrified.” His comments on the social and political aspect of things in the various places he visited are always highly ' i-i esting, and wise and to the po . us far ae his knowledge and observation serve him, though the shortness of his stay in each place naturally put limitations upon these. Though the Royal tour is now an old story with us Mr Knight manages to make his book such attractive reading that we are sorry that there is no more of it.