Our Sailor Prince and Princess May.

New Zealand Illustrated Magazine, 1 June 1901, Page 655

Our Sailor Prince and Princess May.

By E.F.H

f,NGLAND\S great Sea Queen has ' passed to her rest, passed through the stately ranks of her assembled fleet, 'mid the deep thunders of their mournful guns ; drawn finally to her grave by the hands of England's sailors. The sceptre of the sea has descended to her son. Alas, that that dearly-loved Queen can never now hear of the welcome which we propose to give her grandchildren. Even the pathetic message from some of her Maori subjects, which would surely have brought a tender smile to the lips of their " Great White Mother," arrived too late. I allude to the message sent by the Poverty Bay tribe, desiring that the Duke and Duchess should specially visit them : — " Oh ! lady aged, our hearts do hope and long to see your face, but this may be impossible. But now our bosoms throb, our breath quickens, and our heart's being quivers, for behold ! thy special graudson, the Duke of York, together with the Duchess of York, are to visit our shores, and we, thy people, knowing that he is the Kotuku that makes one flight only, and never returns, pray you to invite him to turn the bow of his war canoe into our harbour, and let his feet tread our soil at the spot upon which Captain Cook first planted his footsteps. For we your subjects have proved loyal to your mana, and will continue so to the end of the world. And this shall be our welcome to your exalted grandson: — 'Come thou guest from afar. Peace has drawn thee to appear from the horizon, has drawn thee, has drawn thee. God bless thee !'" One sighs to think that the Queen never read these quaint but none the less beautiful words of welcome, and one sighs yet again

to remember that no gracious message, expressing her tlituiks and her pleasure in such testimony of her people's affection, can come to any of us who were her subjects, Maori or while man, more. But her grandchildren and envoys come, and no grief nor vain regrets must be permitted to dim the gladness of their reception. And as our Iloyal guests draw nearer to us, day by day, it is pleasant to dwell on some of the countless bright aspects of this long-wished-for visit. Among the number which suggest themselves there are, L think, few more striking than that which suggests the fact of England's paramountcy on tho sea. It is the Sailor Prince who comes to this Ultima Thule of Britain's wide possession, this Sea-land of the Southern Seas. And ho comes bearing a title which must briny to all thoughts of that old West Countreci which cradled Drake, Grenville, Raleigh, and many others of those bold sea captains who first won for England her Empire of the Sea. For more than three hundred years ago the sceptre of the sea passed to England, and who need ask if she holds it to-day ? Our English Duke and Duchess come to us across twelve thousand leagues of ocean, guarded all the way by one continuous unbroken chain of English battleships. The Ophir, accompanied by the St. George and Juno, was escorted from England to Gibraltar by the Channel Squadron, through the Mediterranean to Malta and Port Said by the Mediterranean Squadron. English torpedo destroyers guarded her through the Suez Canal, there the East Indian Squadron met hei', and went with her to New Guinea,

where the Australasian Squadron took charge and convoyed her to Sydney, and thence to Auckland. Truly a Royal progress ! So they come, our Royal Prince and Pi'incess. The kindly Prince, whose name prompts the old rallying cry of the English " St. George for Merrie England !" and the Princess, whose sweet lines evoked, pi'obably, by this veiy thought, surely give sunny promise of her who will some day be England's Queen :

had adventured so far, Ao-Tea-Boa, "The Long White Cloud," as they called it, when first sighted like a mist on the horizon; of Captain Cook, the bold British seaman, who first discovered it for the British race ; of Gibbon Wakefield's valiant colonizers in their good ship Tory, and all those who followed them. No welcome awaited any of these, but it is their descendants who, united, to-day prepare a welcome for the Prince and Princess.

" If each man in his measure would do a brother's part, To throw a ray of sunshine into a brother's heart, How blessed would be our country ! How blessed would be our poor ! And then might ' Merrie England ' Deserve her name once more." — Peincess Mat. And so some bright morning or evening — in " the sea born flush of morning "or "the sea born hush of night" — they will draw to our coasts and will look with eager eyes to oatoh the first glimpse of this furthest isle of all the isles which are to be one day their heritage. And, perchance, as they look they will think of other voyagers whose eyes have sought and strained as eagerly, and far more anxiously, for a sight of these same shores, of the almost incredibly oourageous Maoris, upon whose vision first dawned the land in search of which they

And as we dream of their approach in their fairy, floating palace — for such those who have seen the Ophir say it is — their approach in security and peace, may not we all who are the descendants of those pioneers feel proudly that we have a share in the smoothing of that silver path across the waves ? Yes ; we may and we do joy in it. And we rejoice too that we are all a united people to-day, that Maori and white man will stand side by side on their island's shores to wave a welcome to their Royal guests. That Maori words and English words of greeting will be their equal offering, good wishes of equal sincerity and equal affection. My last words must be good wishes, too. I cannot frame them more earnestly and simply than in the words of the old English sea rhyme : " May their happiueßS be as deep as the sea, Their hearts as light as the foam."