King Country Chronicle Wednesday, June 21, 1911. CORONATION DAY.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 371, 21 June 1911, Page 4

King Country Chronicle Wednesday, June 21, 1911. CORONATION DAY.

To-morrow is Coronation Day, and we may well pause in the hurry of getting rich as quickiy as we know how, to consider for a moment what this symbolic ceremonial means. It means putting the final seal of the Empire's approval on the man (and woman) who are destined to occupy the highst position in the Empire for just so long as health and strength be given to them. For though many of us have no special personal feeling towards King George and Queen Mary, yet as representatives of the Empire's greatness they have a claim on one and all of us. Yet it is Derhaps only lack of real knowledge oE them which suggests this strain of thought. Mr W. T. Stead tells us he believes in King. George because King George believes in us. "English like ourselves, born on English soil of English sire, married to an English Princess and head of an English home before be was King of our Islaud Empire, King George is English through and through. He has been and is still, a dutiful and affectionate son, never failing in all loving tenderness to his widowed mother. He is no gambler: neither is he given to hiß cups. He is a husband devoted to his wife, a father who is the playmate of his children. He is quite 'straight.' He is bluff and blunt, but you can trust him. He is a first-class sailor man, with the seaman's deep sense of duty. He is the only British King who has visited the Empire over which be reignß, and almost the only man in the three kingdoms who realises what it means. He is a sane Imperialist, and is not dazzled by the glory of the Empire. But he is keenly alive to its opportunities and responsibilities. He is a thoroughly constitutional monarch. And lastly he is a real human being, a man of shrewd commonsense, with not a little of the instinct of a statesman for three reasons: Firstly, his famous 'Wake up' speech; sceondly, his appeal to the British in India to be more sympathetic to their Indian fellow-subjects; and thirdly, his happy inspiration to invite 100,000 children to celebrate his Coronation at the Crystal Palace." Those reasons are good reasons why King George's Coronation should be remembered sympathetically by the Empire at large and New Zealand in particular. A King who is a real man, a loyal husband, and a loving son, needs never fear he will lose his place in the affections of the people in the vast' Empire over which circumstances have called upon him to reign.