DEPARTURE OF THE PRINCE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2132, 25 May 1920, Page 4

DEPARTURE OF THE PRINCE.

AFFECTIONATE FAREWELL MESSAGE. The following farewell message was handed to the Prime Minister by the Prince of Wales on Friday night, on hoard H.M.S. Renown: “To the Government and people ot New Zealand. —My delightful visit to New Zealand has come to an end, and I cannot sail to-moi’row morning without sending a message of affectionate farewell to the people of this Dominion. 'When Tspoke in Wellington to express the great pleasure which my travels through the North Island, rapid as they were, had given me, I said that 1 looked forward to having just as good a time in the South. This event has exceeded my expectations, high though they were. 1 can now say that not a day has passed since I landed on 24th April, whiclvlms not added to the pleasure and value of my tour. I have been deeply touched by the wonderful welcomes which have met me everywhere, and I tain never think of the people ot Lew Zealand without affection and gratitude. 1 should like to renew the thanks which I have expressed before, to'the Government of the Dominion, and to all the authorities throughout New Zealand, who have been at such pains to make my journey punctual ami comfortable. The excellence of all arrangements has enhanced the pleasure of my travels, both by road and by rail, and I am particularly glad to have seen even a very little of the magnificent scenery of the mountains, rivers and lakes, for "which this Dominion is famous throughout the world.

SPLEX 1 )11) FITI'RE BEFORE DOMINION. “I have only one regret, (hat my visit has been too short to enable me to see all that I should like to have seen. 1 have stayed nowhere without wishing that my stay could he prolonged, and I feel that 1 have missed a great deal. 1 am particularly sorry that owing to the shortness of the lime at my disposal 1 could not travel a little through the less settled districts, and see for myself something of up-country life. I have seen enough of the town and country, however, to realise that, a splendid future awaits this Dominion. Your achievement since the country was annexed hy the British. Crown, only eighty years ago, justifies almost the visionary confidence of your pioneers, and constitutes an amazing monument to the grit and enterprise of those who so rapidly civilised and developed this hind. Two things have particularly impressed me here. In the first place, New Zealand is a land with not merely an opportunity'’for some, hut of equal opportunity for all. I have never seen well-being and happiness more uniformly evident throughout the population of a country and town. In the second place, this Dominion is a living example of. the fact, that the European race may take over new country without injustice to its original inhabitants, and that both may advance in mutual confidence and understanding on the common path. Both races of New Zealand, Pakcha and .Maori, are an essential element in the hie of the Dominion, and 1 have been deeply gratified to see what progress the Maori people are making, hand in hand, with their British fellow subjects.

“TRUE TO BRITISH FORM." “New Zealand is one of the greatest monuments of British civilisation in the Avorld, and I have felt from end to end of the Dominion that there is nowhere a British people more set in British traditions, or more true to British form. I have found the strength of your loyally to the Empire and its Sovereign as keen and bracing as the mountain air, and 1 know that yon will never weaken in your devotion to British unity and British ideals. The. spirit of New Zealand was shown most signally by the splendid troops which she sent to the front in the great war, and also by the way in which the whole country threw itself, without hesitation or reserve, into the Empire’s cause. It has been a special pleasure to me to meet again so many of your returned men, and 1 should like to thank them once more for turning out in such large numbers to meet me wherever 1 have been. I regard them always as my old comrades in arms, and 1 am happy to see that they are maintaining the close tics of comradeship which bound them together in the field. TRIBUTE TO THE PEOPLE.

“New Zealand need fear nothing of the future if her manhood preserves the spirit in which this generation fought and endured for freedom and right. In its permanent forces the Dominion possesses a very valuably nucleus of trained officers and men. I have been struck by their smart and soldierly appearance on parade, and have also been impressed by your territorials and cadets, who have turned out in large numbers and always looked very well. You have reason to be proud of the results which your system of training lias achieved. Your confidence in the future has another solid ground. No one realises more keenly than I how heroic was the part which the women of the Empire played in the prolonged and terrible ordeal of the war. I should like to take this opportunity of congratulating again the women of New Zealand on their great services and brave endurance dining the 1 ast five years, and also of offering my heartfelt sympathy to those whose gallant men will not return. New Zealand women have proved themselves, indeed, a valiant counterpart - of. their husbands, brothers

and sons. Both the men and women, moreover, have created a noble ira-' dition for'the new generation \vhich is growing up to-day. I have, been greatly impressed by the gatherings of school children which have been organised for me everywhere, and I have never seen a more robust, good-mannered and promising race. I always feel when seeing them that they were very lucky children to have been born in such surroundings, and amid such promise, and they made mo confident that they would be a credit to their country and their King. NEW ZEALANDER IN HEART. “I must end this message now, but 1 shall not say good-hye, I fuel myself a true New Zealander in heart. I look upon you, the people of New Zealand, as my own kith and kin, and I trust: that you, on your part, will always regard me as one of yourselves, who belongs to much as to the Old Country, or to any other of the King’s Dominions. There is a good parr of the world for mo to traverse still; before I can say that 1 have seen I lie British Empire as a whole, and I do not know how long it may bo before I can pay you another visit here, hut this, at least, I can say, that T shall he drawn to New Zealand hy very happy ami affectionate memories, am! that when the opportunity arises of returning here again, I shall, take it with delight and without delav. Kia Ora.—EDWARD P.”

RENOWN SAILS. The Renown left Lyttelton at G. 30 o’clock on Saturday. There was no demonstration, and few people were present. MESSAGE TO THE CHILDREN. Auckland, May 2‘2. The Hon. C. J. Parr, Minister for Education, has received ’ from the Prince of Wales, in his own handwriting, a feeling farewell message to the young people who were so enthusiastic in giving him a welcome to the Dominion. The message will he published in the School Journal in June, and read in all schools simultaneously on Monday week.