OUR ROYAL GUESTS. Let Them Have a Real Colonial Welcome.

Free Lance, Volume I, Issue 50, 15 June 1901, Page 8

OUR ROYAL GUESTS. Let Them Have a Real Colonial Welcome.

THE Duke and Duchess of York and Cornwall are now the guests of this colony. On Tuesday last they stepped ashore at Auckland, and received a popular ovation which left nothing to be desired on the score of loyal enthusiasm and whole-hearted feeling. Not a single mishap or misadventure occurred to mar the civic' pageant, or to lessen the general rejoicings. It was a warm and spontaneous and cordial welcome, which must have deeply gratified the heir-apparent and his consort, and which New Zealand will regard with unalloyed satisfaction. * • ♦ This is as it should be. Every true man and woman will desire that the chord of loyal sentiment so happily struck in Auckland shall be renewed and shall reverberate sonorously throughout the colony. In the fussy official preparations that have been going on for weeks and months past there has been too much intrusion of red tape, too much of a dictatorial spirit, far too little regard for local convenience and the sturdy independence that marks these democratic communities. Here, in Wellington, officialism in its various phases, from the vice-regal variety downwards, has needlessly irritated the public mind. In all sorts of ways the people have been given the impression that they were the least important and least desirable element in the reception programme. * • • That latest edict about roping-off the streets and erecting strong barricades to keep back the crowd was surely the \ery height of official ineptitude. The.se precautions may be all very well in Russia or Germany, but among an Anglo-Saxon people — and least of all in these free and loyal colonial communities — they are entirely out of place on the occasion of a Royal visit. Things like these, coupled with the various points of friction over lines of route, presentation of addi esses and similar details, have tended to produce feelings of weariness, indifference and irritation. We only mention them here in order to urge the duty that now devolves upon the community to rise superior to all petty local worries and transitory annoyances so that Wellington shall do full honor to herself m honoring the prince and princess who next week will be our guests. * * * Let it be remembered that they have come in response to our pressing invitation. That they have made sacrifice of their domestic convenience, in leaving a young family at Home, to pay this \isit. That the predominant desire with them, with the King, and

with the Imperial Government, is to show how deeply the Empire appreciates the fervid patriotism and the magnificent solidarity of the Colonies when the Mother Country was drawn into war. The Duke and Duchess of York personify the sentiment of national unity and integrity which is knitting the race together in bonds that no combination of Foreign Powers shall ever be able to rive asunder. * * * Let our welcome, then, be worthy of the stock from which we spring — in keeping with the reputation of the colony to which we are so proud to belong. Neither our visitors nor ourselves want any sycophantic adulation. Let us have no grovel and no toadyism. Let us be natural, self-respect-ing, courteous, and cordial. ¥■ * * Wellington is the capital of New Zealand, and we are quite sure the people of Wellington require no prompting and no tuition from either official or grandee to right worthily and most warmly greet and honour the Prince and Princess who will be our guests next week, and who, in the natural course of events, may be expected to reign over the vast and glorious Empire of which we are a component part. In short, let us recollect that we are the hosts, and that in paying due honour to our illustrious visitors we are playing our part in teaching the outer world the grand object lesson that the Empire which they typify is one and indivisible.