The Oamaru Mail SATURDAY, MAY 22, 1880.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1287, 22 May 1880, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail SATURDAY, MAY 22, 1880.

" IThts Majesty the Qdp.en", God bless Her." Such will be the heartfelt utterances expressed on Monday by teeming millions who, under the benign sway of British rule, enjoy that most estimable of blessings— a sound constitutional form of government. Apart from the dutiful allegiance due to a sovereign by her subjects, we have a deeper cause for the love we bear to Her Majesty. In her person we have the perfected realisation of those most noble attributes of a good woman—a true wife and an excellent mother. In her deep sorrow for the loss of a justmindeJ and talented husband, she has ever been mindful of the duties of her hish estate —ever regardful of the sorrows of her sister woman. And though the absence of her true-hearted companion, whose advice and counsel on many occasions lightened her burden, is so keenly felt as to compel her at times to seek a partial retirement from the turmoils of the Court and political world, yet even the humblest of her subjects can realise this as occasioned by the desolate condition in which she stands. She is surrounded by the beauty and talent of the land, she fills the most exalted position which on this globe can be held by any one person, and possesses the absolute love of her subjects ; yet this makes her desolation only the more apparent. Let us, as an integral part of one great family, endeavor, by a just regard to the welfare of the State, to do our utmost to support the efforts of our rulers in providing and maintaining the good government which has so signalised J the reign of Her Most Gracious Majesty. Let us fervently hope that lie in whom is centred the future hopes of the realm may prove right worthy of the position which he will probably be called upon to occupy; that the experience of year 3 may so enlighten him as to his duties, as well as his privileges, as to enable him to prove worth}' of the high career which appears opening to him, and that by his thorough devotedness to the nation so wisely ruled ! by his mother he may deserve the esteem of all. A retrospective view of the progress of Great Britain and its dependencies during the long reign of Her Majesty must prove highly gratifying to even the most exacting. During her reign the colonies have grown from being merely small settlements into what bids fair to become in a few years a Greater Britain, and so long as wisdom guides the helm of state, the deep love of the father land will continue to permeate through all classes of Colonists. We are bound to the home country by ties, not merely of commerce, not because we have sprung from her, but because in civilisation, justice, and power it excels all other nations. Its institutions are framed for the purpose of advancing and securing the happiness and prosperity of the masses, while the honor and integrity of the nation is proverbial equally amongst civilised and barbaric peoples. Ic therefore behoves us to constantly have in view the necessity of at ail times, in all places, and in sight of all peoples, to so comport ourselves as to prove that we indeed are worthy scions of a noble race, and loyal subjects of a consolidated Empire.