The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. FRIDAY, MAY 21, 1920. THE PRINCE’S VISIT.

Southland Times, Issue 18827, 21 May 1920, Page 4

The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. FRIDAY, MAY 21, 1920. THE PRINCE’S VISIT.

Although the weather conditions' were unkind, breaking at the vital moment after a Jong spell of sunny days, Invercargill has every reason for looking back upon yesterday as a day of great events. The violent storm that broke over the town on Wednesday and continued yesterday must have kept many country - people from making the long trip to town, and yet the streets were thickly filled and the Show Grounds held a big crowd. There the children, after a long wait under disheartening conditions, were rewarded with a brief glimpse of the Royal visitor, but unfortunately the lax control of the crowd, the one breach in the day, vented its full effect on them, and many of the young people must have gone away disappointed as a result of the thoughtless encroachment by the public on the ground allotted to them. As he had done in northern centres the Prince of Wales did here. Wherever the official arrangements did not permit of his coming into close contact with the crowd, he varied them and ensured that everybody, high and low, had equal opportunity of seeing him ( at close quarters. At the drill hall ho swept aside all formality and the large audience filed past him as he stood at the foot of the dais, smiling and nodding. Had there been time—his kindly act threw the train schedule sadly in arrear—the ordeal of a multitudinous handshake would have been essayed, but as it was he enriched the day for the public to an extent greater than would have been possible under the set conditions arranged. At the railway station when he was leaving the same thing happened. It was there that the enthusiasm of the crowds reached their highest point. It was not that they were trying to “speed the parting guest” but that they realised that the Royal visit was over and that this hero of a million hearts was going away. A cordon of police kept the public from [he station, but His Royal Highness quickly swept this barrier away and at his special request the masses of people flocked on to the platform and crowded round the rear of the train, whore he stood, smiling and waving his good-bye. Those two incidents give, to a greater extent probably than any others, the keynote to the process by which he conquers the hearts of people who will one day gladly call him king. It is this friendliness for the crowd, this desire to meet their wishes in every way possible, this unstudied proof of democratic outlook, this princely good nature that makes him the idol of a free people, the darling of every heart. Probably few people yesterday found themselves thinking of the political structure that lies behind him and his presence here: they only saw a young man like and yet so unlike other young men from the Old Country, a youth who embodies all the qualities that we hope (o find in the princes of our dreams. The Colonial mind is not awed by ceremony anil it is therefore quick to detect

A gracious, simple, truthful man, Who walks the earth erect, Nor stoops his noble head to one From fear or false respect. It is the Man who appeals to the Colonial mind and in this new view of kingship that has come to us in these democratic times we look for the Man in the King so that we may love where we do homage. The Prince has appealed to the men and women of the Overseas Dominions in just this way and he has shown potently in his affection for the masses that lie is one with them, and for them. We know that “the human heart finds nowhere shelter but in human kind” and we can see in this confident trust of humanity the desire to be the Prince of a People and not of political organisation. His stay in Invercargill was so brief that the fires of enthusiasm had but brief time to blaze into full glory, and yet there is to-day in every heart a spark from that conflagration which will remain alive for years and years, ready to burst once more into life if this Prince should ever come back to us, but always there the everlasting memory of the noblest Briton of our time, the best-loved Prince of all time. And in conclusion wc may quote the words of the old song of tenderness with which he was farewelled last night, words that were in everybody’s thoughts: Better lo’ed ye ne’er can be, Will ye no come back again.