NO PRINCE OF WALES?

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 291, 21 November 1936, Page 8

NO PRINCE OF WALES?

A SONG WE MAY HEAR NO MORE Every Jjoy and girl in New Zealand is familiar with the words of a song that has been sung for years past with great fervour. Among our ancient mountains And from our lovely vales . j O let the prayer re-echo God bless the Prince of Wales. Strange as it may seem, it may be that never in our lifetime may we hear that song again (states an exchange). It may be that as a result of our nation having a bachelor King, there will not be another Prince of Wales for several generations. The Prince of Wales is always tho first-born son of the Soverign; the first of them all was the son of our first King Edward. He stands next to the throne in the eyes of all people, a visible token and pledge between Sovereign and subjects that the line of the kings will in him be continued. He is the throne’s buttress and sup-porter,-and continually the Sovereign’s representative and ambassador. Not since the reign of William tlie Fourth has England been without the presence of this Prince, who is the Heir-Appar-ent.

The importance to our national life of a Prince of Wales cannot be overrated. Hardly any circumstances (fan diminish it. During the long reign of Queen Victoria the Heir-Apparent remained Prince of Wales for 60 years before he became King of England. During a great part of that time ho was by his mother, who kept Jam in the background, so that he was accorded a smaller share in political education than he should have received. Nevertheless, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, was a name to conjure witli among the people. Edward the Seventh’s eldest son, the Duke ot Clarence, died before his father came to the throne, and his brother George was called suddenly from his chosen career to take the place of the eldest son.

Almost the first act of his father on coming to the throne was to make him Prince of. Wales. It was not quite the first act, for, owing to a promise made to Australia some years before that Prince George should open the first federal Parliament of the Commonwealth, the Duke and Duchess of York set sail for the Antipodes as missionaries of Empire.

On their return, the Duke w.as at once made Prince of Wales, having as we may see, begun a Prince’s duties oefore he became a prince. It may be taken as marking a new era that on nis return he made a famous speech in the Guildhall in which he told his bearers that their brethren across the seas thought it time that the Old country should wake up. There we«e jmy a few years for this prince r 0 represent lus xatirer, the King, and .o gne assurance of his own pitqaredness to undertake the highest responsibilities; out in these ie»v years he visited Vienna, Benin, Madrid, ami made a mernoiume tour in India. He had noly one holiday abroad. It lasted a fortaH England remembers the day, 25 years ago, when a shy, fair-haired 'lad stood in the gateway oi uumeac Carnarvon Castle and King rGeorge presented his eldest son to the Welsh people as their hei unitary Prince. The boy stood as one uazed tor a moment us if over-awed by a sense of the great ness of the responsibility assumed by him in this ancient ceremony; then his Royal father, holding his hand as any father of the people might hold the hand of his son in a moment calling for great self-command and courage leaned down am! whispered a word of kindly assurance. The shadow on the boy’s face lifted. He was the Prince of Wales, but ting King he was hencegoverning the nation was his beloved father. The people who were looking up to him were his father’s—and his. From that m omenti, it seemed, the Prince of Wales assumed the burden of his great office with shining courage and confidence. All the world knows of his gallant sharing of the perils of war with the soldie s in the trenches, of his tremendous’ Empire tours, the greatest ever made in the history of the world by any heir to a throne. We ourselves in New Zealand, with other Dominions and Colonies, shared the honour of a visit; Auckland boys md gi Is who now nave reached man nood and womanhood still remembei vividly that great day in the Dornin ion when they broke all restraint and mobbed the ’’’“iw’e’s motor-car, and how he stood up waved and smiled at their wild enthusiasm!

We nave now lost our Prince of Wales, but we h? • e gained a King who has walked in i,nr wa»’S, knows aboui ns, and will eve - retain a personal re ‘ollection of his happy sodjnrn in ou: