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Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 336, 24 June 1911, Page 4

THE WONDER OF THE KING'S CROWNING. ' A military officer met a superintendent of police in London the day prior to the jubilee celebrations of the late Queen Victoria. Said he: "I am sorry for you." "Why?" asked the superintendent. ''Well, how are you and youi men going to manage the people tomorrow?" "Wc are not going to) manage them. London people manage themselves!" said the superintendent. That, in our opinion, is the wonder 01 the great Queen's jubilee, the crowning of King Edward, and the unprecedented festival in connection with the crowning of George V. Ordinarily a, few people are killed by accident in London daily, but Coronation Day was no ordinary day. There were more people in the streets of the earth's metropolis than in two Australasias! It is almost inconceivable to the natives of a country where the landing of a couple of hundred persons is looked upon as a danger, that twelve million people can gather together and behave themselves. The discipline of the crowds would 'he impossible outside Britain. No other folk have )so much respect for authority that it is unnecessary to exercise it. There waa infinitely more disorder among the two or three thousand folk who walked over the police at Karori cemetery at the time of the Penguin wreck than among the twelve million people who were- in London for the Coronation. Why is that? London is the most cosmopolitan city in the world, and the largest. The vast majority of London people are virile, healthy human beings, for there is no great city where the death rate is so low. London people can riot if they will, but it is curious and almost laexplicable that the whole community on a great occasion apparently makes up its composite mind to help the success of the general scheme. There is no city in the world where the policeman is the "guide, philosopher and friend" of the people as in London; no place where the stranger so soon forgets that he is anything .but a Londoner; and no place where he may move about without inspiring the least interest in the breasts • of the populace. The stranger who goes | to London with the idea that London lis going to collect on the London Bridge to see him go by, because he comes from Waipironui, Kurikuri, or Booligal, finds his level in one day. London's vastness is the finest discipline a man may have. The world's eminents are "small beer" in the great city; the local celebrity creates no enthusiasm by a mere recital of his alleged accomplishments. But, en tho other hand, there is no city under the sun where real merit is more quickly realised or a more wonderful hospitality offered. The cliairman of tho Booligal Road Board who returns to Booligal and tells his fellows that the London County Council can teach Booligal nothing, is generally right—it couldn't. But the London crowd can teach the crowds of the world that on great occasions the spirit of discipline, self-restraint and good-fellowship animates the millions. There is'no better school for an understanding of human nature than human beings in great masses, and there cannot be such great masses of human being anywhere in the world as in London. We are told that King George and .Queen Mary looked '•'radiantly happy." Why not? The millions of people who were in London streets might not, individually, be able to express their sentiments, but by their behaviour they unquestionably demonstrated that deep in their hearts they stood for the Empire, whose head they honored in a way unique in the history of any people. As London is the market of the world, so are its people an example to the world of selfdiscipline. As the police superintendent said: "They manage themselves."