The Waipawa Mail. Published Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Tuesday, May 22, 1900. THE QUEEN.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXII, Issue 4055, 22 May 1900, Page 2

The Waipawa Mail. Published Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Tuesday, May 22, 1900. THE QUEEN.

“ God Save the Queen.”

Before the next issue of the Waipawa Mail appears our Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria will have celebrated the eighty-first anniversary of her birth. Her loyal subjects throughout the whole of her vast dominions will unite in wishing her “ many happy returns of the day.” And deservedly so. No monarch who has sat upon the British throne has ever earned the esteem, the love, and the affection of her subjects as has Queen Victoria. We are not believers in the assertion of King Richard 11, who said “Not all the water in the rude, rough sea, can wash the balm from an anointed king.” We do not believe with the present Emperor of Germany that a reigning monarch is the deputy of the Lord, and that by virtue of his birth and of the crown he wears he is an infallible being who can do no wrong. Readers of history laugh such pretensions to scorn. It is because we are not believers in the “ Divinity that doth hedge a King ” that we doff our hat and earnestly express the wish that is echoed throughout an empire that the Ckesars never dreamed of, “God bless our Queen.” For over sixty-three years she has sat upon the throne and guided the destinies of the greatest nation the world has ever seen ? No breath of scandal has ever tarnished her fair name or fame; her Court has been the purest in Europe.; as wife and mother she has set a bright example to the world. She has shared the hopes and aspirations of her people, rejoiced when they rejoiced and shared in their sorrows. And it is on account of hor womanly qualities that her subjects, from one end of her dominions to the other, honour and reverence her; Her reign has been a long and memorable one, in fact a reign of marvels, a mere recount of which would far exceed the space at our disposal. And although the British arms have been victorious on many a well fought field during her long

reign, it is, well known that her voice has always been for Peace. “ The pomp and circumstance of glorious war ” have no charms for her, and it was her fervent wish’that the closing years of her reign might be passed in tranquillity. But the great Architect of the Universe has willed it otherwise, and with humility and reverence she accepts His decree. It is amidst the booming of cannon and the clash of steel that Her Majesty celebrates the anniversary of her birth this year. It was with the roar of artillery that the present century was ushered in. The British then were victorious alike on land and sea and the century is dying under similar conditions. It seems to us most fitting that this year Her Majesty should celebrate her birthday under somewhat similar circumstances and amidst such loyal demonstrations that the world has never seen. At the call of danger the whole British dependencies have voluntarily rallied round the old flag, have freely offered their money and the flower of their manhood to uphold the prestige of her name. The crimson thread of kinship has proved a living reality and “ out of the nettle danger we have plucked the flower safety.” So out of evil there cometh good, and though Her Majesty’s earnest, human prayer for peace in our time has not been vouchsafed, the unbounded expressions of loyalty to her throne and devotion to her person that have been echoed throughout her realms amply prove that it is not sound and fury, signifying nothing, when her subjects sing