NO PRINCE OF WALES?

Waikato Times, Volume 119, Issue 19887, 16 May 1936, Page 26 (Supplement)

NO PRINCE OF WALES?

A NATIONAL FIGURE. SONG WE IYIAY HEAR NO MORE. Every boy and girl in New Zealand ia 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 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 heur 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 the first-born son of the Soverigu; 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. Ho is the throne's buttress and supporter, and continually the Sovereign’s representative and ambassador. Not since the reign of William the 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 can 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 he was overshadowed by his mother, who kept him 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 con,iure with among the people. Edward the Seventh’s eldest son the Duke of 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 conung to the throne was to make him Prince of Wales. It was not quite the first act, for, owing to a promise made to Austraha some years before that G ® or f e should open the first tefni, ,f ar ii a f‘ ent ° f tie Commonwealth the Duke and Duchess of York fr-e o t° r the Anti P odes as missionaries of Empire, On their return, the Duke was at once made Prince of Wales, havinsr as "ofoTl T’ boe:un a p ™<=e’s duties taken », J“ e a princfe - 14 ma Y be taken as marking a new era that on ta the tU r n i !, nade a fam °us speech in the Guildhall m which he told his hearers that their brethren across the seas thought if time that the S Country should wake up. There were only a few years for this nrir.ee tn represent his father, the King, and to give assurance of liis own DrenarP.inp.. u°es' Ui bnt tak tl Vh® highest responsibilities, but in these few years he visited Vienna, Beilin, Madrid and made memorable tour iu India. He had noly right s abroad - 11 la sted a ton-

■ail England remembers the dav years ago, when a shy, fair-haired’lad stood in the gateway of ancient ( narvon Castle and king George ore T *» tb ° people as their hereditary Prince The boy stood as one dazed „ ... , 7 aa ecd to. a moment, " lf ""-awed by a sense of the great j ness or the responsibility assumed by j him m 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 loaned down and whispered a word of kindly assurance.. The shadow on the boy’s face lifted. He was the Prince of Wales, but the 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 ra oment, 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 soldiers 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 and girls who now have reached manhood and womanhood still remember vividly that great day in the Dominion when they broke all restraint and mobbed the Prince’s motor-car, and how he stood up and waved and smiled at their wild enthusiasm! We have now lost our Prince of Wales, but we have gained a King who has walked in our wavs, knows about us, and will ever retain a personal recollection of his happy sodjurn in our midst. We may no longer sing "God Bless the Prince of Wales," but there will be all the old-time loyalty and fervour in our singing of that still greater prayer and hymn of the British nation, "God Save Our Gracious King! ”