The Coronation.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 26, 26 June 1902, Page 18

The Coronation.

The Imperial Government ia evidently ardently desirous of placating the colonies, having assigned to Mr Barton and Sir Wilfrid Laurier the leading place in the Coronation procession. To Mr Seddon has been allotted the second place, New Zealand in this respect being placed on an equality with Newfoundland. Cape Colony comes only third, and after its representative come other distinguished colonials and representatives of the Indian Empire. If there is any significance in this order of precedence the relative importance of the various dependencies in British eyes is interesting and, like all other awards of the kind, little calculated to gire complete satisfaction. If, for example, precedence had been given according to the relative magnitude of the sacrifices recently made by the colonies for the Mother Country, New Zealand should come first. The Cape Colony has brought Britain, so far, only a heritage of woe, while India has added another jewel to the Imperial diadem. What grounds there are for placing Newfoundland on an apparent equality iwith New Zealand it is hard to define, as the older colony has certainly not made itself conspicuous in the late war. It was natural to expect that the New Zealand representative should be accorded a prominent place. It is due as much to Mr Seddon's personality as to the importance of the Colony. To the onlookers Mr Seddon's personality will be the most important feature. Sir Wilfrid Laurier has made more truly eloquent patriotic speeches than Mr Seddon. ' Our Lady of the Snows ' was the first among all the colonies, and as yet the only one, to declare for a preferential tariff in favor of British goods. Mr Barton represents a country far more important in every respect than New Zealand, and yet in that procession Mr Seddon will tower head and shoulders above either.