Enduring royal popularity

Prince William and Catherine the Duchess of Cambridge. Photo by Kirk Hargreaves.
Prince William and Catherine the Duchess of Cambridge. Photo by Kirk Hargreaves.
There is nothing like a beautiful ''princess'' to bring out the crowds. Add a cute baby and two heirs to the Throne and the parts were in place for one of the most successful and popular royal tours for many a year.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge - or should that be the Duchess and Duke because all eyes have been on Catherine (Kate to most) rather than William - have smiled, chatted and charmed their way through New Zealand.

Tomorrow, their visit comes to an end and it is Australia's turn.

The couple with baby George are in both countries for nine days, signing out from these Antipodean shores on Anzac Day.

It would be easy to write off the monarchy as an ebbing anachronism.

Why, through, an accident of birth, should anyone hold exalted status?

Why should anyone be ''born to rule'', even if in our constitutional arrangements the power is largely symbolic?

Nevertheless, New Zealand's Westminster political system - with its unwritten constitution - includes the Queen and her representative, the Governor-General.

It is a system that operates successfully, certainly by world standards.

Because the role of the Queen's representative is strictly limited, the presence of an hereditary monarch does not in fact undermine democracy.

It could be argued it perhaps even strengthens it.

It would be unwise to muck significantly with our constitutional arrangements.

This is despite our growing dislocation from Britain, the residence of our Queen, and even some resentment at the treatment from what was once considered by many as ''the mother country'' or ''home''.

While many New Zealanders, including Maori, have ancestral ties to England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and while New Zealanders fell in their thousands in battle alongside the British, events in 1973 prompted a sense of betrayal.

It was that year Britain went with Europe, turning its back on this country and its farmers.

As well, since then, almost all the privileges New Zealanders, including the about 80% with British ancestry, had to live and work in Britain have been stripped away.

Both younger generations and the fast-growing Asian community have less reason to relate to a monarch in Britain, and in due course change might come.

But as Prime Minister John Key has noted, a popular visit from glamorous royals has - at least for now - reinforced royal ties.

The visit might not be cheap for taxpayers, at $1.2 million. That, however, is money easily recouped in international publicity alone.

After the first day, the Mail Online reported an up to 153% increase in holidaymakers searching for trips to New Zealand on flight booking sites.

Photographs of Queenstown in autumnal dress, of Kate sipping a Central Otago wine or the whizz and whirl of a jet-boat ride is publicity worth millions.

More important still is the pleasure the visit is giving so many, including the thousands at Forsyth Barr Stadium and the many hundreds of thousands following the tour through newspapers, television and other coverage.

Sure, these reports might not have had the gravitas of so-called ''real news''.

But news does not all have to be serious or grim or weighty.

Just as sport provides welcome diversions from the cares of life, so too can following the royals, particularly when one is an international celebrity like the duchess.

No doubt, reactions to a visit from Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, would have been less enthusiastic and widespread.

But they, too, in their own ways would have attracted interest.

Many, albeit anti-egalitarian, like the idea of kings and queens and prince and princesses.

It taps into a deep-seated need to have people to put on pedestals and it resonates with childhood fairy tales.

While Jack and Jane might be as good as their masters and mistresses, we can appreciate ceremony, royalty and sometimes even deference.

Our ties with Britain might have weakened, but the place of British and New Zealand royalty will endure for some time yet.

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