WE ARE A DOMINION.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 163, 10 July 1907, Page 8

WE ARE A DOMINION.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—The South Pacific is highly •honoured by the bestowal of the title "Dominion" on its remote islands inhabited by us. We used to be called the Antipodes, and this name was synonymous, to a certain proportion of English politicians, with antipathies. This is all changed now. We owe it to Sir Joseph Ward that we are more aristocratic in designation, and the substitution is of vast importance. When Juliet asked, "What's in a name?" she was in love. Shakespeare makes his characters utter what is appropriate to their case. If Fame had been the point of view, our greatest dramatist would have put an opposite opinion into the mouth of his dramatis personae. Now, might we not dub ourselves Dominicans? Perhaps this would smell of the cowl. Then Doniineerers is suggestive, but perhaps rather much so. I should so much like to invent a . name, for names and cash are the wire-pullers for- the marionettes of all dominions. Letters of the alphabet, even, constitute qualifications, and an ornamental appendage also, like the tail of the peacock, or of any other fowl. Thus, although we remain New Zealanders, and our magnificent islands retain their Netherlandish name, and begin to appreciate their destiny, we become magnified in the eyes of the name-wor-shipping world under our new title, like a younger son who has succeeded to a rich and noble inheritance. Let us live up to our position. No doubt we shall.— I am, etc.,

MAURICE R. KEESING.