IS OUR EMPIRE TO LAST?

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 78, 1 April 1922, Page 14

IS OUR EMPIRE TO LAST?

SIR R. STOTTT'S PANACEA. 'THRIFT, CARE, AND HARD WORK." •Those busy watching the side-shows don't see the elephants pass by," a •*ibe by a well-known American writer. was quoted by his Honor the Chief Justice (Sir Robert Stout, K.C.M.G.) as the text or motif of his address at the Wellington Rotary Club's luncheon this week.

As illustrating the truth of lus text, Sir Robert Stout cited the fact that a- far back as ISS4 the Kew Zealand Government in its financial statement called attention to the great opening for trade for Kew Zealand in the island* oi Asia and in Southern Asia. The suggestion was received with laugnter. and to-day Kew Zealand', export trade to these parts amounted to only £342,000, while Australia had stepped in and her exports to the same parts amounted to over .-_2.000.000. Australia's total trade with them, exports and imports comibined, amounted, indeed, to £41,000,000; ■where Kew Zealand's amounted only to 3i millions. x ""The elephant passed by, but Yew Zealand never saw it. She was bothering with the side-shows." But that ■wus happening, said Sir Robert, not only with regard to trade, but with regard to the highest and best interests of our Empire and our race. Was our Empire, he asked, to last? Was our race to persist? THE DECAY OF EMPIRES. One of the greatest enipires the world ■had ever seen began to be broken up dn the third century of our era. And, how? The various dominions or colonies bad demanded self-determination and separation from the Roman Empire; and some of the statesmen said, "Let them go. There are plenty left.' Thus •be-an the decadence of Rome as an empire; and thus would begin the decadence of the British Empire, if we •busied ourselves-with the side-shows and did not look after the greater' things that made for a strong Empire and an enduring race. Did we recognise that no less than seven great civilisations centred round the Mediterranean nad passed away: and what -was to become of our civilisation if we continued to •bother ourselves about all sorts of sideshows instead of giving earnest consideration to the future of our Empire and of our race? Was India to go? /Was Egypt to go? He trusted not, after all that British rule had done in the way of bringing peace, in place of constant civil war, progress, and prosperity to Egypt and to India. The troubles of the Empire to-day were ''go-slow,"! strikes, extravagance, poverty, waste,, and grinding taxation. The taxation in| England to-day was higher than that of i Germany, with all her indemnity. Owing to that taxation, many widows, left railway shares and other investments by their lafe husbands, could not live and had to apply for assistance frcai the I'oor Law Board; while many men of title were no longer able to keep up and had been forced to sell their great ■houses. And look at the position in Ireland, wealthier now than either Scotland or England. In 1919 her bank deposits had more than doubled as compared with pre-war days. But look at the internal'position of Ireland! Could that go on; and could England go on with all her poverty and unemployment, with her foreign trade reduced by half, her shipping laid up, and doles having to be given to assist her workers? Ten millions had been given to the miners, and millions per week were being given to keep the people generally from starvation. What was to be done? Don't let tbem bother about the side-shows. Let them face that great question. THE REMEDIES. One great writer had said that the only way in which, society could be saved from destruction and decay was by the intervention of conscious and instructed intellect as a factor among the forces ruling its development. Howelse could it be done? It would have to be done, declared Sir Robert Stout, by the greatest of thrift and care, and the hardest of work. Every race that ceased to work ceased to exist; and he gave as an example the decay of tht civilisation of Crete, as the result of the culture of Crete running all to amusement, dancing girls, and so forth. What caused the decay of Crete, of Egypt, Greece, and Rome was want of hard work, want of thrift, and want of intellect applied to y securing the efficiency of the people; and that was •what was causing, also, the decay of England to-day. Unless we could maintain industry, thrift, intellect, and efficiency the British race must fail as others had failed. ' Waste, and our grinding taxation, he contended, must cease; and we must learn once more thrift and industry if the glory of our race—for we had much to be proud of—was to continue. Surely there was enough vigour in our race to •be thrifty, hard-working and kindly, to live as 'brothers together and have a high ideal in life. Surely we could do that; and if we in Kew Zealand were to begin to set an example to the rest of the Empire in that direction, then it would be seen that the American writer's gibe about watching the sideshows and not elephants pass by, did not appl,jci*totis, but that we ■were doing our best for our race, for our Empire and for humanity.