EMPIRE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 122, 26 May 1930, Page 7

EMPIRE DAY.

-« WIDELY OBSERVED. Celebrations at Home and in AH Dominions, LOYALTY- TO THE THRONE. (.United P.A.—Electric Telegraph-Copyright) (Received 10.30 a.m.) LONDON, May 25. ; Empire Day was celebrated in London with special enthusiasm ou account of Miss Amy Johnson's success. Crowds flocked to Hyde Park, where community singing was organised. The conductor, Mr. Gibson Young, asked visitors from the Dominions to flourish their programmes, and this revealed an astonishing number present. A pageant of the Empire was followed by a service conducted by Bishop Long, Newcastle, New South Wales. Prince Geofvo reviewed between GOOO and 7000 naval and military cadets.

AUSTRALIAN SPIRIT. PATRIOTIC DEMONSTRATION. SYDNEY, May 25. Empire Day ceremonies were held throughout Australia yesterday, the speakers paying tribute to the Empire builders of the past. At the Royal Empire Society's dinner Lord Stonehaven stated that five years' residence in the Commonwealth as Governor-General had taught him that loyalty to the Empire was a fundamental feeling in Australia, on which all British peoples could bank. The Premier of New South Wales, Mr. T. R. Bavin, speaking at a State function in Sydney, moved a resolution affirming the determination of the people of New South Wales to do their utmost to ensure the closest union between all parts of the Empire. He said there were a few people in their midst who did not support the Empire, but eagerly took advantage of the benefits and privileges conferred by citizenship of the Empire. A great audience at the Town Hall in the evening accorded a wonderful reception to Miss Florence Austral, the Australian singer who was appearing for tho first time since her return to her own land. The programme included patriotic songs in keeping with the spirit of the day.

TIGHTENING THE BONDS. ECONOMIC UNIT URGED. OTTAWA, May. 25. The Prime Minister of Canada, Mr. W. L. Mackenzie King, in an Empire Day message to Canada and the Empire generally laid stress on the need for a tightening of the bonds of Empire and its welding together as an economic unit. Trade was essentially a matter oE business, said Mr. King, but in the conduct of their national business they were happy to remember that they were members of a great community of nations under the British Crown which offered an unexampled opportunity for fraternal and commercial enterprise in tho era, of vast development which awaited tho world in this 20th century.