DEPARTURE OF THE CONTINGENT.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 10483, 23 October 1899, Page 4

DEPARTURE OF THE CONTINGENT.

New Zealand has reason to feel proud of the stirring scene enacted in Wellington on Saturday, so graphically described in another column. The Government, we think, deserve great credit for the energy and promptitude with which they have acted, and the spirit shown by Parliament and the people has been everything that could be desired. Both friends and foes of the Premier must admit that whatever faults he may have he is an Imperialist, of broad and generous views, and that where it is a question of loyalty to the Queen or Mother Country, he is always ready with ungrudging service. Hβ was quite justified in referring, and with pride, to the fact that the New Zealand Parliament was the .fest Parliament in Australasia to sanction the despatch, of a Contingent, and that within sixteen days after the services of our men. had been accepted, they were actually taking ship for the scene at the war. That is an , achievement which undoubtedly reflects credit on all concerned. For the rest it was a happy coincidence that the departure of our men took place on Trafalgar Day. What more appropriate than Nelson's motto, so happily recalled by his Excellency the Governor—"England expects every man to do his duty." That is an injunction which, we, as sons of the Empire, have recognised in the widest sense. Wβ do not stop to argue that we one only a faroff dependency, that our immediate interests are not -threatened, and that in any case it is possible that the Boers may be right and the British wrong. At least only one or two halting souls among us argue in this way, and in the patriotic outburst of shouting from the people as a whole, their feeble, ineffectual voices are no longer heard. We are all Englishmen, when England has to fight, end we are all ready to take our part. That is the great lesson, which, the departure of the New Zealand and other Contingents will convey to the world. Although the war in whicb England is now engaged is carried on under difficult conditions, and may not prove a email war when it is finished, it is a war with a small Power, • which ouglrc not to involve any serious strain on her resources. Our brave soldiers and their capable: command«srs have already started "well, as the cable messages published in another column show. It it is well recognised, however, that the small war with a small Power might easily develop into a desperate war with one or mote big Powers. Against this danger the display of the spirit of loyalty and selfsacrifice now pulsing throughout the Empire will do more than anything else to guard as. Once again we join in wishing our gallant little Contingent God speed, confident thai; ita members will do credit to their island home, now sunk from their view in "the long wash of Australasian eeae."