THE LESSON OF DOMINION DAY.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13231, 26 September 1908, Page 8

THE LESSON OF DOMINION DAY.

To-day New Zealand celebrates officially, and to some degree privately, tho first anniversary of its elevation to tho titular rank of a Dominion. If it is claimed that a certain amount of added honour and dignity attaches to the newer designation, it must also be admitted that tho change involves greater responsibilities. That is the inevitable corollary, in tho case of nations no less than of individuals, of an upward stop in rank- How have we met those responsibilities? Can it be said that there has been the slightest change, except possibly for the worse, in tho attitude of tho pooplo towards the Questions that really matter, that will affect Now Zealand, for good or evil, according to our manner of treating them, for generations to come? We aro nation-building here, but whoro is the nation-builder to direct tho work? A London paper has lately boon publishing a series of striking letters on the decay of ideals. Lord Meath, quoting the verse, "Where there is no vision the people " perish," asked whether to-day the British people ' _ro conscious of not Jo ''vision, or whether there is an aotual "decadence of ideals," whether they still seek tho higher welfare of tihe nation and of tho community, or whether they are "wallowing in the " delights of an ago where science, art, " and the resources of civilisation have "beoor.-.o the humblo handimaids of '' a selfish devotion to physical and " material comfort." The warning note was indeed necessary. Proud of our race, we refuse to believe that it has entered upon such a process of decline as history shows to have been tho fate of many a great nation; but it is impossible not to recognise symptoms in tho national temperament that bode no good for the future, unless corrected before they become fixed traits. " The impatience of self-restraint; tho "shallow emotionalism; tlie indiffer"ence to calls of duty, manifested in "our nonchalant attitude as a nation | "towards questions of defence and "the maintenance of tho Empire; tho " looser moral tone which finds its expression in tho popular literature of " th© day; the love of ease and pleasure " which runs through society; the dc- " cay of good manners and the natural " courtesy duo. from man to man; tho "growing insensitiveness to * questions "of personal honour —all these seem to " mc saddening signs of the degenera- " tion of our national fibre." If a "confirmed optimist," as the writer just quoted describes himself, can speak like that, what remains for the pessimist to say? Wo do not go all the way with him in his sovero criticism of tho trend of national character, but some of his illustrations aro ondy too true. The ago is not merely an age of little men, in which one looks in vain for the great leader, but it is an ago of growing effeminacy, of increasing luxury, and therefore, apparently, of inorcasing moral, mental, and physical fatigue, and, we are afraid we must add, of decaying ideals.

Tho vital essence of a nation's growth in moral -worth is the character of the individuals that compose it, reflected, in epitome, in its Parliament. Material prcspeSrity ocuivts for ljttlc when weighed in the bal-nco against a people inspired by the highest sense of diity— duty to themselves, to their fellow-men, to their country, and to their race. Without that sense of duty and the selfrestraint which is a part of it, prosperity may become an influence for evil, and there is some danger that the fat years wo havo experienced in New Zealand have duMed tho people's sense of responsibility, hove closed their eye.-; to the things that count for more than physical comfort or pleasure, and have made them regardless even of tho personal liberty that is their birthright and should be their most prized possession. Too much love of sport, too little attention to more serious matters of life, may, after all, be merely passing phases in tho growth of a yoiuvj* and rich country- But indifference to retention of the most elementary rights is a much more serious symptom. The apathy with which the blow at personal liberty recently dealt by Parliament has been recoived by the public throughout New Zealand is only too significant of the effectiveness with which the national conscience has been drugged to sleep. Xo Government -would havo stood for a day in England that attempted to pass such a law, and the fact that New Zealand saw her liberties infringed almost without protest is a proof that wo havo lost sight of the ideals that inspired our forefathers. That law, which will placo a deeper stain upon our Statute Book than any other it contains, is a law for dav«v*, not for free men, and it should act as a trumpet call, sum- ! moning to tho light all who still cherish tho privilege of British liberty .:„