ONE KING, ONE FLAG. .

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 7, 8 July 1909, Page 3

ONE KING, ONE FLAG. .

THE IMPERIAL EVANGEL. Two missionaries arrived by the Ulimaroa from Sydney last evening. They are Sir Charles Lucas, K.C.M.G., and Mr. A. A. Pearson, C.M.G., who have been sent forth by the Colonial Office to Australia and New Zealand, to spread the gospel of Imperialism. They have received the benediction of the Imperial Government, and have been received with open arms, in a figurative sense, in Australia and Tasmania. Sir Charles Lucas, in the course of an interview with a ..representative of The Post, described his visit and that of Mr. Pearson as "a mission i-o enable the Colonial Office to gain closer and more personal knowledge of New Zealand, and to bring the office into closer touch with the Now Zealand Government. The mission is the outcome of a wish expressed at the last Imperial Conference, and we hope the visit will not be the last of its kind." Of the hospitality shown to himself and Mr. Pearson, Sir Charles Lucas could not speak too highly. "The people leceived us most cordially," he said. " We hope to spend a month here, leaving about the 9th August ior England, j via CanaSa. We shall break a journey. lat Fiji. We shall not visit Canada officially. I know Canada. I was there some years ago " Sir Charles Lucas and Mr. Pearson have found that misunderstandings are due to ignorance on this side of the : globe as well as in the centre of the Empire. It is to dispel that misunder- ■ standing as much as in them lies {hat j the missionaries have come. I "The true happiness of the Empire," j said Mr. Pearson, "lies not only in its progress, but in its healthy, happy children." They were all members of the Empire — Australians, New Zealande'E, Canadians, and South Africans — all with one King, one flag. Sir Charles Lucas described the effect oi^the re-arrangement of tho Colonial Cince as putting affairs of self-governing felonies into a watertight compartment. ' Ie wa3 now fully recognised that self- • governing dominions should be placed apart from Crown colonies. It had been recognised, too, that there might be more advantages to be derived from informal visits of the kind undertaken by Sir Charles Lucas and Mr. •Pearson than from a more definite, clearcut scheme. Both gentlemen have come into close touch with men and tilings in Australia. They have seen much ; the hospitality of the Australian public men has been without stint; every facility ■hac been placed in their way of seeing all they wished to see; and they come to 'New Zealand with a very clear idea of the -Australian point of view. They came to this country expecting to find some difference in detail, but the same large 'Imperial spirit which was so striking in 'Australia. They aro Downing-strcct officials. So much 'Sir Charles Lucas admitted. "That in itself," he continued, '"teems to show how the times have moved. If this had happened ' half a century ago, I don't think two people from Downing-strcet would have been made bo much of in Australia. The welcome, tho people, 1 and the country na\e had the effect of making us feel entirely at home. It is all eomehow familiar, and yet so much bigger. The other groat impression we have gained is the obviously enormous possibilities ahead of Australia when, it has seciu**l its full complement of citizens. It is patent to all that if tho Commonwealth is going to ibe the great place it could and should bo, it must have a far greater population. One t-hing Mr. Pearson and myself •have been especially struck with is that tho Australian people fo obviously want us to see everything — they have nothing to hold -back, nothing to hide. And we take that ac a good and strikingly wholesome sign." "Our tour in New Zealand? Beally, I cannot say exactly," Sir Charles Lucas concluded ; "but wo shall probably spend a week in Wellington, and then go to Christ-church and Dunedin, and afterwards to Auckland, leaving there for •Fiji. -However, our itinerary may be changed.