LONDON LETTER.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 29, 4 February 1910, Page 3

LONDON LETTER.

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES. LEGISLATIVE PROGRESS IN NEW ZEALAND. [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] LONDON, 24th December. Another interesting link between school children of New Zealand and the United Kingdom was welded yesterday, when, at Edinburgh, the ceremony (ook place of presenting a flag sent from the Dunedin High-street School, New Zealand, to the Royal High School in Edinburgh. Lord Dunedin made the presentation, Mr. Clark (chairman of the School Board) was in the chair, and those present, in addition to scholars, were Treasurer Leishman, Mr. Scougal, Air. Baillie Geddes, and Mr. John King. In the' course of an address on patriotism, Lord Dunedin suid they did well to be proud of Wallace and Bruce, and all the other great men who belonged to the time when Scotland was a small and separate kingdom. They would find, however, more eminent Scotsmen who .had done something for the world at large since the union than before. Then in these later days we had not only got Great Britain, but the great Empire beyond the seas, and it was that feeling particularly that tHis flag "was destined to teach. Let them cherish and honour their position as Scotsmen, and remember with pride that Scotsmen all over the world had been the foremost to found the Empire we now had. Let them cherish and honour the idea that they were citizens of the great British Empire. But that idea was not worth keeping without the belief that if the British Empire were gone to-morrow there would bo less justice and freedom in the world than before. That was the feeling which was symbolised by the flag which in the name of their far-off compatriots he now presented to them. Amid the ringing cheers of the children, the large flag was unfurled from the gallery just as Lord Dunedin was concluding his address. The Rector, Mr. W. J. Watson, accepted the flag on behalf of the pupils, and votes of thanks , were accorded on the call of Treasurer Leishman and Mr. Scougal.