"A SCARLET DAY"

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 27, 31 January 1917, Page 8

"A SCARLET DAY"

•MR. MASSEY AT CAMBRIDGE

(FROM OUR OWN CORRBSPOKDEXT.)

LONDON, sth December.

Immediately before his tour.jof land and Ireland, Mr. Massey-wa's'.'tho guest of\honour at Cambridge University when the degree of LL.D honoris causa was conferred upon him.

A large number of ladies were present "' at the Senate House, and in addition, there was a goodly sprinkling of- colonial soldiers. It was, as a local correspond-, ent says, "a scarlet day," and the bright- 1 hued gowns 61' the doctors gave .warmth and colour to the gathering. The reading of the graces and supplications having been concluded, the New .Zealand Premier, "a very tall and imposing personage," was placed opposite the, dais, while Sir John Sandys, the Public Orator, introduced him to the Vice-Chancel-lor in a Latin speech. i In the course of' this, he. referred to the .fact that forty-six years ago, at the age of fourteen, the future Prime Minister had left the North, of Ireland for onu 1 of those colonies which are so far from England, and are yet bound to her by the closest, ties. In New Zealand he.had found cities and provinces that reminded their, inhabitants of the names of great military or naval commanders, such as Nelson or Wellington. At Wellington, ! he entered Parliament in 1894, and, by : 1912, had risen to the position of Prime -,- Minister, besides holding the portfolios I of Lands, Agriculture, Labour, Industry, and Commerce. After the outbreak of the present war he had become Primo Minister of a National Government, .with '■■ the former Prime Minister, 1 Sir ■JosepTr Ward (who had received an: honorary degree at Cambridge in 1911) as finance' Minister Soon after the declaration''pp. war New Zealand equipped an'Espedi-. tsonary Force, and met with complete success in. capturing the German ■coloiiyf of Samoa. She also raised a' large; force ?j to take its place beside the other' soldiers' I of the Empire, the speed with which j this force was raised being gdiie'to'the. fact that all the young men of New Zea- i land receive a military training.. That force had taken a prominent part-in the Gallipoli campaign, and subsequently'; in that of the Somme, where, in.the words of the Commander-in-Chief, "they had accomplished all, and more than all, they had been set to perform." Not,to dwell on the. many recent, acts of generosity for which Great Britain and Belgium were indebted:to New Zealand,'oven be-:""' fore.the outbreak of the war, she. had,', in 1.909, presented to the Imperial Government the battle-cruiser named the New Zealand, which,' by the side of;,th6 = Indomitable, had played an important part in'the^victory of Justland. "•' All this bad been "sufficient to show ] that that colony and its Prime Minister,- ] whom they warmly .welcomed on that - day, had not forgotten the memorable message given by.Nelson, not to his own fleet alone, but to the British Empire for all time: "England expects that every man will do his duty.' 1 Oh the same morning the party was shown over the university model farm, and was entertained at luncheon by tha Vice-Chancellor and Mrs. Fitzpatrick, aX, Queen's College.