VICE-REGAL THOUGHTS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 31, 5 August 1930, Page 13

VICE-REGAL THOUGHTS

CIVIC AND NATIONAL PRIDE

Sumo very interesting remarks wero made by His Excclloucy Lord Blcdisloo in speaking at the Y.W.C.x\. last evening. He said ho was pleased to find that tho association mado a specialty of meeting the girls from overseas, and ho paid a tribute to tho habit of New ZcaJanders in calling ,Great Britain either' "the Old Country" or "Home." That was as it should bo, and ho urged that in receiving the young people who came out here Ncvf Zcalanders should regard them as a trust to a certain extent. Ho had, as a member of the Overseas Settlement Board, heard somo sad things about young people who had come out, full of hope and energy, thinking to make a homo in a new country, and who had been terribly disappointed, aim in the end they had had to return with the value of their lives much impaired. Therefore if he felt that if tho association could keep a protective influence on these and give them a certain amount of after-care, it would be doing a great work in linking up the Empire. He asked all to remember what the "C" stood for in their name, and to obey the instructions of the greatest of all Teachers.

His Excellency urged loyalty as a great quality. Loyalty to the association and to each other; loyalty to their city, which had been aptly described as "no mean city, but ono worthy of honour"; loyalty to their country and Empire—such was urged. His Excellency spoke of his impression that tho people of the Dominion wero happy people —physically fine, hospitable, sympathetic, and with, many other good qualities. But he wondered if they had developed a sense of "nationhood," which was one of the most necessary, allied with self-respect, uprightness—clean and honest. He compared the young country with its forest plantations and bush. In the former there was close planting to make the trees grow straight and upright, whereas, in the case of the bush, it was clean and fragrant, full of beauty and attraction. He urged self-knowledge. He quoted the last words of tho late Archbishop Davidson, "God give you judgment," to resist tho buffeting of irre-. ligion and vice, and concluded a very beautiful address with the words.?-'"fo thine own self be true," and "God bless the association, and its work."