The Feilding Star. Oroua and Kiwitea Counties Gazette TUESDAY, MAY 28, 1907. Empire Day.

Feilding Star, Volume I, Issue 277, 28 May 1907, Page 2

The Feilding Star. Oroua and Kiwitea Counties Gazette TUESDAY, MAY 28, 1907. Empire Day.

' The farcical method of celebrating Empire Day throughout the Wanganui Education District has simply been for the teachers to close the . schools and allow the pupils to wend j their ways wherever they please, j merely knowing that they have been given an extra day's liberty. The Chairman of the Board has had in contemplation the abolition of this : method of observing a day which ! should be a marked one in the lives | of the children as celebrating the greatness of the Empire over which the Great White Queen reigned for so long, and the substitution of a series of lessons appropriate to the occasion. But in this he has been forestalled by Mr W. Adams, headmaster of the State School in Foxton, whose Method of observing Empire Day at his school is an ob-ject-lesson for all the district. At 9.30 a.m., the children were drawn up in front of the school, the flag was unfurled, the bugles sounded the general salute, the cadets presented arms, and the remainder of the pupils came to the salute. Then all placing the right hand on the left breast, repeated simultaneously the words: "I love God and my country; I honour the flag; I will serve the 1 King, and cheerfully obey my parents, j teachers, and the law." Immedi- ! ately afterwards, taking the time i from the headmaster, three cheers I were given for the Empire, three cheers for the King, and three cheers | for the colony of New Zealand. The singing of the National Anthem concluded the ceremony of saluting tho flag, and the children were marched into the large quadrangle where they were addressed by the head teacher on "Empire Day." Fourteen patriotic songs were then given by ! the children, concluding with the i National Anthem. During the day > the foUowing lessons special to the j day were given by the teachers: — ; Empire Day, The extent of the Empire, Its wide commerce and varied • industries, The variety of races in it, Its navy and merchant fleet, Communication between its ports, The I significance of the flag, Heroic deeds in war and exploration, Abolition of Slavery, Founders of the Empire, How New Zealand is connected with the Empire, The New Zealand Ensign, Patriotism, The King as Head of the Empire. We heartily congratulate Mr Adams upon the splendid manner in* which ho has worked out the true idea of Empire Day, and trust that the lesson he has ; taught will not be lost to the rest of i the district.