LOYALTY DAY

Greymouth Evening Star, 5 June 1922, Page 3

LOYALTY DAY

XSC> A STIRRING CELEBRATION. The 57th birthday of his Majesty King George V. on Saturday was alsj Empire Day, and the honour done to the head of the Empire was combined with a demonstration of pride and love for the Empire itself. Greymouth entered .into the spirit of the occasion with the deepest fervour. The day was a close holiday and the morning was devoted entirely to the honour of King and Empire. Buildings and ships were bedecked with bunting, and those in the streets either carried little flags or wore the colours. Through its Mayor, the town sent the following loyal greeting to his Majesty the King:— “From Greymouth, South Island of New Zealand, one of the uttermost parts of the Empire, greetings to his Majesty King George V. on his 57th birthday 1 May he have many happy returns, may his reign be long and his wise counsel continue to prevail throughout his mighty Empire. “We wish his Majesty good health and good cheer in the trying times the world is undergoing, and assure him, in this message of our loyalty to the Throne and Empire. “God Save the King! To express those sentiments in the form of a motion a. big gathering took place in the Town Hall immediately after the procession. The building was packed, and tvann 11 »■» n I'* 1 rvnm fl rl TH 1 CQIDD I HB

many were unable to gain admission, me body of the hall was filled with smiling children, most of whom carried little flags, and they entered into the proceedings spiritedly and sang their songs with real fervour. The platform was tastefully decorated with the national colours and a pretty tableau symbolising “Loyalty,” in which several children from the State School represented the different nations that make up the British Commonwealth. At each side of the stage four strappinglads carried the flags of the Allies. 1 hose who occupied the platform were the Mayor, Mr T. E. Y. Seddon, M.P., Archdeacon Carr, the Rev. B. J. James, Cr K. Skoglund, Captain Colclough, and Mr F. H. Denton (Town Clerk). The proceedings opened with the playing of “God Save the King” by the Mutti-

cipal Band. The Mayor (Mr J. I). Lynch) then read the message of loyalty, and it was carried by a loud ovation and a further rendition of the National Anthem. The Mayor said it was 21 years ago since as Duke of York, King George came to Greymouth and on that- occasion, as later when his son the Prince of Wales came, citizens joined together to show their loyalty to the great Empire to which they were proud to belong. Every nation was having trouble at present, and the British nation was no exception; but though they had to have their internal troubles and divergences of opinion, they were all united in their pride of the Empire and they were going to stick there and unite under the good old Hag for the good of all, (Applause). The GovernorGeneral (Viscount Jellicoe) remarked when he visited Greymouth that ho was very ; much impressed with the motto he saw in a country school —‘‘United we stand, , divided we fall.” That was the secret of ; the Empire’s progress, and it was essential that the children should always remember that principle. All should stand united - for the good of the Empire, for there was < no better Empire, never had been, and j never would be. (Applause). Iho demon- j st ration of loyalty which they were mak- i ing that day was no new stunt. It had al- < ways been “there,” although they might 1 have shown more enthusiasm oi late years. a It was a pleasure to see such a large I gathering actuated by such a fine motive. 2 He concluded by hoping that his Majesty . would have good cheer and long life. <. The children then sang “The British t Flag,” after which Mr Seddon, the next c speaker, asked them how old the King f

was. “Fifty-seven!” was the prompt reply. “Good!” said Mr Seddon. “You are not like the children in Kumara. Some of the bigger children will know what they said! (Laughter). The anniversary of his Majesty’s birthday, continued Mr Seddon, was being celebrated throughout the Empire. It was a day when they should “think Imperially” as Mr Chamberlain said, for the King was the head of a mighty Empire. There were different ways of celebrating the King's Birthday. In the trenches the “boys” used to celebrate it by giving Fritz a little extra strafe, but the Germans often seemed to be celebrating the Kaiser’s Birthday in the same way. They should all realise the importance of the Empire. In their histories they would read of the great deeds of the British Queen Boadicea, who fought hard against the invading Romans. Of her the poet said—- , “Realms Romans never knew Thy posterity shall sway.” It was truly a greater Empire than the

Romans had ever known, and the pulses of the children must beat faster as they r read of the great battles that were fought and won in the building of the Empire. He asked them to remember the great deeds of the Navy, who had to uphold the great reputation that had been set by the men who fought under Granville, Raleigh. Drake and Nelson. But though the Germans drank to “Dor Tag,” the men of the Navy, under tho man who was now New Zealand's Governor-General, dro-e them to the shelter of the Kiel CamL The Governor-General had asked him to present to the Grey State School on autographed portrait of himself, in appreciation of the honour done to him both when he was in Greymouth and when he was in charge of the fleet which beat the Germans. Here Mr Scddon turned jhe portrait around, a signal for loud cheering

on the part of the children. He then handed the picture to Air H. H. Allison, headmaster of the school. The children sang “Rule Brittania,” after which Mr J. Tennent, chairman of the School Committee, returned thanks for the Governor-General's gift. He trusted that the children, when they saw ti e picture in the corridor, would always remember the motto Viscount Jellicoe was so desirous of impressing on them — “Honour the Flag, honour God, honour the King” (Applause). The Rev. B. J. Janies said that the number of flags about reminded him that American reverence for. the national flag differed from the British in this resnect :

uuieica ironi me jjuusii nr inis respect : The American, whenever he left his country, always packed away in his suit case the stars and stripes, so that he could wave it leaving and returning. There were three facts he wanted to impress on the children. The first was that it was the birthday of their beloved Sovereign. King George was a. good and wise man, whose first thoughts were the welfare ol his nation and the good of his people. He therefore made it easy for them to love and honour him, and to sing with sincerity “God Save the King, long may the King reign over us.” (Applause). Secondly, united with the King’s Birthday was Empire Day, which was an important factor in the systematic training of the rising generation in that knowledge and those virtues calculated to make them good citizens. He would define patriotism as family affection, for the units of the Empire were the family, and the Empire itself was one big family. Tho spirit of patriotism was expressed in the watchwords, “Responsibility, duty, sympathy, and self-sacrifice.” On Empire Day they were meant to be proud and happy because they belonged to tho British Empire, on which tho sun never set. The King ruled over one-quarter of the world’s people, of whom one-seventh only were white Christians. That showed how necessary was the cultivation of the virtue of responsibility. Thirdly, he wanted to joint out that the Empire had been built up at enormous cost. They thought that day of the brave sailors and soldiera who had died that others might live. Espcciilly should they remember the great

Battle of Jutland which took place on May 31 and June 1, 1916, when Beatty and Jelicoed rove the German Navy back to Jellicoe drove the German Navy back to their foils, from which they never came out, except to surrender to the British at Scapa Floe. It was in that battle that young Jack Cornwall made his name immortal as a hero of duty and self-sacrifice. Perhaps the children present would not be called on to fight and die for the Empire, but they would be asked to live for the Empire, be proud of it and remember the watchwords —“responsibility, duty, sympathy and self-sacrifice.” The National Anthem concluded the ceremony. PAGEANT OF PATRIOTISM. Children and teachers from the Grey State School, Cobden, Blaketown and Dobson schools, numbering about 700 took part in the morning’s procession, which might be described as a, Peageant of Patriotism. The triangle outside the Railway Station formed the rendezvous of the respective processions, and presented a gay scene when the full muster had assembled.

The first procession was that of the State School children, who marched behind the Municipal Band. Following tho band was a lorry carrying the tableau of the Empire, with Miss Edna Turtill as -Britannia, the central figure. Behind this ’ were Red Cross nurses and troops of Boy Scouts and' Girl Peace Scouts, after which came the school children bearing their little flags. The procession wheeled round into Mawhera Quay and was joined by the Blaketown, Kaiata and Dobson children, after which a halt was made to await the Cobden procession. Tho skirl of pipes in the distance announced the approach of the Cobden children, and their procession was soon in sight, headed by a band of Scottish pipers and a banner with “Cobden for King and Country” inscribed in golden letters. After this camo a lorry with a number of Red Cross nurses, and this was followed by 1 the tableau, “Nestlings of tho Empire,” in -which several small children representative of the different British nations nestled in bowers of greenery. They were followed ' by the teachers and a jubilant band of children. The full pageant moved right along Ma-

whera Quay into Boundary Street, and then by a circuitous route to the Town Hall. It was a difficult problem to distribute the children in the hull, and many had to be taken upstairs, which had been reserved for adults. Throughout the proceedings the children were very enthusiastic, and at times showed that they preferred active tarher than pasive demonstrations of their feelings. Speeches apparently tired them, but they were brimful of action whenever the time came to sing or cheer. They all left the hall obviously pleased with the whole affair and more than pleased at the prospect of free pictures in the afternoon.