The Gisborne Herald. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED “THE TIMES." GISBORNE, THURSDAY, MAY 23, 1940. EMPIRE DAY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20254, 23 May 1940, Page 4

The Gisborne Herald. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED “THE TIMES." GISBORNE, THURSDAY, MAY 23, 1940. EMPIRE DAY

To-morrow will be observed, but hardly celebrated, as Empire Day. There has been a tendency in recent years for the anniversary to pass almost unnoticed and it is probable that few of the younger generation even know its origin or its meaning. Indeed, even in high quarters the use of the term “Empire” has been avoided as if it were something of which to be ashamed and it has been displaced by the ugly and much-laboured phrase “Commonwealth of Nations,” It is as well in this time of Empire crisis to recall something of the oldtime sentiment of Empire Day and to remember just what the Empire stands for and what it has achieved. It is over 120 years since the birth of Queen Victoria and more than a century since she ascended the Throne in the middle of a period that was marked in British history for the scope and extent of Imperial development —a development which to-day is either taken for granted or else held up to ridicule. Empire Day was founded in gratitude for the growth in wealth, power and prosperity of the Empire under Victoria and it is not inappropriate, even after the passage of lime, that the citizens of the many parts of the Empire should pause to reflect on just what this great and unparalleled organisation means to them and to civilisation. Once again Empire Day finds the Empire at war but never before in its history was its existence so much

stake. New Zealand is now celebrating its first hundred years. Its settlement and development was largely a product of the Empire sentiment which typified the Victorian era. Today, however, it is apt to forget its Imperial associations and to boast of its freedom and independence as a unit .of the British Commonwealth of Nations. What freedom does its really possess? How free and how independent would it be were it not for the fight that is now being made on its behalf by the people of the Mother Country? New. Zealand, like the other Dominions, of its own power alone would be defenceless and vulnerable in the extreme. Its strength and its freedom lies solely, not in its own keeping, but in the keeping of the Empire as a whole and, in particular, in the hands of Great Britain. While accepting this protection, and vitally dependent upon it, the Dominion has been inclined to scot! at its Empire ties, to decry everything Imperial, and to boast of its own largely imaginary status among the nations. And even to-day, in the time of Empire crisis, it shirks sacrifices of its own and proves more than ever before its dependence upon the Mother Country to keep its shores inviolate and its people free. Even as there has been a tendency to disregard and even sever the ties of Empire so has there been lacking an appreciation of the spirit that has made' the Empire and the Dominion what it is. It is fitting to look back and try and conjure up a picture of what went into the building up of this great Empire; to recall, so far as is possible at this distance, the courage, the risk, the adventure, the hardships and the enterprise that made the development of the Empire possible. The Centennial celebrations should have done something to indicate to New Zealand just what went into the building of this young country, yet even in the midst of the celebrations there is loose talk from the public platform which would seek to convey the impression that nothing has been done towards the building of the nation until the last few years. It is worth pondering whether the present generation, had it been put to the test, could have provided the Empire builders who came from the generations of the past. Can the young men of today be pictured cutting all their home ties, undertaking a long and dangerous voyage overseas in small sailing vessels, and then setting out with no assets other than their own brains and brawn and courage to carve out careers for themselves in a new land? Experience leaves room to doubt. It is true, perhaps, that there were rewards for the enterprise of the past, but, in the main, they were well earned. The critics of to-day are inclined to emphasise the commercial profit that attended the building of the Empire and to overlook the sacrifice and the discipline that the task involved. At least it can be said that the men and women of earlier generations survived and'succeeded according to their own ability and determination; it was they who built a nation and an Empire. Their successors of to-day do not build in the same way but are content to enjoy the heritage that is theirs. For them, discipline and sacrifice are relics of a past age and hardship, where it is known, is not something to be borne but to be relieved by a paternal Government. Whatever benefits New Zealand enjoys to-day are; the products of the Empire spirit which made the nation and the Empire what it is. It is that spirit that is recognised—again largely as a relic of the past—in the observance of Empire Day, and the ignorance and’ apathy in which the day is observed might well be regarded as a measure of the decay of the spirit of Empire. To-day, little though the fact seems to be appreciated, let alone felt, in New Zealand, the Empire is at war and fighting for its very existence. Let something be done to recapture the spirit of Empire Day and there need be no concern for the future of the Empire.