THE TIES OF KINSHIP.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 8 August 1924, Page 6

THE TIES OF KINSHIP.

ENGLAND AS A “HOME.” Interesting impressions of the love of New Zealanders for the Old Country are conveyed in an article in the London Daily .Chronicle by Air. Fenton Macpherson, who visited the Dominion as special commissioner for that paper a few months ago “It was when I was in the heart of Central Utago,” says Mr. Macpherson, “that suddenly there flashed across my mind the special .significance of the word ‘At Home,’ when used by one born and bred in the Dobinion. It was in a small wooden hut which was being used as a temporary sclioolhougp in a public works construction camp at Chatto Creek, that I first really grasped the double meaning which the word ‘At Home’ has for those of British origin now domiciled overseas. I had been invited to have a chat Avith the assembled pupils. They They -were a handful of sturdy small boys and girls \\4m had probably seen me earlier in the day as I passed their tiny school on my way to'inspect the ferro-concrete Avater race built recently for purposes of irrigation.” Thinking to test their knoAvledge of the locality, the visitor began Avitli the question “Where have I just come from?”

“Home, sir,” came the electrifying answer, piped out of the bonnie wee lass, bom in New Zealand, who had almost certainly never been out of the country.

One of the hoys, who quite rightly guessed that 'Mr. Macpherson: was somewhat nonplussed, politely amplified the small girl’s reply by stating, “She means England.” Air. Macpherson continues:—“To travel oyer 12,000 miles from London to a. tiny little hamlet in the heart of New Zealand and there hear an infant lisp of England as ‘Home’ is enough to make any lover of his country thrill with pride. The Empire is in no immediate danger of dissolution while our outpost nations never cease to use the Avord ‘Home,’ both for the cradle of. the race and for the hearth and fireside of the family. “The little ones have. learned Irom their elders the double application of the Avord ‘Homo.’ And hoAv strong a hold the memory of the Home Land had on the earlv emigrants, and still has on their descendants, the public and private artcol lections of the Dominion hear witness to-day. ‘‘Tn these collections pictures abound of British scenery and country life painted for the most part by wellknown artists avlio have .chosen their subjects from all parts of the British Isles. In some galleries English scenery preponderates; in others, the mountains and tarns of the Scotish Highlands and the surge-beaten shores of the Western Isles. Two canvases stand out in my memory. They hang ■side by side in the Public Art Gallery at Dunedin. They are both labelled : ‘The Birth Place of the Dono'r.’ Both are finely painted pictures of Perth, showing the fair city as it stands on the hanks of the Tav.