BRITISH AS EMPIRE BUILDERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12736, 13 December 1904, Page 6

BRITISH AS EMPIRE BUILDERS.

Mr. R. F. Irvi.vk, in the course of a paper read at a meeting of the British Empire League, Sydney, recently, stated that patriotism should be put upon its defence among British people was to his mind a hint of the decadence of our race. The British Empire had reached a critical stage in its evolution, when it was incumbent upon all men and women capable of clear thinking to take stock of the position, to revise conceptions of Empire and principles of action, which, to say the least, had outgrown their usefulness, and to help to shape a policy which would enable us as a nation to face the future with some confidence, and to realise completely what had hitherto seemed our manifest destiny. To vary metaphor, we were now at the parting of the ways. We must take our choice consciously and deliberately, whether we were to press forward with renewed youth and courage, or whether we were to lorn aside beguiled by the fears of unworthy leaders. The great alternative was before us. Should we. a race dowered with the genius for Empire beyond all other race-:, shrink from the completion of the. task'.' Having established ourselves and our free institutions in all the waste places of the earth, having founded an Empire the like of which had never been seen before, should we, out of mere complacency, or out of mere pusillanimity, suffer it to drift apart into fragments? It whs impossible to believe that British people has! grown so wanting in constructive ability, in daring, and in imagination, as to be unable to solve this problem successfully.

To-morrow evening the All Saints' Dramatic Club will give an entertainment in the schoolroom, in aid of the church organ fund. A new musical play, entitled "Stolen Cigars," will be staged. Considerable trouble has been taken to make the evening a success, and special attention has been paid to the scenery and stage effects. The club have secured the services of Messrs. A. Rowe, T. E. Midgley. E. Sturmfels, H. Fountain, A. V. Purness, aud he . Orowha Glee Club for the occasion.

Men's straw hats, Tuscan folders, 2s lid; it guaranteed Panama, 18e 6d.—At the Beehive, Karangahape Road. Plum Pudding.—" Reliable" brand, in 21b tins, ready cooked, for the table, Is 6d each, now ready at all grocers.

We are clearing the whole of our stock of carpet squares at specially reduced prices this week.Rushbrook and Bridgman, Queen-street. One wants to keep a stock of Sunshine in the house nowadays, with winter lasting right on till now. . The best thing will be to order Tucker'? Sunshine Jelly Crystals, 6d.