THINGS IN GENERAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13766, 3 June 1908, Page 9

THINGS IN GENERAL.

' . EMPIRE AND UNITY. '3 j ... ~ . Thk flag of the British. Empire- stretchy i "!.;' to tho' ends of the earth, unci on Empir< ;* Day a hundred million people, the -cable: vf|:: \ told 'tis, were to be .found doing honour t< '< ; the flag- School children in one part o I, the Empire ' exchanged Hags with schoo children in another part; the famous say- ."! ing of Sir Henry Parke* in regard, to th< v-; people of the Australian States has « ■ wider application than he gave it, and tin motto he gave the Commonwealth is at \' Empire motto as well"One flag, one people, one destiny!" Many an interest ■f■':. : ing item of news was given us in connection with the Empire celebrations',, but J :V : doubt if there was one more interesting ' . than the formal unfurling, in the Richj|: mond public school, New South Wales, oi f,'\ the identical flag that was flown by the "| late Mr. John Bowman on his farm at . Richmond when the news arrived of the victory of Trafalgar, October 21, 1805. ;>;' * . This historical flag has been carefully kept 'f ' for the hundred and odd years-since then; I. ■ ■ and in November, 1905, Mr. Bowman's tv: great-grandchildren gave it to the school. ;: This flag, known locally as " Trie Trafalgar ■T .Flag.'' was recently handsomely framed, J. r mid hung in the main schoolroom. The ;:; : flag is of white silk, in the centre- of which 1.;.. is a coloured shield, on which are painted |g-j ' the Rose, Shamrock, and Thistle interi; ; - twined; as the supporters to the shield ap- %:'{\ pear the Kangaroo and Emu. In a scroll, above tho shield, is printed in gold letter;/l ing the word "Unity.". Beneath the v-'. "scroll, similarly printed in gold, is the motto, " England expects that every nun y* will do his duty." Another item was the flying of the flag 'V 'at Woolwich school from-' a pole made from the timbers of the battleship Trafalgar. The Victory and Trafalgar! When Vf. shall their glory fade? Or when shall the :-,...... Empire's schoolboys cease to remember ;,: Nelson? St. Vincent, the Nile, Copenhagen, Trafalgar—four of the most glorious naval combats of England, and he was the central figure of the., three greatest. ;l Look at him a moment, and see what type '}'. of man lias made the Empire what it is to-day! Horn in 1758, a lieutenant in " 1777, a commander in 1778, at 21 a. captain, and before he was 22 he had attain- >■;• '-' id the rank that placed within his reach ■ all the honours of the service. Prince William Henry described him as looking ; the merest boy of a captain he had ever ;,- ' seen, yet it was this man who could wait ;,'. _ on a general officer, and say, when told "that old generals were not in the habit ; of taking advice from young gentlemen, "Sir, 1 am as old as the' Prime Minister of England, and think myself as capable ; of commanding one of His Majesty's ships ' V as that Minister is of governing the State." ;:, And the Victory! Launched in 1765, the : flagship of Admiral Keppel ("Jack's Proi lector"), who commanded the British fleet v in the action off Ushant, on July 27, 1778; ...,.' the flagship of Admiral Geary, Rear-Ad- % miral Drake, and Vice-Admiral Hyde Parf'. ker, and not long before ho went down in the Royal George the bearer of Kempen- ■: felt's flag; on her Hood hoisted his flag, {Sir John Jervis— became ■ Lord St. l : Vincent—and Howe, the hero of the Glori- . ous First of June. All this before Tra- • Jalgar. ' Afterwards, the flagship of Sir James Saumarez and of Rear-Admiral Sir ■•■•.-■ J. S. Yorke. And later still—in 1815— half-a-dozen admirals sought the honour of hoisting their flags in her, but her . active service had ended, and 10 years .: later she became the flagship of Portsmouth Harbour. If there had, never been any Trafalgar, relics from the Victory ~;.>" would still be prized. Soon there will be nothing left of the original fabric, and only i. '" tho relics will remain.

" HANDS ALL ROUND." • V Wo'_havo looked on the picture of Empire, We have- seen how our heroes fell; /-,:'.' The story our fathers have told us : : f Our children shall hear us tell. • The deeds that have won us the Empire, The men who have written their name On the heroes' scrool, as the ages roll, • . Shall live iu undying fame: ; The blood that was spilt in our battles Lives yet in the new-born sons. Though peace is pur watchword, if need be We are ready to shoulder our guns! We are ready to 'fight as our fathers Fought bravely in days gone by, Ami we're ready to stand, as an Empire - band, . As one— we're ready to die! For _" Unity " stands as our motto— "lis only Division that harms; . Anil the men who live under the Union Are brothers in peace and in arm*. Ami Readiness, too, is our motto— ,- 'Tis this our security gives ; When the bugle calls, if a' hero falls Does it matter?the Empire lives!" v' r The East and the West are meeting. The North and the .South join hands; The mother is calling her children Who dwell in the distant lands. Aye, ready we stand in the Union, :';■;■•.- Ready to vanquish the foe: ; .".for it's hands .all round when the bugles sound, As it was in the long ago! WELCOMING TDK FLEET. ■' His Nibs was reading the HjyßAl.d when " I called on him, and the particular part lie, was reading had to do with the entertainment of the, American fleet, on the occasion of the visit to Auckland. He was nibbing his chin with his forefinger, a way ;. ■-. he has when he's not quite sure whether to believe his eyes or not. "It's goin' to be a great reception, General," said lie—"a rare old reception, a. reception that will never die. Five thou—" lie gave a long-drawn whistle, full of admiration for the Government. "The Government has decided to do tilings tin a magnificent scale. A whole rive thousand is to be set "apart for entertaining the Yanks, an' there'll be lota left for the visiting British tars from 'the other side'— lots!. Whatever, I'd like to know, are 16,000 men goin' to do with all that money. Of course we expected the Goj vernment to do the tiling 'andsomeiy, but - -'.. we ,'ardly expected this. They must 'nve> money to burn. Why, I've been workin' it out, an' I find there'll be something like lOd a day for every man jack of 'em. . enough to take a daily ride on the tramcar to Onehunga and back, and indulge in the luxury of a penny 'bus. However, as it's a national welcome they're to get. I don't mind a. little extravagance for this once. Let 'em go away an' tell their friends W we throw money about out 'ere. Talk of Yankee, millionaires—we'll show 'em!" Again he whistled. "It's fine to think the finances is so. 'ealthy, ain't it, Sir Joseph. Mr. Donne and Mr. Hamer, the Hentertainment Commissioners, will be 'ere in a day or two, an' they'll never know 'o\v to spend all this money jot some ideas down an' send 'em along to 'em. I think it would be a graceful hact on the part of » Hie Government if tl'ey donated the money that's bound to be 'left over to the Wpital." ,. t > THE "BAD-TIME-COMING" DISEASE. Why be a pessimist? Recently a Avail went up from the South that there, was a bad time coining, and we must be very '.rueful lest it found us unprepared.. Oh, a dire time, gentlemen, a pale, sickly sort of time lhat would require a lot of medicine to set it to rights again. And the wail which started where the hills of desolation are was carried about on the wind, so that ;'; . it almost reached the laud of Canaan; and people shook their heads dismally and re- : v peatfod." There's a had time coming." This cry is a disease, and the patient is apt to grow worse by brooding over his imaginary ailments. It's like Melancholia : the more you think about it the worse you get, and ■ Vou have to be soused in icy-cold water to bring you to your senses. There are some men who cant bear prosperity, who find the constant raking in of golden sovereigns gets on their nerves. " It can't last;" they 0!:* r l"', !."'..:.'.■;■.'■'■■•■'■■■'', I-,' ';''■■ '■■■ ■ ■'.' ■.■■■■'.."'■"■• ; 'V:.■'.""'-.■'■■.'':--"-"\"':.'" : ; .:'::";'V. .'-.- ■ .:.-': v'.V' : . ,-'

say, as they put the sovereigns in their pocket; "it's too good to continue," they say as they put them in the:bank; "you 1 must cut your household expenses down/' they say to their wives at the height of the boom, "business is so brisk that I don't like the look of it—there's bound to be a crash." You can't understand human nature; the more you probe into it the more it puzzles you. One can imagine, the .sleepless nights that Carnegie and Rockefeller must have had, tins money piled up so, and tho anxiety it must have cost their unhappy wives wondering how they were going to manage when a. rainy day came. The worst of it is their worry is not over yet, for the rainy day they have been expecting has not yet come to them. So what's the use oi' wailing before the dog bites you? It's time enough to cross a bridge when you get to it. And you only frighten people by crying "stinking fish,' while the fish is still in tho sea. Flax may go down in price, but it will rise'again*; wool may drop, too, to keep it company; but everything is not going to drop at once. That's tho great thing about Nature : people sometimes think she's drowning, but she always keeps her head above the water. And..so if you see a, river a little bit low don't imagine it will not soon be running a banker again. "HOOROO FOR CASEY!" Let me pursue the subject a. little further —I find it interesting. Nature, 1 have said, is often scarred, but the scars soon boal. She has her ups and downs, as we do —through drought and, fire she goes, in pitfalls often, in perils oft, but she comes up smiling again as we do. Are not we all children of Nature? Let me tell you something to point a moral. At Oilgaudra, in New South Wales, there lives a tailor, according to the latest Sydney papers, who has achieved a notable record in the way of getting his limbs broken. When nine months old he broke bis wrist ; at two years. ruptured the muscles of his thigh, and broke- his ! collarbone; at three years he again fractur- | eel his collarbone-; at four years ho dislocat- j ed his shoulder, and fractured his collar- i bone ; at five, six, and seven years, he fractured his collarbone in each 12 months, also again rupturing the muscles of his thigh; at 10, lie fractured his shin; at'll, his instep; at 13 he escaped with a. sprained ankle: at 15, he had the cap knocked off an elbow, and the same again at 16; at 19, he again broke his instep; at 23, lie had both jaws broken, and within the last six months he has had both legs broken. His most recent success was to break his leg while boxing. The man is only 25 years old. and. of ' course, he may hope to win still further distinction; but, even in such a "record-breaking" age as this is, wa must admit that bis performance is one to be proud of. The papers do not say whether he is of a happy, genial disposition, but it is obvious that he must be. No j man would put up with that sort of thing so long as he has done unless he were a born optimist. It is men of that spirit we want in New Zealand, men who when they fall down .will get up again and take another fall when it comes with a good grace, men who when one thing after another is going wrong with them will say, " Let 'em all come," and put their back to the wall and go on lighting. Away with Pessimism! Another little story of fact and I shall have driven my argument home. This story comes from Perth. While a _ doctor was putting • seven stitches in the hand of a child, David Brinson—who had got it terribly crushed in the wheel cogs of a-drill his father was working at Wagin—the little.chap, who is only two years and seven months old, looked into the doctor's face and shouted, " Hooroo for Casey!" Eventually three. ringers had to be amputated. it's children like that we need in this country, and' if I had my way I'd plant a colony of them on the hills of desolation in the' South, in the hope that the inhabitants would give up their doleful recitation of " Bad times coming," and join in the rousing chorus, " Hooroo for Casey!'

THE POOR STUDENTS. ; "Tliere,s an old : saying that much study is .a. weariness to the flesh," said His Nibs. I think Solomon said so, and Solomon was a wise man with all his glory. I daresay that herein lies the- secret of the joy -with which our University students hail the coming of Cappin' Day. It is the time when they are out to enjoy themselves. Surely they have as much rightto. an afternoon out as Mary Ann has. For a whole year they have been bottled up, and then they burst. It has always been so. Students always take their pleasures uproariously. Our fathers did it, and their fathers in the old time before them. It is simply putting old wine into new bottles, that is all. Which of you, having an old shed for a University, would sit still, and say nothing, as if you thought it quite the proper thing? I put it to yon—you chancellors, yon professors, and yon that are princes of the land —would you, even in the days long past, when you were students, 'have been content to study in a barn'.' Could you have written Latin epics in it? Could you have demonstrated things with mathematical accuracy under such discouraging conditions? The wonder is that such brilliant scholars can come out of such wooden walls. If I woke up one rooming and read, in the paper that a student had jumped off the Asses' bridge at the University, and committed suicide. I would not be surprised. And so I say the students are not as bad as they are painted when they get up and draw the attention of the public to the fact that they "have eyes and no site," and proceed to demonstratively emphasise it by means of motor horns and cow-bells, and penny whistles and tailor-made verses. 'Kre't4 a poem, signed "Justitia," which*! picked tip in the gutter near the shed, the mornin' of the cappin", an' as it has not so far been published, it might be hintereslin": — "Give us bread," five students said. With a sigh ; Everybody must be fed Or must die! "Give us bread," they said again With a groan, " Or we perish with the slain— Not a stone!" Said the students, "We have eyes," But. no site'.". (People heard them with surprise) "Is it rig-lit? Give us site thai we may see ■ Something rise Tiike a University To the skies." The General.