THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY. JANUARY 29, 1915. ANNIVERSARY DAY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15830, 29 January 1915, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY. JANUARY 29, 1915. ANNIVERSARY DAY

Seventy«five years ago to-day, Captain Hobson arrived at the Bay of Islands, commissioned to proclaim the extension of the boundaries of the British colony of New South Wales so as to include the islands of New Zealand- On the following day, January 30, 1840, the proclaI mation was formally read and New Zealand thus became a part of the British Empire. Owing to. a confusiou of dates, January 29 subsequently became known as Anniversary Day and has long been celebrated under that name in Auckland. Short as is the span of years which separates the primitive and uncertain settlementout of which the Dominion sprang—from the vigorous and ambitious nation of

to-day it has been long enough to witness not merely a phenomenal change in the conditions prevailing in these islands, but also a still more extraordinary change in the conditions of the civilised world. In 1840, there were in New Zealand neither roads nor railways, neither coastwise cities nor thriving inland towns. Whalers were seen on the unlighted coasts, not steamers plying between colonial ports and trading with distant lands. The country, save for occasional Maori clearings, was covered with forest and fern or native grass. Mines were uncorked, swamps undrained, pastures unstocked. A few devoted missionaries carried the lamp of Christianity amid the darkness of heathenism, and a few daring traders alone represented the commercial energy which has since made New Zealand known far and wide. We have to go into the furthermost recesses of the North to find even the topographical conditions then universal and there was in those days hardly a mile where the 'Queen's writ" ran unchallenged in spite of the hoisting of the flag. In these seventy-five short years, barbarous New Zealand has been transformed into the loved and congenial home of over a million free and self-governing British people, while the Maori race has accepted our colonisation and has become the most loyal and law-abiding of aboriginal stocks. If the British Empiie ,needed justification in the eyes of civilisation and humanity it could claim justification for its existence in the New Zealand of to-day. When Captain Hobson, first British Lieutenant-Governor of these regions, sailed the wooden warship " Herald"' into the Bay of Islands, no nation in the world thought of disputing British supremacy at sea. Prussia was still a state of the North German Confederation. Austria was still a great continental power, with leadership in South Germany and her heel on Italy, and no naval ambition. France was still unrecovered from the great Napoleonic wars out of which Britain had emerged scatheless, thanks to the

devoted navy which keeps her safe ! to this day- The United States had not actually colonised the Pacific coast. Russia was still extending her authority in Central Asia and pressing the Turk at the Danube. The 'contemplated French annexation of New Zealand made no disturbance when the British claim was found to have precedence. Only native wars and the fear of native wars interrupted the settlement of our North Island, while in the South Island there, was no interference of any kind whatever. The great ocean road lay safe and free for our immigrant ships. , New Zealand was planted under the. Imperial shield and grew as an overseas addition to the British Isles, under the most generous and the most sympathetic of protections. To a mere handful of colonists Britain gave a princely endowment and complete autonomy, sowing broadcast Upon the waters the bread that is returning to her from the abundance of a grateful and understanding people. These seventy-five years have been years of unqualified kindliness and confidence from the Imperial Government to New Zealand. For many of these years, the Royal Navy watched our coasts and guarded our seas and patrolled our sea roads solely at the expense of our kinsfolk at Home; as we grew in population and wealth, the extent to which we would assist the Motherland in sustaining her titanic burden was left absolutely to ourselves; even now, the ungrudging government at London makes no demand upon us. The British Empire is full of free and loyal peoples, bound to Britain by her amazing generosity, the fuilness of which foreign nations cannot estimate but which we in New Zealand know so well. What we are we owe to the Empire, which has sheltered us and guarded us, and given us our country with complete self-gov-ernment, since Captain Hobson hoisted the flag seventy-five years ago.

There is nothing which the Empire could have done for us which it has not done. Have we done all we , might have done for the Empire and for the land we hold in trust ? It is true that we have done much, but it is hardly to be denied that we might have done more. We have made New Zealand the home of a million British but it would carryten million with ease and in comfort. We have occupied and settled and developed many districts but there are other districts, equally desirable, that remain much as they were in the beginning. We shall send 25,000 men to the fighting line, where the liberties of New Zealand, as of every other British and Allied state, are being maintained; but if our population were double what if. is we could send 50,000 as easily and 100,000 without exhausting our reseives did the need arise. We are shipping beef and butter, mutton and wool, for Imperial uses, to help feed and clothe the soldiers" of the King and the war-sustaining multitudes at Home; but if we had settled the Dominion as we might have settled it we should be shipping double, treble or quadruple the quantity of food and material now in urgent demand. It must be confessed that we have not made the most of the talents entrusted to us, and it ought to be recognised that to do so for the future is a duty incumbent upon all who do not go to fight. Our debt to the Empire is none the less because Britain does not remind us of that debt, and we can only meet that debt by doing our utmost from this time onward t> provide the sinews of war as well as the fighting men. Every acre of forest turned into farm, every acre of swamp drained into pasture, every mile of road and railway that carries produce to market, aids the Empire to win the war and to recover afterwards from the loss of wer- On this national anniversary day, when we commemorate the coming of British law and the proclamation of British order, when our hearts should overflow with loyalty because of these seventy-five years during which the Empire has cared for us and kept us in safety—as it keeps us to-day with the great navy that lies between the British lands and the horror of German invasion —we should make earnest resolutions. We should determine to make the best use of the land that has been given to us and to so work that New Zealand may become stronger to help the Empire—more populous, more productive and,, in every way, more progressive.