A GREAT HERITAGE

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11708, 21 December 1923, Page 6

A GREAT HERITAGE

ADVICE TO RISING GENERATION. LORD STRATHSIPEY ON BRITISH IDEALS. Lord Strathspey, who is an ardent Imperialist;, spoke in characteristic vein at the Wellesley College presentation of prizes last evening. “You boys of New Zealand,” he said, “have a great heritage to uphold. You hove to follow the splendid record and example of the men this country sent overseas, many of whom paid the supreme sacrifice, and are sleeping in France to-day.” “It will he for you to carry on. . . . It has been said that New Zealand is the Britain of the South, and I think that she has been well named. They even say that you are more British here than they are in England. It will he for you boys, the men of the future, to uphold and cherish that good name, either by word of mouth or in your actions. . . . W© are part of that great Empire, of which not one part must we lose, or else it might be the beginning of ite end.” THE ROYAL FAMILY. A warm tribute to the members of the Royal Family was paid by Lord Strathspey, who declared that they “were the greatest and most human Royal house that any country had had since the beginning of the world. (Applause.) One could not over-empha-sise, he said, the great value and importance of high ideals, and m this connection King George and the members of his family had set the whole Empire an example. The importance of a spirit of optimism in the community, was also emphasised by the speaker, who laid stress on the fact that a spirit of selfreliance must also he developed among boys. No man or women,” he declared, “can do without this in life.” A WRONG IMPRESSION. Reference was made by Lord Strathspey to the impression that many people seemed to hold to the effect that Australians did not like New Zealanders. “It is wrong to think that they have a bad opinion of you,” he said. “Quite wrong. Both countries are part of the Empire. “On my way to New Zealand I spent several weeks in Australia, and when many of the men I met there beard I was a native of this country, they shook me by the hand, remarking that they were pleased to do so because of the fact that I was a New Zealander. They admire what you did in the war, and I would like to see this wrong impression removed.”