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NZ Truth, Issue 276, 8 October 1910, Page 4

A Waimate paper is sensible and also cutting and truthful. "Dominion Day is not an ordinary failure, it is a ghastly one and should either be abolished forthwith and forever and its remains cremated or taken out to sea and buried, or it should be decently attired, given a national standing and importance equal to some of the imported anniversaries over which so many people permanently damage their lungs, stay out late and insult the night with inebriated loyalty and induce profanity amongst decent, home-keeping people. Had Dominion Day been anything with a Cockney flavor, Sir Joseph Ward would have had all his strange and wonderful assortment of court dress and orders and ribbons and decorations on very early on Monday morning, and last year's speeches, or the speeches of the year before would have been dug up and bawled out across the continents to Germany and Austria, or some other alleged enemy of the Empire. This is all good politics. It pans out m votes. But there's not enough of votes m Dominion Day to pull a dead cow out of a creek. And it hasn't a ribbon, or an order, or a brummagem title of any kind hanging on to it. New Zealand patriotism is not taught m the schools or the church, and it is usually suppressed by the politicians. Hrnce the country is merely an appanage of a colony of the Crown, and should not have been called a Dominion for another bw years."