A PATRIOTIC SPEECH.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10505, 13 July 1910, Page 6

A PATRIOTIC SPEECH.

THE IMPERIAL NOTE. (Peii Press Association.) Auckland, July 12. A strong Imperialistic note was sounded bv the Governor in the course of a speech that he delivered after his formal reply to the address of welcome presented to him liy the Mayor. His Excellency, in entering upon this portion of his speech, said the Mayor had referred to the great loss thin the Empire had recently .sustained. The universal expression of sorrow that had been heard during the past few weeks throughout the British Empire showed how deep was the people's devotion to the late King. Tliey might ask what attributes of his late .Majesty had produced this far-reaching ue.voiioc. Hepossessed in a great degree a personal charm and magnetism that was able to inspire not only those who were brought into, contact with him, but also those who had never seen him, but who were brought under the inlluence of the great example which he. like his illustrious mother, had set.—(Applause.) Servants of the Crown, who. like himself (his Excellency) were privileged to preside over the .great sell-govern-ing States of the Empire, were enabled to .profit much by the ox.imple oi the. late King. He (the speaker) had come to New Zealand strongly imbued with this example, the teaching ot which he had sufficiently imbibed.—(Applause.). He had come to a country populated iby a people who lor many rears past, had firmly established a system of self-government. As one who 'had spent the greater portion ol his working years in the Home Parliament —he had'to confess to no less than IS years of political life,--he had learned to appreciate what self-government meant. It meant what one ot the oreatest statesmen who had ever lived —Abraham Lincoln —had said in his address at Gettysburg, which was perhaps the greatest 'speech that was ever delivered in the English language: "'lhat this nation, in God. shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, lor the people, shall not perish irom the earth." This had been their precept ever since they had become an autonomous State, and it was the precept that prevailed to-day in all the sell-govern-hi" States'of the Empire. The great Imperial Government in the days gone by had learned the wisdom of allowthe colonies to manage their own affairs', and the result had been the strengthening of the attachment ol the colonies to the Mother Country. H was the system of self-government ot the overseas dominions which to-day formed the solid groundwork ol our Imperial- greatness.—("Hear, hear. ) New Zealand, in a short period ol time, had by her endeavors achieved much in material prosperity. They had done their full share in fostering the great spirit of Imperial community. '1 hey had done this along with their .sister States, and it was due in no small degree to that peculiar quality of initiative and imagination which he had always observed in his many jourueyings through the Empire, and which was often possessed in an enhanced degree by those of the British race who established themselves in new countries and founded for themselves new States. —(Applause.) It should not, bis Excellency went on to say, lie forgotten—and they wore least likely to forget it —that New Zealand was a highly layered country. They had had the host human energy that the Mother Country could give them, and they were also endowed with natural gifts of climate, soil, and general environment to such an extraordinary extent that they were entitled to regard themselves as one of the most highlv-l'avored countries in the world—(Applause.) lie deemed it a great privilege to he called to I lie position of Governor of such a. country. He. felt that his duties amongst a community that was so loyally devoted to the Imperial connection would he an agreeable one. Their loyalty to King George V. was as genuine and profound as it had been to his great predecessor. —(Applause.) King George had ascended the throne at what was a most critical juncture in the life ol the Mother Country. It was a time when prudent and wise qualities were required in a King, and that Kuig George possessed these qualities was the sincere belief of all who had watched liis career. —(''Hear, hear.") King George had also ascended the throne at a no less important juncture in the life of the Empire. He believed lie was correct in saying that the next, ten years were going to he crucial years in their Imperial destiny. The Empire must go on becoming stronger and more united. They need not do.this in any aggressive spirit. 'Whilst union made for strength, strength also made for peace.—("Hear, hear.") The solidarity of the British Empire made for more universal -peace than any other factor the world had ever known. —(Applause.) Strength, unity, and solidarity, these, he said, were their watchwords. As Imperialists they could not, and they should not, disguise from themselves what was taking place in tlie world to-day. Everywhere they saw the growth of population, the growth of naval, military, and commercial organisations. As members of the great British Empire, it behoved them to set their minds, not in a spirit, of fear or aggression, but in a spirit of serene determination to maintain Ihe .position that we held in the world today—the position that had been handed'down to us by our forefathers, and which they all believed to be in the 'highest sense in the best interests of the j human race. —("Hear, hear.") He urged then\to maintain a strong, vigorous population, and he hoped that as time went on it would be an increasing population, and strong in all those national ideals that every portion of the Empire should seek to attain, and which would make for the strength of i the future of the great British Empire. ! (Applause.)