THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES THURSDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1926. INTER-IMPERIAL CO-OPERATION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19980, 23 December 1926, Page 10

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES THURSDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1926. INTER-IMPERIAL CO-OPERATION.

The Empire is awakening to the possibilities of its future. In these words, amongst others, the Prime Minister of Australia expressed his sense this week of the value of the Imperial spirit that is being manifested. The ties which bind the wide-flung component parts of the Empire are not only those of commerce and finance, for there are also the invisible ties of tradition, ideals, co-operation and education. The last-named element was not specifically dealt with by the Imperial Conference, though it underlies two of the subjects that were discussed—those of emigration and British-made films. The dominions, naturally, demand that emigrants from the Old Country shall not be of an inferior type, and that they must have some qualifications for “making good” in their overseas home. Efforts at definite training are being made in England, where a number of intending settlers are being instructed in methods of agriculture as practised in Australia. It has been reported by cable this week that twelve boys who are recipients of the British Empire Exhibition Scholarship are coming to New Zealand, and that on their arrival they will proceed to the Ruakura Training Farm. Co-operation in education of a practical kind will strengthen, not only the economic ties, but also those subtler psychological ties without which there is no real union. The invisible bond is the strong bond. Lord Eustace Percy, President of the Board of Education in Great Britain, speaking recently on intra-imperial co-operation, asserted that a “common spirit in education was perhaps fundamentally the greatest bond.” It is to bp hoped that he will see his hope for closer co-operation realised in the Imperial Education Confer ence which is to be held in London next year. The work that has already been done is of great value. This year there are 114 dominion teachers in Great Britain from Canada, South' Africa, Australia and New Zealand,—4o of the number being from Australia. This means, of course, that there are 114 teachers from Britain in the dominions. New Zealand has had exchanges, both of inspectors and teachers, with England and Canada. This year there is at least one, teacher on exchange in New Zealand from Australia. More must be done in this direction. Australia and New Zealand can foster the. Empire spirit by increased cooperation in all types of education, agricultural, industrial, and academic. Mr Bruce implied t.his week that even more valuable than an interchange of teachers would be an interchange of journalists. The practicability of such a step has been discussed, but obviously it is less easy to effect exchanges of persons engaged in private employments than of those engaged in public services. There are need and opportunity to knit up the outlying parts of the Empire, not only with the centre in Britain, but also with each other. Every year the Rhodes Scholarships strengthen the bond ; but this is a one-sided relationship. The dominions can do more. Victoria has made a good start by offering six scholarships of £2OO a year, tenable for two years, to British schoolboys. The striking feature in this arrangement is that the scholarships are not offered by the Government, but by the private schools, with the object of bringing about closer relations with the Motherland. Two of these scholarships have already been allocated, one to a pupil of the Trinity County School, Wood Green, London, and the other, confined to Scottish boys, to a pupil of George Heriot’s School, Edinburgh. There is no doubt that immense possibilities are before the citizens of the British Empire, if they will only use the means at their disposal. All the dominions have in their infant years received protection from England • they can now requite it. But it must not be imagined that the efforts at the heart of the Empire are being relaxed. The League of the Empire, which has so far negotiated exchanges of teachers, is cooperating with thirty different education authorities in England and Scotland. It is claimed, in an article in the Contemporary Revew for October, that the recent Superannuation Act, providing for private schools and for teachers oversea, “is the first sign of an Imperial system of education.” This is a great ideal, not only to hand on to the children of New Zealand the precious heritage of their ancestral traditions and ideals, but to endeavour to bring them, as they rise to manhood and womanhood, into everincreasing co-operation with their coevals and co-imperialists in all parts of the globe, not aimirc at any mere economic • VriHa-c-, -hose have their p-c. ; uot seeking -j outwit or overawe f • nations, '"d ever striving in th- ’ of the ‘ : Wtp’-prises of the < i I good ;..-ni of British .story t-o ry forward the torch of liberty ' .1 good-government for all mankind New Zealand has done well, but there is much yet to do. A vista of new possibility opens before the British

Commonwealth of nations. The energy, courage, and ability of the old stock are still present. Cohesion, co-operation, and the common spirit in education, emphasised by Lord Eustace Percy, will widen and lengthen that vista beyond all present imaginings. An Imperial Renaissance is no chimera.