THE BONDS OF EMPIRE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20643, 15 February 1929, Page 7

THE BONDS OF EMPIRE.

ENGLISH PUBLIC SCHOOLBOYS. PARTY ARRIVES IN AUCKLAND. (Special to Daily Times.) AUCKLAND, February 14. Some years ago a committed was formed by Mr L. C. Amery (Secretary of State for the Dominions) to make it possible for boys in their last year at public schools in England to visit at reasonable cost different parts of the Empire. Two previous tours —one to South Africa and the other to Canada—proved most successful. The third tour —that to New Zealand and Australia—was even more ambitious, and it commenced at Waterloo Station, London, and was continued on board the lonic from Southampton, through the Panama Canal, and this morning the party of 45 touring schoolboys arrived in Auckland. The director in charge is Mr J. R. Darling, an Old Reptonian, who is a master at Charterhouse, and .he is supported by Lieutenant Grenfell SmithDorrien, an Old Harrovian, of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps, and Mr M. Scott. “They are typical young Englishmen who could be regarded as men in the making, who would stop at nothing in an emergency. They appear to have been born to command, be it on the playing fields, in the navy, on the field of battle, or in commercial life. Above all, they are most cheerful companions,” said a returning New Zealander who was a passenger on the lonic.

The visitors were tendered a luncheon this afternoon. This evening will be free, and the party will leave Auckland en route to Waitomo Caves to-morrow morning. They will later travel through Taranaki on their way to Wellington and the South Island.

“It is with a view to strengthening the bonds of Empire that this tour has been undertaken. Our public school boys have a lot to learn in this respect, and you can learn a great deal more by travelling and seeing things for yourselves than by reading. We have all heard about New Zealand all out lives, and it is astonishing to realise how far this country is ahead of England in its social and other laws. This tour will give us a golden opportunity to question our own concerns at Home. The boys are not going to migrate. They are out to learn all they can, and then when the tour is completed they will either go into business or back to the universities. The tour will help them to keep that bond of Empire which is so necessary to the whole of its component parts today. ’ In these words Mr Darling summed up the objects of the tour.

GREAT EMPIRE ADVENTURE. FA \ EWELL AT WATERLOO. (Prom Our Own Correspondent.) ' . LONDON, January 4. the time this mail letter reaches New Zealand the 45 public schoolboys who have left by the lonic to-day will bo landing in Auckland. They will have almost forgotten the cold winter morning they set out from Waterloo Station. Although their train was not due to leave until 9 o’clock they had the energy and enthusiasm to assemble at 8 o’clock to _ hear people talk to them and to receive good advice. This was in one of the station staff dining rooms. Di M. J. Kendall, chairman of the Empire Tour Committee, and Sir James Parr addressed the boys and the relatives and friends, of whom there were a large number. Dr Rendall said that although home of the boys might be induced to settle ih New Zealand eventually, the primary object of the tour was for them to see some of the unsurpassed scenery of the country, to listen to the voices of her statesmen, and to enter the homes of. the people, so that they might be abWto appreciate at first hand the political problems and engage in the activities of life as it' is in this younger land. They would probably receive unparalleled kindness. “ Never forget.” said Dr Rendall, " that you have done I ‘lung to deserve it. Do not only feel gratitude, but express it. Do not let any stupid English reluctance prevent yoii from telling your hosts that you have enjoyed your entertainment as you nave never enjoyed anything else before.”

MISSION OF EDUCATION. The old method of completing a boy’s education, said .Sir James Parr, was to send him for a year' of travel on the Continent. This new method of sending their sons through the Empire was a much better one. He agreed with Dr Rendall that they must not be too reserved with New- Zealand people, but he believed the warmth of their reception would melt the tacitunity of any British schoolboy. This great mission of education deserved the support of the whole Empire, for it was forging new links. There was' the one great tie which held the Empire together—the King; but there were also the ties of common ideals, a common. language, and literature, and the tic of kinship and attention. He believed this Empire adventure was likely to do a great (leal to strengthen these ties. Some might decide to settle in the Dominion. If so, it was essential, after a stay of two or three years, they should have some capital—from fbOO to £IOOO. He could assure them they would have a right royal time. The hospitality they would receive would be an expression of New Zealand’s feelings generally to the Motherland. But any hospitality they might receive could not be compared with the hospitality shown by the people of the Motherland to the visitors from the Dominions.

“ You are making no mistake,” said the High Commissioner, addressing the parent?, “by letting your sons go to "New Zealand.” He wished the committee success, and expressed the hope that they might long continue to do work which was of very real advantage to the Empire.