EMPIRE DAY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2829, 3 June 1908, Page 28

EMPIRE DAY.

CELEBRATIONS IN ENGLAND. WARNING BY EARL MEATH. LONDON, May 25. Empire Day was celebrated yesterday. Tliere was a display of many flags and & thousand pulpit references in the London and provincial churches. There were many signs of popular dissatisfaction with the Government for refusing to recognise the day officially. May 26. Three thousand Windsor scholars held ft picnic in the Royal grounds. Mr Carruthers (New South Wales) presented the scholars with a flag from the Wiifdsor School, New South Wales, stating that 2,000,000 Australian children saluted the Union Jack on Empire Day. The Earl of Meath, addressing the Lyceum Club, said that tjje Empire could not continue unless the children weTe fcrought up in a more Spartan manner than at present. The day was celebrated in Canada and South Africa with many loyal manifestations. Lord Curzon, speaking at the Empire banquet at the Hotel Cecil, denied that "Empire" was an unpopular creed, or that it was viewed with extreme distrust by the modern democracy. Deep in the heart of every Britisher there was an ineradicable pride of race. He advocated the looping of all British possessions by means of cables that would be exclusively British, and cheaper than now. He welcomed the growth of Imperial education in the schools, and thought that a reformed House of Lords would be a means of affording greater representation to the colonies and the dependencies. The time was not ripe for an Imperial Deliberative Council, though that would come, but Imperial Conferences supplied the means of common consultation. Before long there would be another conference, perhaps under another Minister, followed by better results. SYDNEY, May 26. The celebrations included the illumination of the warships. At the Paxramatta School, where the shildren delivered speeches, a Cadet complained that there was not sufficient ammunition provided to salute the flag, and that it h?d to be done with Chinese rackers. He added : " I tell you, we Cadets are getting pretty disheartened." Tbe day was enthusiastically celebrated ta. tbe other State*.

luay zi. Empire Day was loyally celebrated oj Norfolk Island.