OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS COLUMN

Otago Witness, Issue 2984, 24 May 1911, Page 85

OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS COLUMN

FOR SENIORS AND JUNIORS. (Conducted by Magister, to whom all com* munications must be adekessed.) [Magister will be grad to receive Nature notes, marked papers containing educational articles, diagrams, details ■ of experiments, etc., of scholastic interest to teachers and pupils. Correspondents must use only okb bide of the paper, and whether using a pea wme or not, must send both name and ADDRESS.] EMPIRE DAY. Before my column appears again Empire Day will have- come and' gone. This year perhaps it will be, to some extent, overshadowed by anticipations of Coronation Day and the birthday of the King and Prince of Wales; but, nevertheless, it will be celebrated in our* schools. As I have so much I want to crush in, I'll not say muoh upon Empire Day myself, but stand aside for others greater. Here, for instance, is "The children's song," by Rudyard Kipling, published by the permission of himself and the Earl of Meath in one of the Nelson's " High Roads to History " : Land of our birth, we pledge to thee Our love and toil in the years to be, When we are grown and take our place As «nen and women with our race. Father in heaven, Who lovest all, Oh help Thy children when they call; That they may build from age to age An undented heritage. Teach us to bear the yoke in youth With steadfastness and careful truth; That, in our time, Thv grace may give The truth whereby the nations live. Teach us to rule ourselves alway, Controlled and cleanly night and day; That we may bring, if need arise, No maimed or worthless sacrifice. Teach us to look, in all our ends, On Thee for judge, and not cur friends; That we, with Thee, may walk uncowed By fear or favour of the crowd. Teach US' 1 the Strength that cannot seek, By deed or thought, to hurt the weak; That, under Thee, we may possess Man's strength to comfort man's distress. Teach us Delight in 6imple things, And Mirth that has no bitter springs, Forgiveness free of evil done, And Love to all men 'neath the sun! Land of our birth, our faith, our pride, For whose dear sake our fathers died — O Motherland, we pledge to thee Head, heart, and hand through the years to be. A,splendidly patriotic piece, isn't it? If we live up to that there, need net be much fear for the nation. The Valtje" e of Character. The following will be a fitting complement to Kipling's poem. It is a part of a speech delivered by Lord Selborne at Winchester College, and quoted in the Victorian Education Gazette and Teachers' Aid for last month: —■ I wish to say a word to those who are going to be the future workers for the King and the Empire. I say workers, because there are too many "loafers in England, and Winchester is not going to turn out loafers. Between the tramp and the rich man who docs nothing but amuse himsi'.t there is really no moral distinction. The only difference that I know is that one

is, presumably, clean, and th© other is oer- j work 7 " falls under two divisions, the work of thinking and the work of thinking j and doing. All my experience has been ■with the latter class. What is the kind 01 ! man I want to help me in my work? It is not easy to find suitable men. The Empire is strewn with the wrecks of scholars and athletes who lack something which is far more important than Greek >ambics and: cricket. When I want a man to help me I do not ask in the first place what class he got or what his intellect is, still less do I ask whether he was in Lord s. The question I ask is, Can 1 trust him?' That is a short sentence, but it comprises a great deal. Can I trust him to obey my orders? A man you cannot trust to obey is a nuisance to be olmimated at the first opportunity. Can I trust him to command? The man who cannot command is a broken reed. Can I trust him to rely upon himself and not come to other people for support or advice in an emergency? The man who cannot rely upon himself will never be fit for anything but an inferior position. Can I trust him to give me the whole of his strength in the work entrusted to him? If not, he is playin"- ene false. Can I trust him not to think of "himself? There is no greater nuisance in the world than the man who is always asking himself, " How decs this affect or "Have I been sufficiently considered? He is a creature who has lost all perspective, and he never sees things in their true proportion because his own miserable self is always dwarfing the landscape. Can I trust him to be straight? There is no use in the best intellect or the best education if a man is an intriguer or if you cannot rely upon his word. I Now, if I find that a man answers to these tests, then I go on- to inquire about his intellect and his education and his physical qualifications. Independence cf character and defiance of public opinion are in themselves good things. I mean that, and do not mean that defiance of public opinion or independence of character which arises from obstinacy or sulicnrtess of temperament. , These are vicious follies. But I mean that independence of character and defiance of public opinion which come from the reaona'bleiuse of the intelligence, when a man's intelligence inspires him to defy a common rule of observance because he does not think his intelligence ought to be subjected to that compliance, and because he prefers the self-respect of the exercise of his intelligence to the quiet life of comfort and compliance. - * Courage is a very great quality. When we talk of courage we do net mean physical courage. The courage of the soldier on the j battlefield is a very great quality, but it j is of very little importance or value com- j pared to moral courage. Moral courage is J the greatest of all qualities in this world: the courage which enables a man if he thinks the oase sufficiently good (and of course his judgment must : be equally •balanced) to defy public opinion and to j take his own line. I am not now talking j of moral questions. Of course, what I'say is true over and over again of moral ques- I tion; but I am talking of the exercise of . reason and of intelligence in the affairs of i life. You never get a leader of men worth | having who did not as a boy defy public i opinion; and it was because he learnt to ] defy public opinion wisely and at the right time that afterwards he was not a follower but a. leader of men. EirpiEE Day. This is the heading of a supplement to the Empire* Day Number of the Victorian School Paper, for Standards V and VI. The article is penned by Wm. Gillies, M.A., who has written a' great deal upon historical matters. I think it so good that I am reproducing most if it. ' Have ,you ever thought of what the British'Empire means to us and to the other peoples of the world ? Have you ever thought of its vast extent, and of its vast powers for good or evil? It was a great dominion that Alexander the Great ruled over, but it was a small dominion compared with, the land over which the British flag waves to-day. If we could go back for 1900 years and step into a school in Rome we should, possibly, find the teacher drawing a map of the great Roman Empire that stretched north, south, east, and west from Rome, and reached even to the little island'called Britain that lay at the end of the world. But even the great Roman Empire was not so vast as the British Empire is today. Fully to understand how vast is our Empire we should have to visit every part of it. We should have to visit British possessions in every one of the continents of the earth, and a hundred islands dotted over all the seas. We should have to listen to the British speech i#» every zone, and watch the British flag floating over peoples of many tongues and colours. We should have to note how, in every quarter of the globe, there aire British trading ports, . British garrisons, British dockyards, and British ooa.)ing stations. We should have to note that the British carry more of the world's goods by sea than any other '.people, and that the great British merchant fleet is guarded by the greatest'navy in the world. We should have to note, too, that many of the fairest and richest parts of the earth are British, or are held by men who speak the English tongue. It would take from the present hour till next Empire Day to visit all these places, and it would take a lifetime to eoe them thoroughly. And how comes it that the British have spread from their little islands in tho northern se-as over all the world? Was this great Empire built up according to a plan made by these islanders? No; it grew up almost without a olan. It grew un hArvu**" thr 'Rr-,'f 0 . 1 ; s f 0 f f-hp se , a , aiM j is fond of adventure and is fond of trade that lias a spice of danger in it, and because he has a genius for making himself at home in new lands. The Briton has, in his veins the blood of Saxon and Dane and Norman, and all these races were soarovers. The pasion for travel is in his blood. Also, the Briton comes of a race of freemen, -and hr> has a passion for freedom: He is ready to, go to any part of the world where he may lead a freer life. The British, too. as arf* island people, were less troubled by war than their neighbours on the continent —the French and Dutch and Germans, who hrd no sea be-, tween them and their enemies, —and thi3 left tho British freer to attend to the business of making colonies and keer.inc.them. They were freer also to work at the hard problem of how a people can be=!t govern itself. When they had solved this problem they were ready to? carry their ideas of government to the <-fflds of the earth. As lovers of freedom, tfeey did not force a new religion upon the peoples whom they conquered. Tho Frevvch in Canada worship God in fho same #oy as

they did when Wolf© took Quebec; and the natives of India, hold the same religions as in the days of Olive. Even the laws of the conquered people were respected wherever this was possible. In London there sits a bench of judges whose duty it is to try cases that have been already tried in various parts of the Empire but that have been sent to London for a final trial. If we could follow a year'sl work of this court—the Supreme Court of Appeal in the British Empire,—we should find the judges deciding tho disputes by many systems of law. A case from the Channel Islands might be settled by an old law of the Duchy of Normandy, and a quarrel about land at Capetown might be settled by th cold Dutch laws of Cape Colony; a case from Mauritius —the_ island that England won from France —might be settled by the system of law arranged by Napolean, and a case from Bombay might be decided according to some ancient law of India. And this is why the British are strong not only in tho great free colonies like Australia, where the people are of British pace, but in lands where the people are of different race, speech, and religion. The British can win the respect of the fellah of Egypt, the ryot of India, the coloured races "of South) Africa. Life, too, has been brightened for the native peoples in many of the British dominions. The fellah who tills his little farm on the banks of the Nile can now make two blades of corn to grow where but one grew before the British came to Egypt, and he no longer fears the robber-tribes of the desert that were wont to carry off his harvest. So is it also in India, where tlhe British work without ceasing to save the ryot from tyranny and robbery and savage customs, and from famine and plague. It is no idle boast to say that the Brtish rule has m-ade-the world a better place to live m. All this will help you to understand _ why the British, more than any other nation, have been successful in making colonies and keeping them; and it will help you to see how forty millions of people, living on two little islands, have been able to hold one fifth of the globe and to rule over 350,000,000 people. To-day, then—on this Empire Day,—we have to call to mind, the pioneers who planted the flag of Empire for us on many lands, and we have to honour the men who built up the Empire for us on good foundations. The time would fail to tell of all the bold men who took the flag of England into unknown seas and lands; of Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Raleigh, of Hawkins and Drake, of Frobisher and Davis, of John Smith and William Penn, of Olive a.nd Wolfe, of Anson and Oantain Cook, of David Livingstone and Cecil Rhodes, and of a hundred others. Of many of the bold adventurers who caTried the flag of England into new seas and lands we know not even the names. Their names are on no list; for thev belong to "the legion that never was listed." They left their bones on the rocks of many sharteis, "on the sanddrift, on the veldt-side, in the fern-sco-üb"; and no stone was raised to tell what they had done for Engla/nd. But on their tracks there followed tho men who cleared the scrub and felled the trees, the men who fought fire and drought a.nd flood, the brave women who made homes in the wilderness, the men who shaped the rules and laws for mining camp or township or city, the men who laid deep and firm the foundations of tho new Englands beyond the -seas. We should calf to mind also the men who, without leaving the shores of Great Britain, did much to build up the Greater Britain beyond the seas. Of such men, no one 'is to be held in higher honour than William Pitt, Earl Sf Chatham. On this day we should remember, too, the great sea-captains who kept fox Great Britain the command of the sea' that was won from the Spanish at the time of the Armada—Blake and Hawke and Rodney, Howe and Jervis, Duncan and Nelson. But for men like these Britain eouLd never have won empire, or kept empire beyond the seas.

On. this day we should also do honour to the memory of Queen Victoria, whoso birthday wo now keep as Empire Day. Queen Victoria believed that the British raoo had been chosen by God to lift the world to a higher level, and she lost no chance of breathing her spirit into the great servants cjf England who were sent forth to rule the Empire. No Knights of the Table "Round, riding forth to put down wrong and set the world right, ever left the hall of King Arthur with higher aims than many of the men who passed out from the Queen's presence to all quarters of the globe; and their best reward for good service in Canada or Cape Colony, Australia or New Zealand, India or Egypt, was to hoair the Queen's "Well d>"me!'' ' '• . ■

But, while we call to mind to-day the great multitude of brave men and women who sowed that we might reap, it is well that we should remember that the British Empire has, sometimes, grown by ways of which we_ cannot be proud. Among our empire-builders there have been men in whom the eld, savage sea-robbers of Norway and Denmark lived again. Wo cannot forget that there are dark chapters in the story of our conquest of India; and that Britons are, to-day, ashamed of the Opium War in China, by which Britain added Hong-Kong (to the Empire, and forced a harmful drug upon an unwilling people. If men ready to extend the Empire or push British trade by deeds like these were always in power, the Empire would fail into decay. If we are strong in India to-day it is because we have put down the cruelty and injustice* of our early days and have sent iust and wise men to rule the people; and it is, in this way alone, that we can blot out the sins end errors of our past, and make our Empire a really great one. For what is it that makes a man or a people really' great ? Time was when the great man was the man who could hold the, geatest number of men under his heel—the man who could rob and kill his fellowmen on the greatest scale. But to-day we are learning that the greatest man is the man who does most good to his fellowmen. On the roll of our British heroes we have many men who were really Teat —men who were high in character, ?s well as strong and clever. Of these we ought to honour, on this day, one who did much to lay the foundations of the greatness of the English race—Alfred the 'Great, King of Wessex. Of him, the present Poet Laureate sings, in wordis that every boy and girl should "get by heart":— " Star of the spotless fame, from far-off skies, Teaching this truth too long not understood, That only they are worthy who are wise, And none are huly great that are cot goou."

Her© we have the secret of a great British Empire. We must become wise in order to become worthy of power, and we must bo good if we are to be truly great. And you must never forget—you who are to be citizens of the British Empire—that it is you who must become wise and good. If, then, the citizens of the British Empire lose their simple and hardy ways of living and become lovers of ease, the Empire will pass away; if they become proud and refuse to learn from other the Empire cannot last; if they fail to learn that the greatest empire is the empire that has the greatest number of wellgrown men and women —well grown in body, mind, and soul—then the Empire will fall into decay; if they fail to learn that an empire may be poor tboufrh its banks are full of gold and its warehouses full of goods, then the Empire will not stand; if the British people became a selfish people, then the sceptre of empire will be taken from them; if the cleverest of the citizens keep the other citizens froan getting their just share of the good things of life, then the Empire is doomed. God has so mode us that we cannot long hold any good thing without deserving to hold it. When the Assyrians became unworthy of empire their empire was taken from them; when the Remans became unworthy of empire, stronger men took their place and when the Spanish became unworthy of empire, their power, too, passed away. If the British, in their turn, become unworthy of empire, their power, also, will_ be taken from them and better men will rule in their stead. Over all the rulers of the empires of the earth is One who sets up empires and casts them down; and if the British Empire is to stand it will be by finding out God's rule of life and following it.

But can we find out why God east down the empires of. past time? We can; what eke is history for? If God wrote, in letters of fire upon the night sky, the secret of lasting empire, it could not be a clearer message that He has given to us in thehistory of the human race. What, then, is the message? The message is that we can hold the empire only if we hold it as a trust —a. trust to be used for the good of all the men and women who arc our fellow-citizens, and for the good of all the men and women who live upon the earth Is this hard for you to understand?

It is not enough that we face this great task with good intentions-; we must make ourselves fit for the task. We must be fit of body and fit of mind and fit of soul. We must be fit of body, for no race of weaklings can hold an empire; we must be fit of mind, for no race of ignorant or ill-trained men can bold an empire; and we must be fit of soul, for no selfish race can hold an empire. And we cannot get the sound body, the keen mind, and t'ho generous soul without hard work and much self-denial. There is no short road or easy- road to greatness of any kind. King Alfred the Great would never have won his title to greatness had he not worked hard to improve body and mind and soul from his youth up. Nelson would never have been to keep the command of the sea for Britain had he not worked hard to become a first-rate seaman from the time when he entered the navy as a boy of 12 till the time when he led his ships into action at Trafalgar. It is by no luck or magic that a man reaches fitness" for the day of his trial. The question by which our Empire is being tried is. this: — Are we fit to be trustees for the fairest and richest parts of the earth? Are we fit to have charge of the lives of millions of men and women in Egypt and India and South Africa? Never, perhaps,- in the world's history has there been a day of trial so big with good or evil for the human race. And this time of trial for the British race is not a far-off time, but today, and to-morrow, and every day of our lives. We are trustees for a greater estate than has ever before _ been placed in the charge of man; and. if wo are faithful to our trust, the British Empire may become a greater power for good in the world than we dare even to dream of to-day. Let this thought stir us to do our best to become worthy of this a:reat trust. Let it stir us to become good workers —fit in body and fit in, mind. Let it stir us to try to become good men and vtomen. so that the great empire to which we belong may be a blessing to all its citizens, and to all the people of the earth! PEACE DAY, MAY 18.

You will see that in my elections to-day—Peace Day, someone has named it—was docs not pla.y « a prominent part. I believe, however, in universal training, for if we want peace we must bo prepared for war. The following selection, an abridgement of a leaflet published by the Melbourne Peace Society, appears in one of the Victorian School Papers for May. It is headed " The New Patriotism " :

Empire Day comes round again, reminding us that we belong to a great federation of States, and that we are a mighty cooperative company, not leagued against other peoples, but united, in the cauw of civilisation, progress, peace, and the beet interests of man —necessarily, _ therefore, stretching out the hand of friendship to other peoples. Long ago men thought an empire must ho founded on brute force, and that the chief dates in history war© the dates of battles. But we are beginning to think differently now. We are seeking to * " Move upward, working out the beast,

And let the ape and tiger die." We see that the world is one; that the best interests of one nation are the best interests of all; that it is our ideal of life that makes a people one; that our battlo is not against each other, but against the barbarism, ignorance, and folly that enslave us all; and that our best weapons are science, education, and good-will—-weapons which all nations must henceforth forgo and wield. All who have the best interests of the British Empire at heart, all real British patriots, do well to remember the 18th of May. Why ? Because that is the day when in 1899,. the .First Hague Conference assembled. That day was one of the greatest days in the history of the world, for it marked the dawn of a new social and international era, when war shall bo regarded as a crime; when the appeal shall no longer be to the sword, but to reason and justice, in a court of international arbitration; when the nations shall bo sot free from military slavery, and from crushing taxation to build Dreadnoughts and support in idleness millions of men, the strongest and fittest of the raoe; when the nations shall be freed from unbrotherly distrust and supicion of each other and the constant fear of war, and shall be able to develop tli-o individualities, and to pur-

sue together the upward path of human evolution. We cannot expect euoh a mighty change to come in an hour or a day, for the stream of prejudice, ignorance, and selfishness runs deep and strong. It is to be worked for and fought for by men and women of good-will; by the _ true patriots of all countries, amid opposition, reproach, and abuse. But it is marvellous what progress has been made since the year 1899, when tihe idea of universal arbitration, as a possible substitute for war, began to take possession of ths minds of governments, and since the Second Hague Conference in 1907. The movement is ripening; and, when the Third Hague Confe/enco meets in 1915 wo may sea a treaty for the simultaneous reduction of armaments and for arbitration agreed to by all the Great Powers, and the present international tribunal at The Hague (which has already settled many disputes voluntarily referred to it) permanently established and invested with international authority When the dream of the 18th May, 1899. and of far-seeing men and women who long before this had been preparing the way of peace is fulfilled, what forces of capital, human energy, and science will be unlocked and turned into channels of blessing to mankind 1 SHALL WE BOAST THEM Under this head last week I wrote: " A great many young fellows—those_ MOST in need of of it, I imagine—are objecting to military training." The operator, however, or tho i*eader, or somebody else, put not for MOST. It makes a difference, doesn't it?