GISBORNg, S iTtJRPAY. MAY tg, 1909

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11857, 22 May 1909, Page 4

GISBORNg, S iTtJRPAY. MAY tg, 1909

Empire Day: hits come to stay, and is now being^given a vplaqe m the Britisher's . calendar of festivals m all portions of the globe. Conservative England is not as ready to. deceit the new feast day as the warmer blooded ybuiiger nations, and tlve Asquith Government still maintains its assinine objection to the hoisting of flags oil public buildings iiv celebration of the occasion, but this notwithstanding flag^ wiU float gaity on, Monday on many thousands of business and other premises m London, throughout E!ngland J and m every quarter of the globe that acknowledges allegiance to the Union Jack. Empire Day is celebrated not because it offers a chance, of self-glorification but because itis a- day on which the children of the Empire can be taught one of the most valuable lessons ■ they have to learn: Oh tliat day, says one of tlie promoters of Empire Day, yoiing minds have a charier, of learning history not n& a dreary strain on the memory/ but as a vivid living things. The noble deed* of the Empire's illustrious dead spring to life again, blending with the .present the glorious pust and projecting happy inspirations into tlie future, which, be; longs m an especial sense to the rising generation. What is this Empire whose day we celebrate? , Few people > realise the vastness of ; our Imperial heritage. Here it is, culled from the dry Board of Trade statistics— . 11,332,000 square miles^of territory, of ■which the United Kingdom only has 121,000 sauare miles. 396,000,000 people of. all colors and . mces, of whom only 44,538,000 live m the United Kingdom. , , Time was when the initial motive of BritiBlv conquest, was plunder. Tlie interests of the vanquished were secondary considerations. But the Great Britain of to day, as Mr G. rt. Reid pointed out m a regent speech at Sydney, is making a magnificent atonement for tho selfishness with Avhich •■she built up the Empire. Tho 6fficinls Avlio' fwvo under the King and, are responsible for the governlneiit of elqap joil 400 millions , of tho human race of r»ll eajorfl and creeds m so many .'distant climes, no longer administer Native affairs for the agtrvnndisement of an English company or n British "soHreign. Their .solemn trust now 1 ifl'nol t6 g\>verh for tho benefit of tho oonqiieror, but for the welfare' of the conquered. Once, no doubt, the Empii-0 was held together by brute force

alniic Thai, strength ruiiiniii» perhaps still, hut there are now other ami ' stronger ties. From the Himalayas down to Falkland Islands, from Hong Kong across to the borders of Venezuela, wherever you meet a subject nice over whom the 'British! ensign waves, the weakest' among' them has a breadth and depth i>f personal,; industrial, and com incfcinl liberty which are not enjoyed iby .many ■.white -nations.. There is" no' race subject to the British crown which '.would exchange British rule for that of any other groat Power. The statistic* of the Empire giye a vague idea of the. multitude of savage and civilised communities which owe allegiance to or are under the protection of Great Britain. They inhabit ohe-fifth of the earth's land surface ; they number more than one-fifth of the world's population. Every conceivable form of human society, ranging from the highest civilisation down to the clarke6t savagery, m living, 1 governed, and improved under the I British flag. In the Indian Empire 'there are no less than 650 native . States whose affairs are . administered by their own rulers under their own laws/ Some possess. jfeatnres ; of civilisatic-n that were ancient'when some of our British ancestors camped in';th.e fens of : Anglia. Just I now m Nigeria, one of the latest British annexations, the Empire is represented hy about; -200 public deryhnts, who have devoted themselves to> the task of governing^ many .millions, of. African savages, inhabiting ah area twice as larg-? as France.' Ten years -ago the British possessions m Africa, covered 450,000 square miles, and contained a population of 5,000,000. They now ' exceed 2,600.---000 siniare miles and include a population Of 45,000,000^ Inrger than that of Great Britain and Ireland. Of the four hundred millions, comprising the population (?f the Empire, only fifty-five millions .are.. people of the.. dominant"' race : and though the. great majority of Y550 millions have ho single, link of birth, color, or religion connecting- them with, their felß>w L citizens of tlie Empire* they accept its government because jvhere- the Union Jack floats it symbolises deliverance from' ' tyranny, plunder, oppression, and /outrage. We shall sneak on Monday of the trade of the Empire, which, represents a value of £1,667,000,000 a year. British shipping carries half tlie. cargoes. .'. 0f .... the . ■ whole world. Tho capital of .-';•'. the Empire—London—is m . many respects-' the -capital of the wyorid. E^och-hiak ing changes are m the air, and Yit is meet that.:-.. the children of the Empire should apftemble under the flag on. one day in-" the'' year and consider tlie vastness and value of their Imperial heritage, ahd 1 the respond sibility that rests on their shoulders 1 , of defending it to their last breath. ; To quote Mr G. H. Reid again : "Voices whisper Yacross the centuries and over tho seas speaking of lioihe and kindred — of Imttles fought and won— of liberties consecrated by the blood of a. long line of patriotic ancestors. Y-These-' -are 'links m a chain bf.nffectibh which the eye cannot see. may seem fragile, hut they acquire majestic reality and .strength when danger comes. The' world soon finds the scattered families of tlie British clans standing shoulder to shoulder, inspired with;. the .sublime, devotion which Tennyson interprets m these simple worda-r-. -- .-'•--•• ."'y ';-■■ -'-'' : . Th6irs not to reason ;whv, Theirs, but to do or die !"