Mr Monk on the National Flag.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2904, 29 September 1900, Page 3

Mr Monk on the National Flag.

The following is the “patriotic” portion of the speech by Mr Monk, M.H.R,, which was accorded great praise by the House:— “National feeling and sentiment should arise over this question of the flag. The most noble races have made their national flag the shrine of their martial lore and the traditions that are instinct with the genius of national life and emotion, and I think it well for us to have similar kindred feelings. My ideal of a flag is not for signalling purposes, but the emblem that is closely identified with the best aspirations of the people, appealing to their imagination as the enduring witness of their vicissitudes, the unseparable comrade of their national being. . , , It is the duty of every one to resist any interference with our flag that would tend to lessen in the public mind a conception for it of inviolable respect. No changes should ever hernia do by a people in their flag except in commemoration of some great and important event in the history of the nation that imposes upon public attention an absorbing influence. For instance, there is the American flag, to which an additional star is added whenever a new State is received into the Union. The changes that have made the flag of our race what it is to-day have been made in significant commemoration of important events in connection with our history—events that have been of great moment to the welfare of the British people—l am alluding to the first Union Jack, when by Proclamation it was announced that Scotland and England bad forever linked their destinies by blending together the cross of St Andrew and the cross of St George. That was in 1606. And then, nearly two hundred years after —in 1801 —when the venerated cross of St. Patrick, with the dainty charm of Irish art, gracefully rove its form and fortunes betwixt the two, and the changes did honour to each other--these threeformed the great flag of our country. And that is the flag that, when waving from the bow of a British man-of-war, exacts deference from every Maritime power. For instance, if our “ Royal Arthur ” met not only one vessel, but a whole squadron of French or Dutch ships, they would all have to strike their national colours, and keep them down, or it would be deemed an unfriendly aoljand thus the triple flag is the emblem that “Britannia rules the waves.” Mr Speaker, the interest and concern taken in flags is not a mere unreasoning prejudice. The saorn and jibes with which we sometimes cancel the' in-' fluence of prejudices, or even the prejudices themselves, will be utterly powerless and futile when levelled against sentiment with which a people affectionately invest the history of their flag, for sentiment may have more to do in promoting a healthy national growth and feeling than even their laws, which are but the inflexible automata of public necessity. For instance,the Justinian code,which to this day I think is admitted to be a triumph of human reasoning; but coeval with it the sentiment of the Roman people was so putrescent that their national decay was inevitable. But inspiriting seuments are just the reverse, They promote purity and vigour in the national life, for sentiments are the fibrous many-rooted growths that cling around their souls, and are nourished even with the ruddy currents that flow from their hearts. And, Mr Speaker, it is the duty of every public man, and especially the Premier, on the public platforms which he so frequently occupies, to encourage elevating sentiments in the minds of the men and women of this country, and to teach them to feel a jealous pride in the history that they have inherited, aided by the lessons it can impart to those who are willing to learn, and the superior advantages that we now possess. Shame on us if our contribution to the history of the British race does not more than rival that of our ancestors. And then it will be a sorry plea, a wretched excuse/if the Premier should argue that now is the time to alter our flag, because they are but an impotent minority who jealously resist any interference being inflicted upon our flag and are concerned for these sentimental influences that ultimately mould and stamp the character of a people and impart distinctive quality to their idiosyncrasies. Let not the House contemn the day of small things. The most irresistible forces of Nature lurk behind her unheeded movements. Small indeed was the cloud, and far distant, that Elijah’s servant reported to his master, but it was pregnant with promises that brought gladness and comfort to the seer’s heart. And believe me, Mr Speaker, that they are the forerunners of a troop, the harbingers of a multitude, who; now comparatively few, are jealous that no indignity shall be inflicted upon the flag of our colony, and are anxious that there shall he a distinctive beauty and appropriateness in the decoration which it is proposed to award to every member of the New Zealand contingents. Will not members reflect that the sentiments which I am now but feebly expressing may be the murmurings of a public spirit that, though at present latent beneath the pressure of our selfishness and political grovellings, will grow into the giant passion of a liberty-loving, liberty practising, and aspiring people. Can there be a soul in this Chamber so barren that it has never recreated in exhilarating reveries over the future of our country, and of that time when our posterity shall have risen to a consciousness that the destiny of their ocean-girt home can be best accomplished bv the untrammelled exercise of maritime aspirations —when every child born to the State shall find itself inheriting the fullest freedom of right of entry into the industrial avocations of the Commonwealth—when the laws and regulations that now thwart our youth shall he cited as being enacted at the time when the interests of the State were subordinated to the execrable creations of a mammon-born selfishness and, further on in the roll of generations, to the time when they shall revel in the crusted sweetness of their own hoary traditions, clustering affectionate sentiments around the history of the Union Jack and its cherished comrade, the Southern Cross; and, I trust, carolling with even more enthusiasm than we do today— Three Crosses in the Union, Three crosses in the Jack, And we’ll add to itnowthe Crossof tho South, And stand by it back to back. Though other skies above us shine When danger’s tempest lowers. Wo’ll show the world that Britain’s cause And Britain’s foes aro ours.

I mi "lad to have heard of a disposition on the part of the Ministry, and on the part of this Chamber, that they are adverse to any tampering or interference with the Southern Cross, and it becomes our duty to day to hand down to posterity the record that we have the purity of public spirit to enact that the badge of our Southern Cross shall he now and tor ever disassociated ironi any disparaging disfigurements. I should like the four stars to be edged with silver, that they might sparkle with the silvery sheen with which we view them in the heavens, and thus make them more conspicuous upon the blue ground of the flag. And 1 desire that they shall boar the same place and form on the flag as they appear 10 our vision as we gaze upon them in the firmament. For it is a badge—something that appeals to our minds, and which the people of Few Zealand will become prouder of as years roll by. It should bo exhibited iu every school, and the child-

ren be taught to make it the shrine of their honour, investing it with every manly attribute and the most exalted aspirations.