A NATIONAL EMPIRE

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 54, Issue 3899, 10 May 1937, Page 16 (Supplement)

A NATIONAL EMPIRE

ENGLISH AS HOME-BUILDERS. REASON FOR SUCCESS IN FAR LANDS. The sense of home was one of the chief characteristics of Englishmen, said Archbishop Wand to the gathering at the annual dinner cf the Royal Society of St. George at the Australian Hotel in Brisbane recently. The greatest hope for the future of the world was that other nations would come back to the political systems of which England had given an example. His was one of the many tributes paid to England and Englishmen by ' speakers at the dinner. The nation had set the world an example of freedom and good government that had never been equalled, he said. The English family and home spirit had been built round the fireside. The reason why Englishmen were so successful in far-flung lands was that whether they were to remain there for a little or a long time they must establish a home. It was in no way derogatory to former Governors to say that of all those who had held such high office in Queensland not one had shown himself so ready to become acquainted with all that went on within the State as Sir Leslie Wilson, said the president (Mr H. Highfield) proposing the toast of the Governor. The interest exhibited by his Excellency was only equalled by his tremendous energy. He was the most widely travelled Governor, within Queensland, that the State had ever had. In wishing the Governor and Lady Wilson a most pleasant and successful visit to England, he said the society hoped they would benefit greatly from their holiday. Queensland would lose nothing in status by the reports

Sir Leslie would give of it and its people while he was Home. BACKBONE OF EMPIRE. “I look forward to St. George’s Day as the one in the year on which we can tell the Welsh, the Scottish, and the Irish that the Englishman has been, and always will be, the backbone of the British Empire,” said Sir Leslie, responding. It might be that a little sentiment came into the Englishman’s mind on that day. The world lived in too < materialistic days now. Sentiment was one of the most important foundation stones on which the Empire was built. To-day there was needed also a little more of what might be called the spirit of the Nelson type—if one was going to do service to one’s country one must remember to do service to one’s God.