EMPIRE DAY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 12867, 24 May 1905, Page 4

EMPIRE DAY.

of the Congress on July 4th, i 77 6>6 > 'Benjamin Frauklin ; made the remark to his fellow delegates that "we mlust all hang together, or assiudclly we shall all hang separately." "Such a fate does not, of course, , threaten the colonial people, yet it would be well lor them, and also lor the people of the IMotherland, to remember that unless the component parts of the Empire are bound together by strong tics of sentiment and iiiter-e-t the}' may some day drift apart, anld become as the single faggots , of a bundle, fragile and easily broken. It is for us in the foloiiies to reflect how helpless we should be, how completely at the mercy of any hostile Power, if the protecting arm of the Mother Conintryt was withdrawn. JN T or should the people at the heart ol the Empire forget what happened in 1776, when the great American colonies forcibly broke ax\cih because their people ivere dissatisfied with- the manner in . which they were governed. The moral of those events is that colonial aspirations and ambitious must be respected and colonial ■ sentiments studied when inter-Imperial policy is under discussion. To merely observe Empire Day as J holiday, without taking proper steps ,to attach to it ihe 'special significance iti is intended to hold, is; of little use. There arc, as we have said before, holidays enough already. x There ought to be associated with it some sort of demonstration of a patriotic nature, or no holiday at all It may be especially desirable, as the Earl of -Moath says in a circular letter, "that the day should be kept in schools, so that the risino- -generation, may be associated * with their elders in the hymns of praise and of tbanksj/ivin"- which should , on that day rise to Him in Whose lianids rests ijhe fate of all Empires and of all peoples." Unless;, however, it is impressed upon the children what is the trnei meaning of Empire and 1 of . Empire • Day,, they, might 1 as well be getting V3ii with their ordinary \ J lessons. That is the only justification] for making Empire. Day a holklay: ,It ought to be heavily underlined 111 out calendar, for the importanee,V\ol 'cultivating the spirit of-Tmpcrialism can scarcely be overrated .

AVcre it not that public holidays are so nftuneroiis it would be an excellent idea, to set ap#.rt the 24th of May each year for the purpose of' .a general celebration of Empire D&y. This date will, of course, always—at any rate during the present generation— -be associated with thie name of the great and good Sotvereigti whose birthday it was, a«d during whose happy reign the British Empire became what it is. The people of the \ United States celebrate the Day; ol Independence evtery year with great enthusiasm, as' marking the birth ol the American nation, but the British people have, hitherto had no particular day, not even a : defiiiite year, associated with, the birth of their/ Empire. As a matter of fact, we suppose, the Empire was not "born; like Topsy, it "growed.*' Yet it is just as desirable that we ! should have a day set apart as Empire Day, when the thoughts of all may be turned for a moment or two to the) Imperial idea, as that o',ur American cousins should celebrate the date of their mtdepeii'decnce, au'dj the beginning of their existence as a .distinct nation. ' When the celebrated Declaration of Independence was being signed by the memjbers j