The Timaru Herald SATURDAY, MAY 25, 1907. EMPIRE DAY.

Timaru Herald, Volume XC, Issue 13295, 25 May 1907, Page 4

The Timaru Herald SATURDAY, MAY 25, 1907. EMPIRE DAY.

So far as South Canterbury is concerned, ) yesterday affords no indication that i lie j institution of the upecial holiday will do mucli towards tlut promotion of '.ho patiiotic spirit which Empire Day was 'designed to foster, and except as a relief / from the routine of daily toil, the occa- ? sion had very little to commend it. Even the schools were afraid of taxing the incipient loyalty of their pupils by requiring j their presence at the ceremonies invented j for the celebration of Empire Day, and it ] becomes a question whether it was worth while going through the farce of conferring a special holiday for a specific purpose when the whole object of the day is dismissed in a few minutes at the end of the preceding day. If it is at all possible lo j spoon-feed patriotism into the growing I generation, there would, ye fancy, be more / hope of satisfactory results if the children ! were required to exhibit the slight amount ' of self-sacrifice involved in attendance at the formalities prescribed for the celebration of the day specially set aside to i enforce the lessons of Empire, instead of j encouraging them to look, upon it a.s au ordiriaiy respite from usual school duties, arid to regard tlie functions coiinecteci with j it as more or less of a liuisahcei to le I shuffled through with as little bother as { possible. We can imagine tliat .there / would be something inspiriting even to the children in tlie knowledge that they were participating in ceremonies similar to those 1 going on isimultaneousl| |n all parts' of the world, b'ut unless jbnipire Day. can be , treated a little more:seriously tiiah.it was

in South Canterbury yesterday, we should hot," venture to say much for the impression it will make upon til© young portion of liisi Majesty's subjects. Personally, however, we are nofc 'partiCulariyveriHmmired of the idea of Empire l)ay, wliibK letids to bc-come_ ridiculous either by being almost contemptuously ignored, ais in our own mid'st, or by being made the ithwme ftr such disquisitions as Mr Deakin has contributed to a London journal. The Federal Premier took the opportunity for preaching again the isermon which fell on deaf ears at the Imi)erial Conference—the necessity for consolidating the Empire and uniting its scattered members by deliberate methods. Mr Deakin, who is supported by the Prime Ministers of Cape Colony and Newfoundland, is dissatisfied with the loose system of alliance which has kept the Empire together up till the present, and which evoii now shows 110 .signs of failure in any part of the worfil. It seems surprising that Mr Deakin has such faith in t.he efficacy of hard and fast agreements between the component parts of the Empire, seeing that Australia itself provides him with a striking instance of the difficulty of uniting even closely allied States on a basis tliafc will be satisfactory to all'. The federation of Australia would appear to be almost a natural necessity, and yet its operation has been provocative of an endless amount of friction between the different colonics. One can easily imagine how much more difficult it would be to link up the scattered members of the Empire into any sort of federation such as Mr Deakiivs message to the " Standard " appears to foreshadow, and one can readily agree with him that such a process, if iti is ever to come about, must proceed on the slow lines of evolution. A great writer has isaid that England has acquired half the globe in fits of absent-mindedness, and the advance 'towards unification will be similarly unconscious. A premature tightening of the bonds of Empire would probably end in disagreements and disappointments which would shake the confederation to its very base, and" the really dangerous enemies to the family group of British nations are those fussy people who are anxious to impose mechanical bonds which might easily become fetters, and hasten the very evils which Imperial orators are so anxious <to avert.