EMPIRE DAY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 121, 25 May 1931, Page 6

EMPIRE DAY

ORIGIN AND HISTORY. EARL OF MEATH’S IDEALS. Empire Day was yesterday, May 22, but a “Gazette’’ notice ordains that it shall be celebrated this year on June 3, in conjunction with the King’s Birthday. This day will be observed as a holiday in Government Departments, as in banking and commercial circles generally. Empire Day is never observed to any great extent in New Zealand, perhaps being more associated with the anniversary of the birthday of Queen \ ictoria than with the ideals of the founder of the Empire Day movement. The most that is done is t o’fly flags and | to have a few special references made in the schools. The founder of the movement was ;hc late Earl of Meath, who died in Octo ber, 1929. His objective was that on one special day of the year thoughts should be particularly directed to “the gieat heritage handed down to us I y our fathers.” Extraordinary as it may now seem, when the Earl succeeded ;"<> the title in 1887 there was no official recognition of any national flag. jt was not until 1893 that Parliament and Gladstone's Government wen- per suaded to allow the Union Jack to inflown over Westminster. Even then there was argument and ridicule on • :>«? subject of flag-flying. The inspiration for Empire Day the Earl got from Can 1 ada. He read, of a ceremony at Hamil ton, Ontario, where the British flag was j hoisted and the children sang the Na j tional Anthem. From this he de'clopci ! his scheme for Empire iDa.V, enlisting the co-operaiiou of Prime Ministers an I I Governors in all parts of the Empire. Queen Victoria’s birthday was chostn as a suitable date. Empire Dav received official rpcogni- I

1 lion in England in 1916. In the House I of Lords that year the late Viscount Milner asked the Government whether there was any reason’ why the Union ■ •Jack should not be flown from ail Gov eminent buildings in the United Kingdom on Empire Day as it was in the Dominions. Expressing the hope that it would be made a statutory holiday throughout the Empire, he confined himself to the proposal that it should be no longer completely ignored by he British Government.. He carried his point, and official recognition was extended to the day, but only as far as flying flags. Empire Day is now a special concern of the Royal Colonial Institute. It is, in the words of its founder, “the outward sign of an inward awakening of the people wno constituted the British Umpire ,u the serious duties which lie at their door.” Earl Jellicoe’s remarks about the | weakening of the Empire spirit, would seem to indicate the need for some a day as Empire Day.