REAL PATRIOTISM

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 308, 21 May 1941, Page 2

REAL PATRIOTISM

LOVE OF COUNTRY

"Patriotism moans, of course, a love of one's country. The special characteristics of New Zealand arc its mountains, lakes, native forests, native birds anr\. such like—in fact, they are New Zealand,'" remarked Captain E. V. Sanderson, in "For-, est and Bird." "If the national or the Empire flag was subjected t.T maltreatment and acts of vandalism, or decried, great would be the outcry and punishment and rightly B°. but nevertheless the national Hag is the emblem of those chareteristics which go together to make real New Zeal and j Some people, and not a few, have been taught to respect the emblem and not the characteristics, resulting in* nothing more than mere superficial patriotisnn (Continued at foot of next column)

"The native forests., for instance, are openly decried by many, including some paid national servants, as being of a primitive nature and slow in growing. They are probably K.low, too, whe?i their propagation is attempted by those people who have little love and regard'for them nnd less knowledge of how to grow them successfully. This knowledge Includes familiarity with the environmental conditions required' by even the more common species, and a comprehension of the inter-rela-tionship of various species."