THREE ESSENTIALS.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18232, 17 November 1924, Page 8

THREE ESSENTIALS.

IN THE CONDUCT OP LIFE. GOVERNOR'S ADVICE TO BOYS AND GIRLS. Paying a very high tribute to the guard- of honour by the Wellington, College Cadets, which hail received him on his arrival, and congratulating the colleges on the high standard of the entertainment submitted, his Excellency the Governor-General, at the Navy League farewell to him and Lady Jellicoe in the Wellington Town Hall on Friday night, took the opportunity of givino- the younger generation present some words of sound advice. "We in the Navy," he said, ■ "are taught three things: Respect to authority, Duty and Discipline. Respect to authority is one of the things which I would like to impress upon the young people of New Zealand. 'Respect also to age—ne£ because I am. • old myself—(laughter)—but because respect to age instinctivejy brings respect for authority., "Dutv the nobility of duty, is another thing which I. would like to impress upon the children- in front of ,me to-night, and, above «11 things, whatever the difficulties or dangers, 1 ask you to do your duty, what you conceive to be your duty, and, lastly, never forget the value of discipline. . . . Discipline, understood, makes" everybody work for the good of the community aa a whole, neglectful of self. It'leads to that Astounding spirit of esprit die corps which carries a body of men through any difficulty or any danger so long as they can feel that they are doing a deed which will reflect credit upon the body to which they belong. "It is the spirit which animated the crew of a destroyer, no doubt many of them, but one particularly in the Battle of Jutland, the destroyer Ardent, which was sunk by gunfire, and the whole crew, or such of them as survived the gunfire in the water, held on to anything that floated, and throughout the night of May 31et and June Ist, 1916, the one thought that animated the crew of that ship was, "Thank heaven, the Ardent has done her bit!' One by one, as the captain related when he was rescued some seven hours later, the only survivor, one by one they,, dropped off into the water, dying. Not one single word of complaint was heard throughout tlie night, the ciae 'topic among the crew of the Ardent was 'We have done cur bit.' (Loud applause.) "That, girls and boys," concluded Lord Jellicoe; "is esprit de corps, born of the spirit of discipline. That i» what I recommend to the schools and to you all to cultivate. The honour of your school, the honour of your town, the honour of your Dominion, ancTThe honour of the Empire." (Loud and prolonged applause.)