TEE IMPERIAL ASPECT.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 1, 26 September 1907, Page 8

TEE IMPERIAL ASPECT.

"A GROUP OF MIGHTY STATES.' pv Pitorrssoit Leacoce, of McGiii, : ' University, Canada. ;

.Not unfittingly falls upon New Zealand,' with.-the opening of a.now era, hi 3 name Dominion. For : it signifies. i::b. Let it i'.ot ho lightly viewed or: ■■'■xly read, thin chaiigo of appellant 'that converts the colony of tho ' i time into tho Dominion .of , the

Let.it.not 1)0 thought ..that thero. lioro but an cjupty word or, at best, : braggart-utterance of. the upstart at 'trould".spurn the, older ties and. • jl.lor name, forgetful of the common .heritage. -. For the alteration of .the title of New- Zealand from Colony to Dominion is full of meaning, for those that read it right. It typifies the change that is coming over the spirit and structure of the British Empire with the "opening of the now century; No longer can we think of the Empire as made up of a Mother Country-with a brood of colonies outlying in the distant seas and looking homeward for their guard and maintenance. It is transforming itself into a group of mighty states that reach from continent to continent, held in the bond of common patriotism. This word Dominion voices at once the new-born power and new-found duty that come with the wider citizenship of Empire. A Bond Never to be Dissolved. Nor let there be a fear that, with this change, the-tie that binds theso islands to the Mother Country shall slacken in its hold. It is a bond never to be dissolved. iFor this is a land, this iLand of the Sea—New Zealand— that, all Df British blood who know must iove. Here i 3 the Britain*of the South, flere are again .the windswept hills of 3 new Scotland falling to the sea; here is the meadow-land, the willowed stream, the hedge-em-bowered homes of a new England, and the green hollows of an unvexed Ireland, sun-kissed amid the rain; ; So it is with no upstart spirit, but Svith a high sense of its Imperial responsibility) that New Zealand lays aside its bygone name of colony, still jto be held in pious memory. Long shall the legend and the story run of the brave, days of the colonial time, the sea-craft of; the- fishers of the 6onth, and the lone vigil of the settler on an unknown coast. Still shall fancy hear the voice of the stormtossed emigrant lifted in hymns of praise to greet the verdant hillsides of his new-found homo. Still shall the tale be told of the stern fights within the tangled wood in the hard days of 4he long .war. Still shall the rising guties boast with pride the humbler days that knew them villages. But this is past. The page of tho colonal history is a page writ full with characters bold and strong for future citizens to read. It is a record rounded and complete. It shows a people that has known adversity.but not despair, war but never tyranny, and that has built upon the bedrock , of equality a social fabric of enduring promise. Lingeringly arid' with love tho full wrtteii page of tho colonial history is turned, and the hand of time pauses a moment with uplifted pen before the white scroll of the unwritten page to come. : The Watchword of the Future. .. And on this page well may there ■stand as its first v.-oril this name Dominion, signifying alike the power i hat'lies with the strong and the duty l lint rests ii])o:i the powerful. This is i he watchwnr.l r -:ture. For,

seo, the littlo colony that lay remote within the confines of tin unknown sea, stands now tho Britain of a Southern World. Tho unvoiled ocean yields its mystery and a now Pacific lies beforo tho eyo, girt with great cities, bearing new ; nations on its shoros, and carrying on its bosom the laden argosies of an awakening Orient. The lights of Wellington shine across tho sea to Sydney, harboured within its mighty Heads;, to Yokohama with omblossomed trees, and San Francisco sleeping in the sun behind tho Golden. Gate; while further yet, and low beneath the northern star, tho iron-bound Vladivostok looks across to the blue bays of Rupert and Victoria.; This' is tho nowworld where this Dominion holds in its sea-swept • isolation a power that has given to its parent, country dominion of tho north a thousand years. " And yet not 0110 but two Dominions face upon the waters of; the ocean of

w. M. Muir, of Wellington,' and Mr. James Muir, of ' the 'Poverty Bay .Herald' 1 who was already in Wellington, constituted the staff. ■ -- "The material was landed in boats at Petone, then called Britannia, and was set lip in one of the company's houses, between" ".that 'occupied by Colonel William Wakefield and Mr. George Hunter, father of Mr. Robert Hunter, of Wellington, and grandfather of Mr.. George liunter, of Porangahau. . .Tho First Roller. " I can remember bow very interesting it was to see them make tlio first roller for inking the formes. It was quite 11 novelty then — the new composition roller made in the mould, and marijf-'eaino to see this wonderful twohanded—roller, including several Maoris. Before that time they used to (liih the ferritins with a big ink-pad, •vlncli naj liimckfil «li over it until the typp bin! l.emi •!»rvi ■■ 1 with ink. The ::iviMituiii of lb'? roller was considered t very great l.liina iniluisl i" those .lays.'

tho future, Canada and New Zealand, bound always in a common kinship, bound henceforth, in a common narao and destiny. Hero let thero bo no little jealousy of first or last, of old or now, of greater or of loss. But let the name tlicy bear stand as a pledge of amity, a bond of love, first-fruit of that still wider brotherhood that holds tho British peoples of tho world. 'Let the new title mean that if tho day shall como when dangersignals flash across tho sky, aud tho rolling thunder of war sounds upon the occan of pcaco, then shall Dominion call upon Dominion, and the loud war-pipo of Otago wake the far echoes of the hills of Canada. ■

Not in vainglory, then, hut with a steadfast liopo and high resolve, New Zealand takes its new name among the peoples of tho world, and finds in it the inspiration of its future. .

"Tho second issue was much the same as tho first, for I remember that there was a poem' by Thomas Campbell in tho first, and that and .some other mattor was ' lifted' to make room for somo local hows. Mr. I'ates prepared tho forme, and ho and Mr. Muir printed it, if I remember right. It was published in April, 1840, •liid was four-page, demy size, and was issued every week—on Saturdays. Circulation tlion? —about 200. Changs of Name. "Soon afterwards the liamo was changed to tho ' New Zealand Gazette and Britannia Spectator,' and on tho removal of the settlement from I'otone to Wellington towards the end of the satno year, (18-40) it was called the ' Now Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator,' and was published in a building erected for the purpose behind the promises in Manners Street at present occupied by Mr. George Winder: I believc_ the old building (one with, a shite roof) is still there. " I served my time out with the 'Gazette' and afterwards started