Meeting in the Town Hall

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 2, 27 September 1907, Page 6

Meeting in the Town Hall

AN ENTHUSIASTIC SUCCESS. Effervescing with high spirits, an onormous nuiltitudo surged ißto the Town Hall last evening. It was too good-humoured for discomfort, or discomfort would havo been keenly felt in many parts of the crowded hall. Tho sign "Full Houso," early displayed at the main entrance, feebly expressed tho crusli within. It was a brilliant spectacle, enhancing cheorjjulncss. Tho boflagged platform, wits special choir, the immense audience, in which shone tho gorgeous red and gold of military accoutrements, and shimmered with a softer radiance the bright charms of feminine apparel, composed a scene of brilliant picturDsqucness. A multitudinous buzz ot tongues was broken by applause and cheers as the town's notabilities and naval guests advanced to take their soats on tho stage. Mr. R. Parker's introductory organ recital was hot above tho heads of the blithe audience. He played a march of Handel, a selection of popular airs, and an ovorturo by Wely. When the appreciative hush which lasted through this programme had relieved itself in final applause, the baDel of tongues was resumed. Tho arrival of. His Excellency Viic Governor and suite was signal for enthusiastic applauso, followed by a very impressive sceno when His Excellency reached tho front of the platform. The National Anthem was' played through by tho organist, and then Madame Albani sang magnificently the first and third verses, the'chorus of which was taken up.:with hearty enthusiasm by. the choir and audience.

THE MAYOR'S ADDRESS. The Mayor (the Hon. T. W. Hislop) prefaced tho address by reading tlic congratulatory cablegrams and telegrams from representatives of foreign countries and tho different snlf-govern-ong portions of tho British Empire. Ho referred to tho hope expressed oy tho Premier of .Queensland that New Zealand might he as successful under tho name of a Dominion as she had heen in tho past under the name of a colony. (Applause.) Reviewing uio steps by which Now Zealand had risen from that condition to her present status, His Worship said that a bettor poriod began when tho country came under tho control of the Imperial Government. After sixteen years as a Crown colony, Now Zealand received its constitution. In tho history of the years that followed, the capacity 01 English-speaking communities for' seii'i government might uo judged by the' work dono in this land. They knowhow tho young colony was harassed by the Maori wars, and now the settlers showed a most notable example oi Government to withdraw its troop:-, from these shores, and leave i-ik colony to cope with the native difficulty for itself. Wo had from thn' time onwards enacted our own legisla-

tion and maintained our own-' administration. Wo desired the bond which bound tho wliolo Empire's together not to ho dissolved, but to be maintained and strengthened. (Applause). Tho now name of this country was significant of tho work it had done in the past.

HIS EXCELLENCY'S SPEECH. His Excellency, the Governor, Bpokc moro loudly, and obtained l-oaring. His earnest speech'was priv.hi' much applause. Ho said: "Mr Chai'> nan, ladies end gentlemen, it is with a degree of pleasuie, very difficult to express, that 1 find myself taking part with you this evening in celebrating the definite n:id official recognition of New Zealand's importance and in acknowledging the ready response made by His Majesty the King and the Imperial Government to your Parliament's request. And, as it appears to me, in this prompt acknowledgment of tho justice of your claims, shown not only by the Crown and the Home Government, but by the people and the public Press of <he Mother Country, we have welcome and valuable testimony that the enormous strides made by the Colony in recent years arc appreciated by thinking men at Home, fully asjnuch as they are in New Zealand. New Zealand, born within the memory of living man, cradled in deyasting war, ill-nursed* and educated in the hard school of constant struggle foi existence, has outstripped many of her elder sister colonies'and now steps forward to receive—not as- a favour, but as a right—the title of Dominion, and a seat among tho rising nations of our Empire. (Loud applause). Change of Title. "Ladies and gentlemen, one of the main arguments advanced for this change of "title, was that it would better demonstrate your status at Homo nnd in other countries. With this I cordially agree, but I would add that I believe it will also eneouragi) in New Zealand itself that spirit of nationality without which no country can hope to become self-re-liant, and without which the splendid dream of tho confederation of tho nations of tho British Empire, insuring Peace, Justice, and Liberty for all the world, can never como to pass. It is in that promise- of an increased spirit of nationality—which is in no way incompatible with loyalty to the Throne, to the Mother ounlry, or to. the. rest of the Empire—many, I am sure, welcome the now designation. For I bt-lieve that, as this spirit grows, your people will more perfectly realise, that in the future they must depend upon (heir nwn resources for their pntfe.ei ion far noro than they do at pre?ml, ai)l that tho statesman who can solve the problem of rapidly increasing your small population without causing iniustico to its presort inhabitants, will bo voted a saviour of his country. Hear, hear). I hope you •will forgive me if, for a few moments, 1 have deviated fr»ni my main subject, tho Dominion of iSew Zealand, to what I believe to be the dominion of, common sense, and' th it you will accept as an apology my earnest desire to render somo practical sen ice to this country, which will ever remain to me and mine

almost as dear as it is to yourselves." and continuous applause). Tho special choir now sang Sir A. Mackenzie's souk "i'l'lie Empire Flag." Tho choir, nearly two 1 hundred strong, was a combination of the voices of the Musical Union Choral _ Society, Licdertafl,' and private individuals. It acquitted itself more. than creditably. THE PREMIER'S ADDRESS. Then, amidsc applause, the Premicr,Sir Joseph Ward, began his speech. Delivered..with impressiveness, it was> enthusiastically received, 'albeit tho longest of the evening. Tho Premier spoke as follows:—"Mr. Mayor, Your Excellency, ladies and gentlemen: " To-day we mark an epocli in the hosloryof New Zealand,, and on such, an occasion I may filly look, for'a few moments, beforo and after to. outline tho road by which we have come and the road which, in my opinion, wd ought -to go. The attitude of the people of New Zealand to tho laud of their adoption has been steadily, .changing for the last fifty, years.■.■■ In cirlier days it.i people, a mero handful regarded themselves as a little band of exiles, wanderers in • a strange land' many expatriated by tho hard social' conditions of Great Britain mid Ireland. Can wo wonder that these pioneers regarded Now Zealand as but. a place of exile, and looked with longing eyes back to their Motherland, with all its associations, traditions, its ties of blood and friendship, end looked' forward with hopeful hearts to .a return to all they hold dear? Can we : ' wonder tint they tints regarded New Zealand as but-a plac; of sojourn, of temporary expatriation, a place—as it then was—without a history, without any of that social environment,; which was a pnit—and a large part—of their lives. The spirit which breathes through the "Irish Emigrant's Lament" passionately possessed those early colonists, and whatever beauty and opportunity this young land . afforded them'' —this did not weaken, their wish to turn their backs lrtien rliey had -.:•

cured a little competency and, go Homo again to spend the rest of their days in tho land of their fathers. Noble Lives. ''In the years that, have sped since then, New Zealand has produced a history rich in noble lives, rich in patriotic enterprise, chastened by war with its inevitable burden of debt and dcatli roll. With tho years there has grown up around our colonists a new environment—in a true sense a new home. Tho heartstrings that knit them to the Motherland have not been cut. These tics remain. But all the rtirly painful strain has gone. Tho sense of exile has disappeared and population has increased, as cities have arisen, as sturdy settlers throughout the length and breadth of these Inlands have cu; happy homes out of the wild, as New Zealand has become the birthplace of the children and the children's children of our earlier colonists. A new patriotism has arisen, a love and a pride ever increasing, for and in this Britain of tho South, so that to-day it may be said wo love not England less, but New Zealand more, than in the years gone by. A Now Patriotism. The belittling attitude of the little Englander towards British colonises v,as not very different fr:m the attitude of early colonics themselves to the land of their adoption. This attitude has slowly disappeared, before that growing self-respect arising from our Colony's steady advance in all that spells social progress and material advancement., Our colonists no longer share that -spirit, prevailing so widely among colonists from some older nations, of treating their new h:>ine as '.•uf a temporary banishment for the purpose of making money and returning again to their parent land. New Zealand has become the homo of its people in every sense—tlu. land wlice they may live oin their lives under its free . conditions,, free institutions, free life, and healthy skies, and. where they arid their, children after them may be laid, to rest when, the struggle oT life is over. All this has. created, as 1 havo said; a- new patriotism, a i-eir pride which no longer is prepared to accept silently or as trua (ho Old World's ignorant measure of us as a young nation. Tho Honoured Dead. Years ago it was the dream of one of our statesmen expressed .in a despatch to the Colonial Office that this countrv of ours, associated with other islands of the Southern Pacific, should become a now Dominion. To-day that dream is realised, and to those' who tell me that this country and its future is too, small for such a title I would reply, the small lies not' in our land, but in you and in your nature. I Imve nc time for those spirits who grudge or carp at the honours offered to the land that maintains them. Our new desig. nation, 1 claim, has been honourably won, not only by the living, but by our honoured dead. If it bo no more, i: is at least, a recognition by. the Motherland that we now have reached tin status of a higher state-hood in the rul: uf tho King's great Dominion. We nov. are honoured by tho title, but the future is ours to, in turn, honour that title b ytlie position wo will yet attain We are rightly proud of the place v.-i already occupy among the progressiva lands of the world, measured by Hi. lives of our people, by our laws and ; ' stitutiuns. We claim to be in the va :;uard of ■ ivilisation, but though \vi

h.-.vo done much, much is yet to do before the Dominion of New Zealand approaches its true .destiny, 'f ho speed of socia 1 progress depends upon the en-, lightenment of the people—it is ,not checked by opposition, it. is not arrested by the bitterness of party interest—its only fatal enemies are ignoranco and selfish apathy. [•"or the Future. Hero, then, in New Zealand with the most enlightened people in..the world is a fruitful field for every movement which makes for the mental, moral, and physical improvement,' not of any one section, but of the whole people within our shores. We may sail with prosperous winds as at the present time; we will yet nave to beat against those of adversity—though I trust and believe that such are many years distant—but we must move onward, not drift, or lie at anchor, and among the main guides in the chart by which we steer these are all important:—Preserve the purity of the race from which wo have sprung. Eesist, if need be, to th clast man and the Inst ounce of our blood the invasion ci' i.i'v Kastern horde which, mixins with our people, would leave us a degenerate race of half-breeds. Maintain as far as possible the scale of justice between master and man in the wide field of our industrialism. So shape our lawi and public opinion as to elevate our regard for honest manual labour, and thus increase the self-re-spect of evury worker. Create by every prober mean: a widespread, social sentiment which respects a man for what lie docs far more than for what he inherits—a social sentiment before which idleness and wasteful extravagance will shrink away ashamed—and by these means achieve that ideal of a true democracy wherein no man will be a sponger, but each will at least pull his own' weight. Cotl Bless the Dominion. This will give 'us the manhood the late. Mr. Scddon sought to produce—at once strenuous, independent, and humane. And if it does that, it matters little whether our wealth per capita remains as it is to-day, the highest in the world, for I join with the late Prime Minister in the view ho expressed shortly before, he died, "that he would rather have this Colony—now Dominion—free' .from unemployed, squalor, misery, and vice, than have it the home of multi-millionaires." The future historian will regard to-day .as the beginning of tho nationhood of New Zealand. I look forward with confidence and hope to that great development of our glorious countrp which will enable it to provide homes for a great population compared with that which now posses it: We must respect the traditions of tho finer side of those who have, by self-sacrifice, and by personal effort, helped to mould tho country as wo now: havo.it, and I am warranted in saying that the Dominion created to-day by the Proclamation of His Majesty tho King will become a greater factor for good, and wo will become, a moro powerful portion of that great British Empire whoso grand old flag wo ell love and revere, and will, not less, but rather the more, be respected through the change in the conditions of this portion of the King's Dominions beyond the seas, and 1 fervently hope that God will bless our new Dominion.'' (Loud and prolonged applause.) The audionco was at length serious and impressed. The great organ, pealed, and the strong choir supported the subtime notes of Handel's " Hallelujah Chorus.!' With the singing of the National Anthem a somewhat striking meeting ended.

MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT ENTERTAINED.. At 12.30 p.m. His Excellency tho Governor entertained the members of tho Legislative Council and the Houso of Representatives in honour of tho day. Apart from members of the Legislature the only persons present .were the members of His Excellency's staff—Captain Uathorno-Hardy, and Lieut. Lyon, A.D.C.'s, and Mr Horace C. Watcrfield (private secretary). The only toasts honoured were "the' King" and ".the Dominion'of New Zealand," both of which were proposed by His Excellency, who, in proposing tho Dominioiij congratulated the Colony on. its elevation, but refrained from making a lengthy speech appropriate to tho occasion on account of the speeches ho was to make during tho , afternoon . and evening. The luncheon was served in the viceregal ballroom, three long tables.having to be requisitioned to accommodate the Dominion's legislators.