CAPTAIN HALSEY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1744, 8 May 1913, Page 5

CAPTAIN HALSEY.

. . 'ADDRESS TO 3000 CHILDREN. :' (By Telegraph.—Prefa Association.) , . ;■ - '■-. ' Auckland, May 7: • . An address was given by Captain Halssy in :the Town Hall to-day to a gathering 1 of 3000 school children. His Excellency the Governor was present, as -was also .the Hon. H. D. Bell, Acting-Minister for Education; - •; . .• Captain. Halsey expressed pleasure at, hiving an opportunity of addressing such a large gathering of young New Zcalanders as was there assembled. Tho subject ■of his remarks that morning, ho said, was to bb "Patriotis-n." In 1769 Captain Cook visited Povertv Bay, and afterwards went to Mercury Bay and plantedthe Union Jack, which had ilown <ver New Zealand ever since. In 1810, whfen the Treaty of 'Waitangi was signed, every person in New Jfealaiid ■ becamo a member of /the great British. Empire. All those ■ who had come to Npw Zeatand from afar wero Englishmen,' and they should be proiul of. it. . What, he asked, was the .Union Jack? It meant "union," and "union" meant ."strength.",. They must have strength in .the Empire to keep that Union Jack.floating over every one of their shores—his and theirs..; Their ancestors had slaved to make the Empire what it was, and but foT .that great effort they (tlio young peoplte) could not ,havo been to well and- happy ns he found them in this great Dominion (Of New Zealand. The duty of the present {feneration;was to follow in the footsteps m their Ancestors, and ho urged them to give soms'small, portion of each - day to thoughts about Imperialism. In explaining t® Union Jack, Captain Halsey point- ; ed out tho three crosses of St. George, St. JPatrick, and St. Andrew. Ha urged that When' the younr pedple «aw tho_ Union Jack they should remember what it symbolised. Captain Halsey then . related "some stirring examples of truo manly discipline as displayed by Britishers, both .■ashore and afloat, and concluded by a touching reference to.the heroism displayed by members of tho Scott Antarctic pairty,. Those men had shown the courago that every Britisher should have, and th?y had facea death nobly. "It was," he declared,- "a true exaitpfe of British' manliness." The fathers and mothers of those (pressnt , had given ,up much, to contribute 'to tho g'reat-battlteship'which-'he had the honour to command, and from what ho had seen .while in New Zealand ho felt that they wero prepared to do more. The children should'prepare themselves to do likewise; and they could only do that by jiving the lives that their King'expected them to live. The speaker- also referred to the grand part which New Zealand had ftlayed in the. South African war. - At the conclusion of his addTe-ss, Captain •Halsey was heartily, checectl by the Children.