N Z CRICKETERS ENTERTAINED

Hokitika Guardian, 6 October 1927, Page 4

N Z CRICKETERS ENTERTAINED

I .MI'EH lAL OBLIGATIONS. LONDON. Au«. 2-1. Previous to the mutch against- Lancashire, tTie New Zealand cricket team was entertained at dinner at the Midland Hotel. Manchester, by Sir Edwin ail'd Lady Stockton. Sir Edwin is one of the leading merchants of the city, and a cricket enthusiast. Among the speakers was Air J. . H. Thomas, A11.1’., who supported Sir Edwin Stockton’s toast of the New Zealanders.

Air Thomas said the New Zealand team had more than justified their existence, and had surprised many people by their achievements. They came from a Dominion which understood what cricket meant, and what playing the game implied. That Dominion demonstrated so much by the love, sacrifice, and devotion it showed in the hour of Great Britain's need. UNION .TACK GREATER THAN PARTY.

He supposed there was no other word in sporting terminology which implied so much as the word cricket. It would he a profound mistake to assume that cricket merely meant a hat and a hall. Whatever our sphere in life, whatever role we were called upon to play, so long as we could lie Satisfied that we had i; -’■■ved cricket” little else mattered. We could never play cricket for ourselves; only for our team. Tn honouring the visitors from New Zealand they should not forget they were honouring a people who formed part of the British Empire.

He only wanted to tell their New Zealand iriends one thing; they honoured the Union .lack, which was the symbol of the Empire, and whatever they might he told or read in the Press they must not assume that the flag was it ho monopoly of any one political party. The Union .lack was something bigger and nobler than any political party. The British Empire constituted onc-lourth of the globe, and included one-fourth of the world s population. The white section of the Empire’s population had played a great part in the world’s history.

UNEMPLOYMENT AND THE EAIPIRE. At the moment, one question irnuhl•ed ids mind, and it was essentialy an Empire problem. There were at lead one million British people killed in the war; there were a million unemployed ; and there were more people employed to-day than in 191-1, while the birth-rate exceeded the death-rate considerably. Now, these facts suggested one or two things: birth control or a larger conception ol Imperial relations and obligations. In other words, the problem of unemployment was not merely a problem for this country, lud for flic v Empire. \\ e had got lo draw still closer the bonds of Empire. He looked hack with pride to the time when he was Colonial Minisl'V. m 1

believed it was good that a me oil -r ol a new party should cv-rupy such a position, and so demonstrate tlial concern for the Empire was not exclusively the feeling of one ne.rlv. He wanted to see the bonds of Emuim strengthened. He wanted to see the*, great game of cricket played in every sphere of life. Now, whatever the financial resell t of the New Zealand cricket er’s tour might ha, mattered little. Tie hulked upon it- as he Icok'-d up ui Vi civd-lcv. and he always n fimed to measure ' SIK‘( (\SS Wembley by pounds, shillings. and pence. Pounds, shillings, and pence were important, hut they were not so important as investments of love, duty, and obligation to a heritage of which they were nil proud.