MAKING THE WORLD SAFE

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4668, 29 February 1924, Page 4

MAKING THE WORLD SAFE

LABOUR IN ENGLAND. EXPERIENCE OF NEW ZEALAND. In an address given at the Unitarian Church, Wellington, the Rev. G. W. Ellis passed some observations upon the position in England at the present time. He had spoken of periods of “nightly gloom” which had come and gone through the ages, emphasising tlie fact that the darkness of night was always followed by the morning.

After the war tlie day had broken, ami witli the dawning day had come the task of reconstruction, the clarion ca’l to duty. During the days of the war, and right on till now, men had talked, and were still talking, of “making the world safe for democracy.” No nation had done more no nation has done as much as Eligland for such an end. She had not boasted of liberty, equality, and fraternity. but had gone on steadily through the ages, .suffering the ebb flow of the tide until little by little the power—sometimes most unworthily . wielded—had slipped out of the hands of the king into the hands of the people, and while there were some who could not distinguish between democracy and republicanism tlie securest throne in the world to-day was that of England, which stood “broadbased upon her people’s will,” and the proudest boast of the sons of the Empire was her constitutional government.

REMEMBER THESE MEN. Now certain folk within the Empire professed to be greatly concerned occause oy a strange upheaval of political life at Home a Labour Government was in office. There were dismal forebodings, but he had no great fears of evil consequences. There were, thousands in New Zealand who bad scarcely heard of John Ballance, Richard John Seddon, and John McKenzie. Perhaps the past had too strong a grin upon him, but it sometimes made his blood boil when he heard people speak of affairs in the Dominion as though these men had never lived and a° though the influence they excrciseo and the good they wiought in these islands was a very little thing. If a Labour Government in England could do for England what these men did for New Zealand, then they should be encouraged to proceed with their work, helped by every man who had the true interests of the Empire at heart. “QUOTE PAUL, MR MASSEY.” More important than party was the true instinct of Roman citizenship, where "no man stood for party, and all were for the State ; when the ricn man loved the poor man, and the poor man loved the great.” Mr Massey struck such a note in his recent address in the Town Hall, and the speaker felt like calling out to him : “Quote Paul, Mr Massey.” Paul’s utterance was: “For the body is not one member, but many, and the eye cannot say to the hand, have no need of thee’; or again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’ If one member is honoured all the members' rejoice with it, and though we be many members we are all one body.” That was the secret to true advance-, nient and general well-being, and whether it be in England or in New Zealand, or throughout the Empire, oneness of spirit and singleness of purpose and aim was the all-conquer-ing method of achievement.