The Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 1907. BRITISH AT HEART.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3743, 26 January 1907, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 1907. BRITISH AT HEART.

Coming from Canada to Australia the first thing that struck Mr Ramsay Mcdonald was the English aspect of everything. “You have,” he writes, ‘‘to search in Canada for Great Britain; Great Britain seems to be stamped from one end of this continent to another. On the tables of the Parliament lie those little greenbound books containing our House foCommons’ Standing Orders ; the newspapers in type and get-Up might have been sub-edited and printed in Fleet-street. I landed in Queensland to .hear the echoes of a great controversy about teaching the Bible In schools; in an hour’s talk with Cardinal Moran, Irish Home Rule and religious education were the topics discussed ; the habits, the speech, the dress, the ‘ cut ’ of the people make me forget that I am five weeks away from British shores. But one must be careful in interpreting the meaning of this. I heard a great deal about the Imperialist pride of Australia." before I left. I have found none of it. When the Australian is left alone to follow the bent of his instinct, he ,thinks and acts upon British axioms. His subconscious self lives and moves and has its being ai“Home.” But challenge him to think about his political life and Repress it, and he instantly blushes, t|r hjs colonialism. He theta be-

whose destiny is Australia’s future. He then cannot help seeing how much clay there is in our Imperial fleet. Not so many years ago, the growing sense of rational life within him naturally demanded an extreme expression, and he talked of separation and . an Australian republic. That epoch has gone, although Mr Chamberlain and the South African war very nearly revived it. Now, a quiet feeling in favour of unity with the Old Country is general. It is not an active factor in politics. It is rather like the homage which well-toned youth pays to respectable age. It can never stand in the way of growth : it cannot be woven into leading strings; it cannot be forged into bonds. When it appears on political programmes, it is used only to serve partisan ends.”