PATRIOTIC ESSAYS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1299, 19 September 1914, Page 4

PATRIOTIC ESSAYS.

BY LOCAL STATE SCHOOL CHILDREN. The following are the three prize essays written by scholars of the local State school on the subject, “Why Now Zealand hoys and girls should be I'aliiotie." based upon an mUlicn-s drlivrird at the school by Mr IVyubm. EM, ; First Prize. —Sa ram 1 1 kn i• k r son (St. V,). There are a grout many tenuous why we should bo patriotic. Hist of all, we live in a country where it is warm and sunny in summer and not very cold in wilder. In a country like this wo can grow nearly everything the world produces. In New Zealand the average deaths of children about one year of age are sixty, while in Russia it is live hundred, in Austria the same, Germany two hundred and fifty, and Britain two hundred. Our moderate climate helps the children to be healthy and happy. When the colonies were first brought under British rule, very few people cared to lace the long journey by sea which had to be made in sailing ships, as there were no steamers then, and then to encounter the hostile •natives and many other dangers on shore. The boys and girls oi New Zealand are descended irom these brave people, and they also should be brave and do all they can to help their country and Empire. Then we have our schooling, and if we show we have abilities we are allowed a certain amount of free training after we leave school. In other countries poor children do not have the same chance of training as we do. The children of New Zealand are the happiest in the world, because they are healthy and free, and have everything they need or want. The British Empire is the greatest the world has ever known, and we should be proud of it, not only because it is toe biggest but because its power is used in good causes. The soldiers and sailors belonging tu the Empire are fighting for their country and risking great dangers, and we should do everything we can to help and en courage them. When we belong to such a great Empire we should try to uvihem it in its time of need, and though we cannot go and fight, there are a great many little things we can do to help it.

Second Prize. —C. Emvton (St. V.). Children of New Zealand should be very patriotic. There are many reasons .vby we should be patriotic. In the first place New Zealand is the healthiest country in the world. Only about sixty out of every thousand babies that ate born in New Zealand die ; in some countries, such as Russia and Germany, between two hundred and fifty and five hundred die. Secondly, we are the best people in the world. Not a hundred years ago, when there were very few people living in New Zealand, people Irom England, and only the best and pluckiest of them, came out to New Zealand to make new homes. They had to chance, when coming out that great distance, being lost or wrecked in their frail sailing vessels, and when they did reach their destination they had to lace the savage natives. New Zealand, again has a beautiful climate. It is not like the climate of some countries, where little children die with the heat of summer, and in winter die with the cold. England also allows New Zealand to make her own laws, and these laws are very good ones, too. We have never any trouble with suffragettes

here because all women over twenty-one years of age have the right to vote. The British Empire is the largest in the world, Oueli ft I* of the world's population is under British Rule, and we want Id keep our power. We, in New Zealand, feel indebted to England for what she has done for us, aud we try to repay her as best we can. In lime of war we send her troops, ami as a present we gave her the money to build a battle-cruiser. Sueli little advantages help the Empire very much. Third Prize. —A. Chari.es (St. VI.) There are a great number of reasons why New Zealand boys aud girls should be patriotic. First aud foremost, our country is the best aud richest for its size in the world. Let us look and see why this is. We have au excellent government, based on justice, fairness aud the giving of men, whether rich or poor, equal rights, and also the giving of people, no matter to what nation they belong, freedom of worship. Another thing is that the climate is temperate aud that the produce is, in many ways, superior to other countries, and also that the death roll is the smallest in the world, beiug only about 6o in every xooo babies born. We should not be proud of our couutry or be patriotic because our Empire is a great and powerful one, but because ills a good oue. Let us take a few instances and see why it is good. First of all let us take the Canadian fisheries. When Canada was taken from the French, the French people iu Canada were allowed to keep up their own customs aud ,vays of worship and a treaty was signed between Britain and France allowing the French people to catch the cod fish which are so abundant iu Canadian waters. Now, when this treaty was being drawn up iu Latiu, the monk who was writing it did not like the Lathi word for cod, so he put the La fin word for fish and this caused a loc of trouble by the French , 'ople catching other kinds of fish j sucii as salmon, but all through this trouble Britain did not break her treaty. Auother reason why we should be patriotic is because ot the trouble into which our Empire has now been plunged all because Germany has broken her treaty iu failing to protect the neutrality of Belgium, so we must be patriotic by helping to protect this neutrality which we can do by helping to seud the soldiers to the iront and by subscribing to the fund for relieving the people of Belgium. A great act ot patriotism a short time ago was the presentation to the Empire's naval fleet of the battle cruiser New Zealand. “Be Patriotic.”