EMPIRE DAY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1555, 25 May 1916, Page 3

EMPIRE DAY.

NEW ZEALAND’S MESSAGE. The following telegram was received recently hy the Prime Minister (the Right Hon. W. E. Massey) from the editor of Land and Water, London :—“Land and Water will publish a special live nation’s number on Empire Day, and is arranging for individual messages form the Prime Ministers id’ the live nations. Should greatly appreciate a message from yon on what New Zealand is doing to win the wav and consolidate the Empire." In resonse to this request, Mr Massey despatched the following message : —“ln the cause of liberty and freedom, for which Britain has drawn the sword, our Dominion's sons are taking their place in the tiring line, and will continue to do so until a dual and decisive victory comes. Fifty-five thousand sturdy New Zealanders have already responded to the call of duty, more are coming, and reinforcements will regularly go forward. On this anniversary of Empire Day the world beholds the British Nation more lirmly united than at any time in its past history. Reverses, when they occur, serve only to strengthen our determination to win this war at all costs, and New Zealand along with the other overseas Dominions, taking pride in her loyalty and devotion to King and country, will not relax her efforts now or after the war to ensure for all time the safety and integrity of the Empire.—W. F. MASSEY, Prime .Minister.” KIPLING’S MESSAGE. ' London, May 2d. Mr Rndyard Kipling has written an Empire Day message : “When Germany challenged us to hold up with the lives and ideals by which we. professed to live, we accepted the. challenge, not out of madness, nor for glory or gain, but to make good those professions. Since then the Allies and our Empire have fought that they may be free from the intolerable domination of German ideals. We did not forsee the size of the task when the .war opened, but we do not 11 inch from it now. Long months have .schooled us to a full knowledge, and tempered us, nationally and individually, to meet it. ‘■‘The nations within the Empire have created, maintained, and reinforced from their best great armies. They are devoted without question to this issue. They have emerged one by one as powers clothed with power - through discipline and sacrifice, strong for good by the hitter knowledge of the evil they are meeting, and wise in the unpurchasable wisdom of actual achievement, knowing as nations what it is we fight for, and realising as men and women the resolve that has been ■added to us by what each lias endured. We go forward now under the proud banner of our griefs and losses to greater effort and endurance, and, if need be, heavier sacrifice, equal for the de--•liverance of mankind.'