HIS MESSAGE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 12 May 1925, Page 5

HIS MESSAGE

EXTRACTS FROM SPEECHES ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS New Zealanders must he a free people now and in the future, and will, as the poet puts it-, look up to their hills and thank Heaven the land is free—- “ Free as the torrents are that leap our ■rocks, And plough our valleys without asking leave; Or as our peaks that wear their caps of snow, In every presence of the regal sun.” New Zealand can take pride in the knowledge that it. is building up a new nation in the Pacific —a nation made up of the island race which during the last thousand years has been such an important influence in the happiness and welfare of humanity. Wc have scarcely got beyond tho stage of laying the foundations for a new' nation, but the good work continues.

We must see that due and proper encouragement is given to all those factors essential for the spread of that righteousness which the best authority in the universe tells us “exalteth a rca- *. on.” and we have always to hear ;r. mind that if success is to attend «ur aims and ambitions we must do unto others as we would that they should do unto us.

The country at the present moment wants men who will look to the future, who will think not only of the -present hut of the future.; it- wants New Zealanders who believe in New Zealand, and who 1 believe that New Zealand is the best country in tli6 world. But it wants levelling up rather than levelling down; the country wants men who wil encourage true citizenship, encourage industry, enterprise, and energy. I say they are looking for such qualities as thf’se—qualities that wm raise the Dominion to the front rank of progress and civilisation.

In this country, I think, it- is possible, exccput in cases oY misfortune, for everyone to improve his position, and in many cases to acquire a competence.

W e have been taken into partnership —I am speaking from the Dominions point of view—?by the Government and the people of Great Britain. That partnership has been officially recognised. They say to us of the overseas Dominions, “Aou have done your duty during the most serious crisis that the Empire has ever experienced, and having done your duty as citizens of the British Empire you are entitled to. all the privileges of citizenship, and we ask you to come and take them.”

We, in New Zealand, have our little differences with regard to political matters occasionally—we hear complaints about the cost of hi vug, increased taxation. and other things—but, for all that, 1 believe there are very few people in New Zealand who do not put the public good—the country’s good and the Empire’s good—before anything in the way of personal benefit. And I hope and believe that in years to come, when this war will appear u> the people of this country only like the memory of an evil dream. New Zealand citizens of those times —twenty-five or thirty years from now, perhaps—will be able to look hack with pride upon the position taken up by the citizens of New Zealand during the years of war.

I admit that women are mentally the equal of men —many of them are superior to men. As soon as women show that they are anxious to take part in The legislative duties of the colony, then I will support such a measure. But 1 also agree with the hen. member lor Bruce m thinking chat women have other duties —duties which " are more important to them than public ones their domestic duties; and I think, further, that the better women are the move closely will they attend to their domestic affairs and relations.

We hear it said that it is impossible for a man oil £ISOO a year to attend those great Imperial functions we hear about ; but. 1 say this —and 1 am as much an Imperialist as most people, and perhaps more' than most people: I sav the colony can prove its loyalty quite as well if we are represented in London by a plain, straight-going business man as we can by a man who is anxious to hobnob with the British aristocracy and who wears a Windsor uniform on every ; ossible occasion.

Wo sometimes grumble, and say that the people on the other side of the world do- not know us well enough. I know there was no schoolboy on tho other side of the water who did not know of the All Blacks.