Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1908. OURSELVES THE MOTHERLAND.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 43368, 5 September 1908, Page 2

Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1908. OURSELVES THE MOTHERLAND.

I his above all—to thine'own self be true, And 1 1 must follow as the night the dag Ihou canst not then be false to any man Shakespeare .

It is a fact unfortunate for ourselves as a dominion, and also for the Motherland, that New Zealand is not better represented at the FrancoBritish Exhibition. For seeing is believing ” , and though we are told by a prominent British journalist that “ the most appalling ignorance exists everywhere in the United Kingdom as to the extent and ini* portanceof our Empire over sea ” , and that, “ In the Post Office Caristmas postage lists we find the only patriotic publicity of the names of our sixty colonies, ” would certainly have done much to mitigate this acute ignorance had We but taken the opportunify plentifully to declare and demonstrate to the people at home what we are capable of producing. The British consumer may go on indefinitely consuming our butter and mutton without these commodities ever introducing into his unreceptive brain on thought to the immence productive capabilities of a country territorially insignificant compared with Canada or Australia. If he is extravagently uninformed he, ( or rather she ) may even entertain damaging prejudices, not to call them superstitions on the subject of New Zealand produce like the girl who complained that in one family where she lived they actually “ate New Zealand mutton and yet had family prayers! ” Wecannotattach undue importance to such grotesque disclosures of crass ignorance, though the one quoted was related to the writer v by a lady j ust from Home. But if the declarations of the above-quoted journalist are to be accepted England is very far from “ feeling ” as “ imperially ” as she ought to feel, to transpose a great phrase. Great Britain can not claim to have grasped the immense significance to herself of the eversea territories until she shows herself as resolved to become acquainted with the manner and rate of their development, and the economic value to herself of that development, as she has shown herself resolved to retain possession of them. We have proved to the world that our sms would die at the Empire’s call, we would repeat that object lesson were the call repeated. But we would like the motherland to show a more personal interest in us alive than dead, believing that we are of more value to her as citizens of the Empire than as corpse, that the growth of our industries and the exploitation of our recources, are as important to her as to us, and though we regret that we have not been better represented at the FrancoBritisli Exhibition perhaps the defect is partly due to want of interest on the part of the Homeland.