Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1908. SALUTING THE FLAG.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 43372, 12 September 1908, Page 2

Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1908. SALUTING THE FLAG.

I his above all—to thine own self be true , \nd it must follow as the night the day Thou canst not then be false to any man Shakespeare.

It has been decreed that the first anniversary of the proclamation of New Zealand as a Dominion should be celebrated by the Dominion school children in the same spirit as Empire Day. That is to say, the saluting of the flag combined with cadet corps exercises are to be a principal part of the celebrations. We are glad to note the freedom from parochialism, and the spirit of Imperialism indicated by this decree. There can be no doubt in thoughtful minds as to the value of impressing upon the young of the community imperial ways of regarding things, of imparting to them a true knowledge of the principals upon which the Empire has been founded, and the practices to which the Empire owes all that is best in her history. Moreover, the inculcation of a living aDG potent loyalty, first to the Empire and next to the Dominion, is a matter which falls with entire naturalness within the scope of the schoolmaster, and for this reason the master is daily dealing with the two subjects which tend to impress upon the child-mind a practical impression as to the growth and expansion of the Empire, namely history and geography. The great schools of the Old World have their traditions, and if ought to be a tradition with every school in the Dominion to be jealous for Briton’s honour and prosperity. Our children ought to be made to feel that New Zealand owes her importance upon the map of the World to the importance of another island on the upper side of that same map. They ought to imbibe almost without knowing it *a profound, yet intelligent, reverence for the British Constitution, and a jealousy for the maintenance of British institutions and ideals which would make it impossible to hear these institutions and ideals lightly spoken of. That it lies peculiarly within the power of the teachers of the Dominion to promote this principle ,of loyalty i 3 open to observation. Only the other day the writer heard a young collegian say, “ I went to school at such and such a school,” naming one of our large public schools, “ and I don’t think you could have a more loyal man than Mr So and So,” naming the master, “ he so thoroughly drilled into us the spirit of loyalty that I cannot bear to hear England spoken against.” The writer had been struck with the ardent spirit of loyalty manifest at different times in the speaker, whose feeling now rose, under provocation, to vc hemenence. And the schoolmasters influence was a very large part of the author of it. Only impress upon the young idea of the Empire what the “ Flag ” stands for, that it represents law, justice, liberty to the well-doer, restraint to the evil-doer, protection to the weak, and the promotion of all good causes, and the Empire’s prosperity will be assured. Do not let us allow the saluting of the flag to degenerate into the adoration of a fetish, but let the children imbibe the principles which the flag represents, and a feeling of loyalty for the King Peacemaker and diplomatist who represents the Empire, and we shall be safe from the charge of tintrumpeting and parochialism, which there can be no doubt we have to some extent foolishly incurred in the past.