The Daily News. FRIDAY, JUNE 13, 1913. THE FAMILY CIRCLE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 11, 13 June 1913, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, JUNE 13, 1913. THE FAMILY CIRCLE.

Lord Chelmsford, one-time Governor of ; Queensland, speaking M flte Australian banquet in London, on Tuesday, ex- ; pressed liis intense gratification at the lead Australia was giving to the Mother Country in connection with defence. Incidentally, he is reported to have expressed the hope that Englishmen would come to realise that everyone ought to sacrifice himself for his country, and follow the excellent -example that was being set by Australia. Presumably, Lord Chelmsford used the word Australia in a generic sense, and intended to include New Zealand, for we give place to no colony where loyalty and practical assistance to the Umpire are concerned. But we often suffer from this generalisation, for numbers of people in the Old \Yorld arc accustomed to consider that New Zealand is a mere suburb of Australia, and that the good folks of Wellington and Auckland often rise early enough to slip across by ferry boat to Melbourne or Sydney in time for breakfast. The misconception does not matter a very great deal, except in so far as having been the first of the oversea dependencies to give a lead in the matter of Imperial defence wo should'at least reap what little credit is due' to us for our loyalty, and our ready expenditure of money. We have paid dearly enough in men and money for our patriotism to be more widely recognised, and, of course, the visit ot the Dreadnought to our seas.will.do much to broaden tho knowledge of ou-r*(achievements and our potentialities, and to create for us a distinctiveness that will prevent our being haphazardly classified in the British rfiind as part of Australia. These traditions die very hard, and the slipshod methods of colonial statesmen at Home do not help to disabuse the minds of our i kindred of the misconception. In conInection with this subject we are glad to learn by cable that it is the intention f { of the Government to a Bill providing for Empire naturalisation. The object of the measure is, of course,_ to permit any naturalised subject, or subject by birth or residence, in any of the oversea colonies, becoming automatically naturalised in any other portion of the Empire. The Bill is not essential to our industrial well-being, but it is one of those little efforts'.«to -bring us all intd au closer federation, which in their turn count for a great deal, and help towards our achieving that ideal which will allow s T a federated Empire to stand fearlessly 1 "four-square to all the winds that blow" as an impressive and unconquerable ijnity. The text ljiay seem a light one, but it is these little things that.count in Empire-building. We are a contented Dominion, self-wrapped to a certain extjmt, but when the children are being al- , lotted their places at the general table 5 \\V do not intend to meekly submit to being told to "Ukcpiil' pudding and go into the other 'room." We have npt merited aiiy such oversight, nor do we see that there is any particular reason why we should.bo asked to sit in the lap of Australia. We ...can run our own little islands ndmirrtbly,! so far as our | domestic relations are concerned, but I We have certainly earned the right to a' wider recognition in the family circle than some of our brother? and siiiWs | are disposed to extend to us.