THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, AUGUST 1,1913. THE ETHICS OF EMPIRE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 1 August 1913, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, AUGUST 1,1913. THE ETHICS OF EMPIRE.

In New Zealand, as in other parts of the British Empire, there has in xeoent years been a striking development of what may be termed the "Imperial instinct." The policy of regarding each unit as separate from the other has been abandoned in favour of ai policy which considers every part as of vital importance to the welfare of the whole. So, it happens that the distant parts of the British Empire are being drawn closer together in matters of common interest, and the obligations of Empire are being more fully realised. A very thoughtful and impressive article on the subject appears in the latest issue of the "Round Table."' The writer Bhowts himself conversant with political history and national aspirations. Dealing with the State, he says truly that its end is to make men, and its strength is measured not in terms of defensive armaments or eoonomio prosperity, but by the moral personality of its citizens. The limits to its action are prescribed not by abstract doctrines of non-in-terference, but by the fact that the development of human character depends rather on individual enterprise than 00 governmental ■ regulation. But within these limits the function of the State is 1 positive and ehtical, to secure for its individual members that they shall not merely live, but live well. Aa the writer points out, social reformers are prone to insist too strongly on an ideal of material comfort for the people. This prejuflioft is OMt ot their inheritanoo from

the school of Bentham. A life of satisfaction depends not on higher wages or lower prices, or on leisure for recreation, but <xn work that calls into play the higher capacities of man's nature. The ourse of present-day industrial conditions is their paralysing monotony. They offer little ojv portunity for the- play of human sympathies and human interests. They give but narrow goope for the growth of individual personality. What is essential to that end is an enlarged outlook upon life, and a wide field for individual energy. The cry of the masses should be not for wages or comforts or even liberty, but for opportunities- for enterprise and responsibility. A policy of closer unioa in the Empire i» full of significance in relation to this demand. It promises a life of energetic activity to those who settle in oountries beyond the sea, where capacity and merit are less- hampered! by tradition and social custom- than in England. The writer of the article in the "Round Table" maintains that the British and Colonial democracies alike suffer from political parochialism. Their horizon is too rigidly bounded by their immediate eurironment. . . . There is but one way

of promise. It is that the people® of the Empire shall, realise- their national unity and draw from that ideal an inspiration to oornmon endeavour in the fulfilment of the moral obligations which their membership off tie Empire entails. Tho recogpition ol common Imperial interest in . bound to broaden both' their basis of -pnbiic action and their whole? view" of life. -Publio-life ie ennobled by great causes, and by these .aiaas; - ® it 6© trite : that "a great empire* and' little minds go ill together," it is true; alsa that the conduct of gceafc- affairs 'inspires the imagination and elevates. ' the character of those who share in it. Political corruption, place-hunting, and party intrigue have- their natural hooie in small communities, where attention ia concentrated upon local interests. Great public causes call into being tho intellectual and moral potentialities- of a people*. In such moments the- mediocre politician of yesterday either rises to the occasion or yields: place to statesmen of higher moral quality. Men,.. we or® told:, are made what they art* through membership of the corporate life of the community. Their liberties, their rights, their personality have life and 'being only iin the life and being of the State. The being of the State hr to, be sought not merely in political and administrative institutions, in the tax collector or the policeman, the civil service or the legislature, still less in the- arid 1 formulae of a constitutional 1 treatise, hut in the living spirit of patriotism that kindles men to jealousy, for their country's honour and to sacrifice in their country's cause. The peoples of the Empire are, as: the writer well points out, face to face wrth ai unique and an historic opportunity. It is their mission, to base the policy of a great Empire on the foundations of freer dota and law. It remains for them to crown the structure by the institution of a political union that shall give solidarity to the Empire as a Whole. Duty and the logic of facts alike point this 1 goal 0 f their endeavour. They are bound to go forward or to go back ; and the policy of closer union finds its justification in the faith that will carry it to completion.