DIOCESE OF CHRISTCHURCH

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 22, 4 June 1908, Page 14

DIOCESE OF CHRISTCHURCH

(From our own correspondent.) June 1. It is stated that possibly after the tour of the British football team is completed Dr. P. F. McEvedy, the vice-captain, will remain in New Zealand. His relatives reside in the Ellesmere district, and for about eight years he has been studying his profession in England. His Lordship Bishop Grimes, one of the selected speakers at the Empire Day demonstration in Victoria Square, addressed the gathering as follows :—' A few days previously a cablegram had come from New York stating that an eminent prelate had said that Canada, Australia, and New Zealand were ripe for revolt from the Empire. He knew that prelate to be a wise, learned, upright man, having at heart the interests of his own country and those of the Empire, and felt sure that he had not uttered the words attributed to him. It was to be hoped that when the denial or explanation came as much publicity would be given to it as had been given to the astounding assertion. ' I remember that just before the outbreak of the war in South Africa I was travelling through Germany, France, and Belgium,' said the Bishop. ' The common topic of conversation was that we in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand were ready to cast off the yoke that bound us to the Mother Country. I denied this, and said that we had no yoke to cast off. We were bound to the Empire by a silken bond, and we had nothing to gain and everything to lose by severing that bond. A greater answer was given when the war broke out. The enthusiasm of the colonies was an ob-ject-lesson to the world, and nowhere was that enthusiasm displayed more strongly than in New Zealand. The flag is not only a sign and signal ; it is a symbol of the love that we bear to our native land. The man who defends that flag defends the life and honor of the nation, and it is well indeed that we should gather round the flag, symbolising all that is great and noble in the Empire to which we belong. The flag stands for discipline, for obedience, for authority, and for respect to authority, and without these there is no possibility of being a true soldier, a true citizen, or a true patriot."'