The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. MONDAY, MAY 24, 1909. HOLIDAY MAKING A FARCE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2509, 24 May 1909, Page 4

The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. MONDAY, MAY 24, 1909. HOLIDAY MAKING A FARCE.

Our local authorities seem to be so busily engaged quarrelling amongst themselves that they have neither the desire nor the opportunity to carry out some of the most obvious public duties which it should be their privilege, to administer. Thus we find that Empire Day is being allowed to pass by without being commemorated by a public function of any kind, and this at a time when the community as a whole could he more easily stirred by the significance, of the occasion than at any time since the Imperial holiday 'was inaugurated. To-day a public demonstration should have been held in the Domain, and addresses should have been given with the object of impressing upon tho minds of all assembled the worthiness of Imperial ideals and the part that shond be taken by New Zealanders in giving effect to them. There should have been no difficulty in arranging this had the necessary steps been taken in time, and, provided tho affair had been well worked up, in all probability several thousands of people would have attended to witness tho demonstration. Nothing appears to have been arranged in connection with the schools. It is true that this is holiday time for the children, but it should have been possiblo by public announcement Im have, got a largo percentage of scholars to attend and hear from the lips of their teachers and others the moaning and significance of the holiday. The. Greeks and Romans of old elevated patriotism to the level of a religion, and amongst the m:>°t glorious pages of history are, those which tell of the heroic sacrifices raooe by citizens of those ancient empires for the’ sake of their country. With us there seems to ho a marked tendency to neglect such purely sentimental factors in national development, and ,'pou reflection we have to confess that too

'children in our timo are -> l! oved to grow up with the vaguest, if any, notions concerning the pride of ■htizeuship anil nationality. The education of tlio younger generation is of a most exhaustive >and thorough descr-pri ;.i, but occasionally one cannot h?ip the feeling that in many respects the real essentials of national greatness are being missed in our excessive desire t>. /raise, the individual. In this connection it may be suggested that dicn the local schools r©-assemble after the holidays it may not be considered too late to draw tho attention of the Scholars to the wherefore, of the imperial holiday which is being celebrated throughout the Empire to-day. 8o far as tho citizens as a whole arc concerned ho steps are being taken to commemorate the occasion, and tinder the circumstances it is simply a farce that a general holiday should have been, oeclared and business in the town disorganised for no sound reason.