Why? - Empire Day

Why Empire Day?

'This is the 'Union Jack'; and, now that Empire Day has come round once more, you will like to hear its history. It is really a coloured picture from a history-book, telling of things that happened long, long before you were born'.

New Zealand School Journal, Part I, May 1910

Empire Day had, as the Oamaru Mail remarked on the eve of New Zealand's first such celebration, 'the double purpose of keeping fresh and green the memory of a most illustrious reign and rejoicing in the consolidation of our great Empire'. The reign commemorated was that of Queen Victoria, who died on 22 January 1901.

Canada had honoured the day as Victoria Day since 1901. In Britain, Lord Meath, an absentee Irish landlord and imperial zealot, enlisted the day in his crusade to ensure that 'from their earliest years the children of the Empire should grow up with the thought of its claim upon their remembrance and their service'. Almost single-handedly Meath (who also presided over the Duty and Discipline Movement) created 'an imperial mutual admiration society', the Empire Day Movement.

It found a receptive audience in New Zealand, where imperial confidence was high and many were happy to cultivate the image of Queen Victoria as a benign, motherly figure. Evidence for that can still be found in our main centres, where expensive statues of the Queen/Empress still lord it over prominent public places.