We have finished our history for the present, and traced it in rapid outline for thirty years. With the benefits we are enjoying from it, the enjoyment must not induce forgetfulness of the brave men who laid the foundations of our little kingdom, for such it is. We enter into their labours, but we will do so with gratitude, and not indifference. Their memory deserves more than a mere casual place with us. We should not be true men if we gave it only that. Let us remember that in reality the position we have realised and the solidity of our Association have been won and made possible by their spirit and foresight, and because we have kept ourselves close to the lines of their procedure. Ours is a great organisation, not because of its numbers (bulk may be weakness), but because of its principles. If it were not so, instead of standing out prominently as we do we should be in a dwarfed and stunted condition, and comparatively useless. The structure we now possess has risen by slow growth from very small beginnings and opposing forces. Every new idea, all the teaching of experience, were used as blocks by those patient builders laying the foundation for those who were to follow them. It is true there might be some mistake and bungling in the building. But in spite of these the structure has arisen with solidity, and from the rubble of that time we have reared up great walls and fair outlines, giving promise of future strength, durability, and usefulness. Truly the little one has become a great nation, and the weak one a strong force, and as long as we do not harm ourselves no power outside can.

How shall we show our respect for them? We have no possible way except by carrying on their work and seeking to give effect and volume to it. The end of their policy was reform, not revolution—not only in a political way, but in every direction where it was needed. Every hindrance in the whole round of working conditions was to them an evil, and as such should be removed. Where immediate abolition was not possible they tried to reduce its magnitude. They preached the ideal life, seized the possible, and made the best of circumstances. And is the wisdom of their action not evident? The spasmodic has been succeeded by the settled and the orderly. Where hate was endangering the general weal by its unreasoning action we now have regular business relations. No doubt to many whose main feature is ardency and rush they were slow-paced. These would have gone faster, but there would have been slower progress. To the Israelites Moses was slow-paced, but the wilderness was their portion as a result of their grumbling. There were grumblers in our start from Egypt to a better position (some of them remain to this day), but these are not the spirits who would either lay foundations or rear structures. The live men before us now were not grumblers. They were too busy; the work before them was too imperative. They were discontented; but in essence there is a wide difference between that and a grumbler. Never since the world began has any grievance been removed by the latter class. They may have hindered, but never helped. They are the drags on the wheels, and complain because more speed is not made. The men of 1869 were men of different mettle, or the fear is we should never have had the Association we have, nor stood in the proud position we enjoy among the trades organisations of the nation. We are reaping where they sowed, and while we enjoy the harvest let us remember the sowers.

We have placed their statues in a prominent position; but what do they mean to us? They are reminders of a state of things in a large part passed away, and as suggesters of a hope of a larger life in the future they contain a recognition and a resolve—a recognition of their work and a resolve to carry it forward: a recognition of the debt we owe to them, which can only be paid by service rendered to others. It is a debt which no statue, no matter how costly or lifelike, can liquidate. It can only be paid in kind. That is a truth we should not forget, but on all occasions give expression to. It is that expression which stamps real dignity upon the life of any man. Position, rank, title, wealth are all useless, for the true index is manliness and useful service. The true reformers have been (and are) men who assisted the good and resisted the evil, not simply because it would pay or bring preferment or popularity, but because they felt in their hearts the impulses (and compulsions, if you will) of duty. The love of man constrained them, and the imperative I must forced them onward. The world's progress has not depended on the acts of the so-called great men, but on the endeavours and self-denials of men who were lost often amid the mists and struggles and poverty of life, and to whom its heavy burdens were not theoretical, but terribly near in their contact, and fearful in their weight and trial.

The deeds of the workers of the race are not recorded to decorate history, but for strengthening the generations to come. For such purpose has prominence been given here to our workers. "The measure of a nation's civilisation is the number of the brave men it has had, whose qualities have been harvested for children and youth." We have had our brave men. They did not live to themselves. In this we must be their imitators.