The Scheme of Things

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 109, 4 November 1939, Page 19

The Scheme of Things

B* M.M.O.

Criticism is not always either pleasant or welcome. At the same time, it has certain uses, and one is to let the people in a country know how they are regarded outside their own coasts. Two rather curious criticisms have been heard in one day by a person who' is always ready to . gather information and learn what people are thinking about. One of these criticisms was overheard in a dining-room. It was to the effect, first, that a great many young aliens had ;. come into the country lately from X various parts of the world. When the was asked if he had any objections his reply was that in many . ways they were very welcome, and he , was glad that this country could give •"■ some friendly assistance to them —but! ■ "But what?" he was asked. The reply was that the young New Zealanders growing up now were being so pampered in many ways, not only as small . children'; but as adolescents, and he feared that the incomers, having known very hard times, having been '. ; educated on more strenuous systems, and not being in the least afraid of i\ hard work, would "edge out our young 'ones in the years to come by sheer i'" force of industry and character." It was a. statement that gave the person } sitting nearby food for thought, and '■ it, was not possible to prove the speaker to be. entirely in the wrong. ;;■' To be always being "spoonfed," first of all in. the educational world and .later having a plethora of holidays and ? amusements, is riot likely to bring out ,\the'strength of character that would ;ii, naturally be gained by those who had ■^ had"/to endure real hard times and have. come bravely . through much suffering. A New: Zealand girl, writing from the Sorbonne in. Paris recently, ;' remarked on the intense ; severity of. study required there, and also on the lack of assistance given1 to students. Most difficult lectures were given by the professorial staff, and the students had to do the best I they could with them; there was no one to whom they could go for advice or explanation. She had been study- ., ing in Australia first, and found Paris a;, mightily, different proposition. Howevfer, she did credit to all her instructors, for she. produced one of the prize theses of the year, and went through altogether in a most creditable manner... But she. urged on anyone going to a foreign university that the work, was most intensive, and took : every atom of effort a student could .make if he or.'she•■were going to do any.good. , Even in amusements the V. acme of effort had to be made. These things certainly prepare students to ;. be excellently educated people to -begin With. People who would not have any time for slackers in the earlier. stages of life would certainly not have any time for them later oh. One of the speakers at the gathering I referred to remarked that in his ■;■• opinion there was a large section of people who simply "lived for Friday," .and yet when Monday came were noti at all ready to put forth then* best efforts in whatever kind of work they -'might be engaged. ":." -A recent arrival.from England stated p>: that;:?she:;had been told th!at the New |* Zealanders nowadays were not what .could be called people" either in ~ character ; or in any other way. She £ had ',-jpead a... good deal in the dailies y about happenings in this country, and :g she was disappointed in! the physique. :■;■ While ■■■^fmpixg' to-, defend New' ZeaI** l9^&^Mk^passuxeriar-visitctz "that -; thingsivwl^'-nbjf so bad as. had been !;: .staisd^J^tfi^^'fa^jtimti/iS^i^ ;-:the • storleki>ic^:'^^ts:^'dr'iwkeitoei^'''^vbrce, &:. iriimoraHty,. and '.v;-those^thirigsV which .;., comeiwithin reach of the-law, there is V: a lack of moral fibre» undoubtedly; "'. Pleasures:of all kinds hold -first.sways' ~; the churches are largely neglected; it , is possible to hdar on many sides of - lack of energy, or generosity in work. A man speaking to men. recently said: ; "There is,, today an unwholesome and :{; erroneous tendency to believe that less" }; work and more wages' make for real '[% happiness. . . . Nothing :is: further (from the truth. • Life hands out re■r wards in. exact proportion to the real efforts made towards a real objective.