NEED FOR RELIANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 133, 7 June 1932, Page 6

NEED FOR RELIANCE.

NEW ZEALAND WORKERS. (To the Editor.) May I explain to "J.B."' that he failed to construe my letter correctly ? Carelessness' was my main theme. 1 did not say I worked' for fourteen hours a day for live shillings * week in England. 1 raid that 1 lived on less' than that amount. A very different matter.' I did it because I wanted to pay my creditors' in full, but I did not let the world hear me 1 whining. You people of New Zealand are'' placed in a similar position to thr.t of myself, 1 but whereas my misfortune was due to the' outbreak of' war and circumstances which I could not help, many of your troubles have been brought about by your own foolishness' and extravagant living. Your lack of initiative and individual effort are. reprehensible and' you allow yourselves to be. fed with the sop of Government legislation. Hardship and' individual effort can alone develop character. 1 To have individual responsibility removed' from the shoulders of the people is demoralising and debilitating, and however earnest and great your Governments they cannot make you: you must make yourself. You are simply wallowing in protective legislation,' and no doubt this i>s the reason for you feeling so weak in backbone. It is here in New. Zealand to-day that I work twelve, fourteen, sixteen, and sometimes eighteen, hours a day,' But I love work, and life is so short." To be really happy in life you must seek to put as much into it as you can during the short space of man's allotted span. When I have stood before some of those magnificent Continental buildings, built many hundreds of years ago, I have thought how great must have been the love of the artisans of those days for their work, which was to stand so proudly for eenturios. I would that we all to-day could have so great a love for our work, however humble the sphere. Life was meant to be a battle ground for every one of us. A battle for achievement. Tor twenty years I have striven to realise my ambition; maybe another twenty years will pass before I reach inv goal. But I am ever looking forward, striving to overcome the dilliculties which ?ross my path. When I reach the winning post I can look hack and say, "By my own L'ffort have I run thus race." OBSERVER,