To-day's Need For Boys And Girls

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 121, 24 May 1941, Page 1 (Supplement)

To-day's Need For Boys And Girls

OUR fathers and brothers have answered the call of their country and are serving with the forces at home and overseas. Sisters and mothers, too, are employed behind the scenes in factories, on committees or in one of the several voluntary aid units. All of us want to do something to help even if we are small and the help we can give not large.

"What can we do?" often not expressed in words, is the cry in the minds of many young neople. It is the cry of the twelve to sixteen-year-olds, as much as that of the sixteen to nineteen-year-olds. That there is a job for everyone is as definite as it is true: but. it is not a "job" in the ordinary sense of the word—neither is it a task which can he carried out without considerable preparation. The duty which falls on to the shoulders of the young people of to-day will not be carried out for many years, but preparation for it must commence to-day. Reduced to a few words, the responsibility upon us is to prove ourselves worthy of the almost unbelievable sacrifices which are being made, to-day in our name. And there is much, very much, implied by that short statement. It. demands an inquiry into our present actions as well as those in the future: it demands that we develop now, irl small ways, the habit of giving service to others; it demands a tightening up of our standard of behaviour and selfcontrol; it demands a know ledge of self that we may understand others. In the dictator countries of the world these things and more are demanded of youth. This is discipline imposed front without. But we must be greater than that—our discipline must come from within; it must arise voluntarily and freely because we believe with every fibre of our being that it is the right thing t'o do. More, because we realise that . according to the way we shape our lives, so are we fashioning the standard and the outlook of the world. Have you ever realised that you and your actions can affect the whole world? Do you realise that, whilst you cannot alter the present world, you can bring about a new world which will be happier, safer and sweeter for you and for the millions that follow you? Lesser things supply us with proof of the force of individual effort; we see it is school life. We will imagine that the prefects are a weak lot who have fallen into ways and habits which do not reflect credit upon the school and which give rise to oppression and unhappiness among the weaker ones. Seeing this, some of the more decent ones decide to take a hand. Quietly and without display they set to work to create a new code, to tighten up discipline and set a new tone. Just a handful at first, but soon the ranks swell. Like a snowball the new code gains in popular favour. At the end of the year the old prefects leave and the keenest ones of the new code take their place. With understanding and sympathy they spread the new idea, and even before it is realised the whole tone and outlook of the school has altered. In just the same way a new nation, a new world will be born when the youth of to-day, prepared for the task which they undertake as a solemn duty in order to acknowledge the sacrifices made for them by their fathers, take over the reins in the years to come. The difficulties that lie in the way of attainment of this objective will be legion. It will take stout hearts and real courage to see the job through. But the biggest battles will be the early battles. The great Roman Empire fell not so much because the men gave themselves over to a life of ease, as because the race of boys and girls growing up to replace them was also prepared to accept a life of personal comfort. It is ever the task of the young to supply a nation with new virile blood. If they fail in that"task, then the nation must surely falL

With the factories of destruction working twenty-four hours a day— with whole nations of peoples dissolving in a night—with a war-mad turmoil in almost every corner of the earth — there devolves a challenging duty upon the youth of the world to-day. What is this national service for youth?

When this war is over a i taction will set in. just as it did after the last Avar. Men who have been fighting in nightmare conditions, who for years have been under a si rain so terrific that it has to be undergone to be understood, are going to return to a strange world of peace. Little peace of mind will they find There. Restless, nervy and .-shaken, they will find it a mighty struggle to settle down to normal life once more: women folk, released from the strain of work, worry and anxiety, will join the men in turning towards artificial pleasure in order to soothe jangled nerves. Strong indeed must be the young person who. seeing these things, will not himself turn to the life of pleasure, "if we arc prepared to see it through, and steeled for what :s to come, all will be well, but there is danger that the youth of to-day. whilst realising the problems that have to be faced, may persuade itself into imagining that when the time comes it will be ready to face up to the situation. When that time does come it may be too late. Youth grown to manhood will have slid into the same state of mind as those whose faults they had determined not to copy. Youth must prepare itself now. Even. now we do not trust ourselves too well. Are we not soft? We live in a world of comfort, of ease, even of luxury. There is nothing Spartan about a race that merely reaches for an electric switch to attain every comfort the world can give—heat, food, music: even our entertainment is presented to us in ready made form under conditions which demand the minimum of exertion on our part. If this is so. then, can we not realise that it must have a direct affect upon our character: must it not be sapping at the very roots of our manhood? What then is the remedy? If it is our task to stiffen the nation, then first we must stiffen ourselves. Here is no plea for Puritan life, but rather a call that we should face facts, strip aside the veil that dims our vision and see ourselves as we are. Painful as the process may be, in it lies the salvation of our self-respect and that of the world to come. Oh, wad some power the giftie gie us, To see oorsels as ithers see us. Here, then, are the essentials. First we must examine ourselves —don't worry about the other fellow, but inquire into our own lives and with clear vision see where we are heading. Then, like the man who would capture mountain peaks we must train ourselves. We must reach the foothills before we tackle the main climb; we must slog through the ravines and battle up the ridges before we face the high shoulders which lie in the shadow of the summit. Each and every one of us knows how best to translate this into his or her own life. No outsider can interpret it as well as the individual himself. To you then the task; and you shall not fail those who are looking to you. Then let us pray that come it may (As come it will for a' that), That sense and worth o'er a' the earth May bear the gree and a' that. For a' that, and a' that, It's coming yet for a' that, That man to man, the world o'er, Shall brithers be, for a' that.