THE HOME LIFE.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19735, 27 September 1929, Page 2

THE HOME LIFE.

BEST FOR NEW ZEALAND.' The benefits to be derived from the' home life were stressed by his Excellency the Governor-General (Sir Charles Fergusson) when speaking at the Dominion Day gathering of early settlers in Wellington. "I want to say a word to the descendants of the easjy settlers," he said; "to the grandsons and grand-daughters. Looking back on your early days, don't you realise how much you owe to your Earents and to the influences of the old ome in which you were brought up. We live in a different generation; in a generation which has quite different ideas and which has very often views which, speaking for myself as far as my own father was concerned, would make him shudder. We npust recognise that we older ones get old-fashioned, and we must not complain if the younger people take a different view of life. I want the younger people to realise what they owe to the old home life and its influence, which in the old days was so much stronger than it is to-day. If I was asked what was the thing that caused me a little distress and anxiety, I would say the weakening of the home ties and home influences. Where is the old family life with the children and parents together, and where the home fireside was the usual place, instead of being now the one place where families do not gather together f The old homes and the influences that sprang from them were the best and most strengthening things in the world. I want to appeal to the younger people here, and want them to realise that New Zealand was built up by the characters of tho early settlers. All these influences will weaken if you do not bring up your children to respect them. Let us all try to do what was done in the old days: to make children and parents companions in everything; in the home and out of doors. Do not send your children to church; take them there. Do not send them to the cinema or theatre; take them there. If only we could revive the old family home influences we should be doing more for the future of New Zealand than anything else we could do, and we would be paying the very best tribute we could to the older people who taught us how it could be done."