THE RETURN TO NATURE.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20624, 13 August 1932, Page 16

THE RETURN TO NATURE.

YOUTH MOVEMENT.

The following article, specially written *or Tire Pbbsb by Mi Frank Milner, C.M.G., Reetor of WaitaH Boye* High School, i» » general introduction to a short .series on He various interests of Banks Peninsula, whe.e the Youth Hostels Association (Canterbury; has founded its work by preparing itineraries and arranging for accommodation. An articie by Professor R. Speight, on *be.gefogy <>t the Peninsula, will appear nest Wednesday, and others on euccessiv* Saturday* ana Wednesdays. In a foreword to the handbook of the Youth Hostels Association of Great Britain, Professor G. M. Treyelyan, president of the Association, boldly indicts the materialism of the age. "The modern Englishman," he says, "ia fed and clothed better than his ancestors, but his spiritual side, in all that connects him with the beauty of the world, is utterly starved as no people have ever been starved in the history of the world." Perhaps few will endorse to the full this mood of self-depreciation, but all who have any knowledge of the scope and ideals of the modern Youth Movement must admit that Professor Trevelyan is justified in his vindication of. its spiritual worth. The inspiration came to England from Germany, where the latter part of the 19th century had witnessed a return to Nature as a protest against the mechanisation of an industrial era. Following on the many pilgrimages of the wander-vogel camo the forest camp excursions of Karl Fischer and his fellow-students from Berlin in 1896, and the school excursions of Jacob Schirrmann from Westphalia in 1909. Both protagonists led revolts against deadening routine and aimed it regaining freedom of tho inner spirit and a new liberalism of interests. Th«» New Generation in Germany. The amazing development of this Youth Movement in Germany iB now a | commonplace of current journalism. It has dotted Germany with 3000 hostels under efficient administration,; where as many as four million hikers were accommodated during the course; of last year at charges ranging from 6d to Is for the night. The movement is now under Governmental supervision, and is frequently subsidised by municipalities. In spite of the hardships entailed by the war and its dismal aftermath, the Youth Movement has continued to nourish. Its idealism has even survived the segrega-. tion of its devotees into political and religiouß sections. It is recognised in Germany that there has been something both purgatorial and sacramental in this youthtul idealism. On physical grounds it is moro than justified. A new generation has arisen which despises and rejects the cribbed, cabined, and confined life of its fathers. The new youth scraps the old conventions of dress, of diet, gives full play to man's primal urge for exercise, revels in sunlight and fresh air, throws physic to the dogs, finds salvation in sweat and not in drugs or alcoholic dope, and gams vitality from Nature's vast storehouse of energy and recruitment. At one bound young Germany wins second place in the world's Olympic games. At schools and universities alike, sports displace the old regimentation of drill and gymnastics. No other country in the world shqwa a greater devotion to rowing, aquatic sports generally, and to sun-bathing. Everywhere in Germany you meet these well j set -up young people out on the tramp, rucksack on back, stick in hand, swinging along in happy fellowship on their quoßt of some shrine of scenic bea«iy or.historical interest, and often lilting out in unison the beautiful folk-songs of the Fatherland accompanied by the inevitable guitar. '.. . >-| Their enthusiasm has been contagious, infecting not only their but the youth of, adjacent countries. Nor is it confined to the physical <or social planes. It has led to an intensified national consciousness througtt nation-wide travels, and it is tempering nationalism by international pilgrimages to other European countries.

The Art of living. Arid so to return to Professor Trevelyan's vindication, not the least of its benefits has been its revelation of the infinite charm and interests ol "Nature's gentle doings"—an unfailing antidote to man's impoverishment of spirit. Civilised man has sadly bungled the art of living. He uses up most of his time to get the means of living and then proceeds to make a frightful hash of the Job!) We worship speed, noise, glitter and bustle. Tho mechanisation of our age has revolutionised life. Already, we are told, the five-day week is in sight. But education must give a new orientation ana a neiw, valuation i* men are to enjoy leisure happily and fruitfully. Leisure raises or lowers, replenishes or ex_ hausts. We need an education Wat will attune us to the sweet of Nature and satisfy our Instinctive need for country sights and sounds and for occasional solitude. Maeterlinck tells us: "The bulk of mankind will know days when labour will become less incessant and exhausting, _less material, tyrannical, pitiless. What use will humanity make of this leisure? On its employment may be said to depend the whole duty, of man' The same thought prompts Arnold's plaiutive cry: "Calm, calm roe more, nor let me die Before I have begun to live. In the fret of our conventionalised and artificial" lives we all need the cooling and healing contact with Nature. Just as the- fabled Antaeus recruited his depleted strength when flung to Earth, so we, when fretted, jarred, and fevered, can find infinite peace and sedative influence in the presence of the great creative mother of us all. Walking Through tho British Isles. "It is curious," said the "Morning Post," in an editorial welcoming the establishment of the. British Youth Hostels Association, "that a nation so prone to open-air life as ours should so long have neglected the simplest of all forms of outdoor exercise—walking. The provision of hostels in wellchosen spots at, say, a shilling a.night will be certain to meet with the grateful response of thousands whose latent love of the countryside is thwarted by the want.'' And the response. in England has been most enthusiastic. A recent map published by the "Manchester Guardian" shows that';'already one hundred hostels are in active commission in-England and Wales. In Scotland the Scott Country, tho Trossachs, and the best portions of tho Highlands arc also well endowed with such facilities for trampers. The British trustees of £he Carnegie Foundation have provided an endowment of £ 10,000 for this purpose. It is delightful to realise that England's countryside, t so steeped in beauty, is becoming increasingly accessible to tens of thousands of excursionists and hikers from the congested centres of population at a mere bagatelle of expense. The Yorkshire moors, the Lake District, the New Forest, Devon, North Wales, the old Pilgrim route to Canterbury, and a

score of. famous shrines are explored by hosts of walkers. We are witnessing a re-discovery of England, a realisa-. tion of the manifold -charm of its sylvan loveliness. ' "Give me," cried Hariitt, " the clear bine sky over my head, and the green turf beneath nty feet, a winding road before me, and a three hours' march to dinner—and then to thinking!" It is this very cult of walking that has evoked such lyrie passion for the landscape of England. "What is this life, if full of care, We have not time to stand and stare I" Off the Streets to the Roads. And so one is in good company in putting in a plea for publie support and endorsement of the extension of this movement to New Zealand, and especially so in North Canterbury, where the unquenchable enthusiasm of Miss Wilding, the secretary of the Sunlight League, and the perennial energy of Sir Arthur Dudley Dobson, its president, have been responsible for the foundation of the first Youth Hostels Association in the Dominion. Already thirteen clubs are affiliated to the Association. Banks Peninsula, so fortunately accessible to hikers from ? Christchurch, has-' ibeen charted for a walking itinerary,- and hostel accommodation has been duly arranged. The manifold interests, botanical, biological, geological, and historical, of the Peninsula will be appealingly presented by recognised authorities in a series of articles, and so give something of the lure and rich endowment of that district. Let us hope that many, instead of for , ever perambulating sidewalks and resorts in the city, "all dollei up," where they inhale petrol fumes and have their nerves jangled with noise or vitiated; ty foggy a »"> W *M devote, some, of their leisure to a trial of this adventure and so renew a natural kinship. Such journeyings make for good fellowship, face one with the wholesome simplicities of life, redeem from artificialities, open windows on thrilling prospects, and endow life with perennial interests. The pure clear air alone is a daily feast, the exercise a real the sunshine a warm benediction, the changing view a "wondrous pageantry of colour. And in the native bush, the haunt of our wild fluttering bird, life, many a thrillful peep—perhaps the rata's scarlet oriflamme amid a press of green-coated forest trees, the kowhai queening it in cloth of gold, a youug rimu shyly peeping in pendulous beauty from her virginal bower. What sheer joy, too, to hear the matin cMme of the bellbird or catch the supernal magic of the tui's song, peerloss in liquid melody among the songßters of the world, and to make friends with others of our feathered folk. Wordsworth knew the solace of these