WARNING AGAINST MATERIALISM

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 26986, 11 March 1953, Page 5

WARNING AGAINST MATERIALISM

“In Prosperity Can Be Great Danger” ADDRESS TO ROTARIANS’ CONFERENCE (New Zealand Press Association) INVERCARGILL, March 10. A warning that in material prosperity there could be great danger was given to the seventh annual conference of the 40th District of Rotary International by Mr John A. Peden, of Brisbane. Mr Peden' is the official representative of Rotary International at the conference, which began at Invercargill on Friday. “The days in which we live may be called the economic age,” Mr Peden added. “At all levels people are concerned with material things. I am not suggesting that the economic is the only end we have in view, but I do think that it is being stressed so much that other important issues are being overlooked.” International goodwill and the development of a better society at home would depend in the long run more on character than on material sufficience. “We who live in countries that have so much material prosperity should remember that in prosperity there can be great danger,” he said. “The history of some past empires teaches us that national decay began in such times.” Mr Peden said that people were too often content to leave the task of character building to the Government. It was an impossible task for governments. People expected the Government to legislate to eradicate evils that the people themselves did not protest against, and this state of mind prevented its being accomplished. “We are men who believe in individual freedom—freedom within the limits of common sense and decency” Mr Peden said. “We should play our part as citizens in helping to fight those forces which, by emphasising that the economic well-being of the community is the only thing that can bring joy and happiness, and infiltrating into our society.”