A PLEA FOR HUMILITY

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28783, 2 January 1959, Page 9

A PLEA FOR HUMILITY

Vice-Regal New Year Message

(Neto Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, January 1. The peoples of the world today were all seeking a standard of living, instead of a way of life, said the Governor-General (Viscount Cobham), in his new year message.

"The whole world 'is living in a state of tension and under pressure, wherein scientific achievement is being matched with increasing intellectual and ethical sterility,” he said.

"At the very core of the Christian messages lies the great truth that peace can never be attained by mere treaties and agreements to limit armaments. Until the desire for peace is firmly rooted in the hearts of men we will never achieve it. Violence and hatred set up a chain-reaction, the results of which endure from generation to generation.

"The Commonwealth has no aggressive intentions: on the contrary, the desire for peace is what unites this great family of nations. At the same time, we will never allow ourselves and our children to live in a world in which the individual has no place, to bow to a soulless materialist tyranny. “For that would put an end to all human progress upon earth: and if we can no longer progress in this world, we might just as well move on to the next. "Centuries ago Socrates uttered these noble words: ‘I say to you. men of Athens, kill or acquit me. but understand that I shall not alter my ways—and would not, though I had to die many times. A man who is worthy to be a man does not choose between life and death, but only between right and wrong.’

“So let us go forward together into the new year, realising that the road still winds awav uphill and will do so until the very end, yet with faith in our hearts that all may be well.

‘Sir Lawrence Jones once wrote a sad little quatrain: In the beginning was the word. Tt stiired ht and li,e ur,on the Plant Th?'w.ZSP< a,te tl chaos rules again: T^emain d f° rffotten ’ onl V words

“Yet even words have their uses, for so long as men are talking they are still gaining time: time for the world to come to its senses.

“I will end by quoting a passage written not long ago by the R u V u Sldney Berr y, a passage which puts the whole thing in a nutshell. °

Perhaps it is that in human relationships and in the arts as well as in religion, we are in danger of losing the grace of humility and becoming more assertive.

The shadow of self falls on all we see, with the result that vision is distorted and greatness eludes whinh ls key of humility which opens the door on holiness told aut 7- a . nd truth, as Christ told HTs disciples long ago and tells us still today.* *’