Flexibility Urged At Pioneer Service

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31865, 18 December 1968, Page 18

Flexibility Urged At Pioneer Service

The pioneers who landed at Lyttelton in the First Four Ships 118 years ago possessed an incredible human flexibility and were people who were prepared for change, said the Rev. R. A. Lowe, vicar of Fendalton, preaching at the Anniversary Day service of the Canterbury Pilgrims and Early Settlers’ Association in Christchurch Cathedral last evening.

Mr Lowe suggested that a similar flexibility was needed in the community today. The early pioneers were prepared to build and that was what the present generation should do. Everything laudable that could be said about the arrival of the First Four Ships at Lyttelton already had been, said Mr Lowe, who added that he came as a stranger with an objective view. “I come to blame you and to call you silly and I hope I can do this in Christian charity because in the rest

of New Zealand the romance surrounding the arrival of the First Four Ships in Lyttelton has become something of a caricature.”

Looking back, he said, could suggest an unwillingness to change. “Some of you have been portrayed, erroneously perhaps, as members of an ultra-conservative wing in our socieyt who will oppose all change for opposition’s sake. “I urge you not to bask in the lingering afterglow of approbation. You should, instead, lake courage for the morrow and not fear and Idread it.” It was no wonder then that [the endeavour to keep a 1 stratified class structure ■ caused the rest of New Zealland to laugh at the province, said Mr Lowe. The world of today, and of tomorrow, was not a static complex. It was dynamic. Yet I he found much condemnation of what was new in Canter- 1 bury. Instead of finding the future exciting, many were finding it full of dread, Mr Lowe said. No-one with dread in his heart could really take part in an anniversary service with thanksgiving. The lessons were read by Mr J. A. Hendry, the president of the association, and by Mr W. J. A. Brittenden, a member of its executive. Mr F. Twiss, the chairman of the junior branch of the association, carried into the Cathedral a replica of the flag which flew on the First Four Ships. After the service, which was attended by about 100 persons, a chaplet was laid at the foot of the Godley statue.