New Zealand is unwell, says bishop

Press, 17 July 1979, Page 1

New Zealand is unwell, says bishop

PA Dunedin Industrial unrest and migration from New Zealand were signs of a national malaise, said the Bishop of Dunedin (the Right Rev. P. B. Mann) in his presidential address to the fortieth synod of the Anglican Diocese yesterday. Bishop Mann said the nation’s leadership needed to be sensitive to tensions in society, and he referred to wasted potential, particularly in the South Island.

H- challenged Anglicans to strive for a more harmonious national life. “While it is true to say that New Zealand is still a good country to live in, and shows enormous potential, no-one can pretend that at the moment we are a particularly happy peonle.” he said. Bishop Mann said signs of national malaise . were to be seen in continuing industrial unrest and the migration of a number of New Zealanders. “We do not seem to be able to set ourselves goals which in the end enthuse people an 4 bring a sense of purpose to our endeavours he said.

Leaoership, “if it is to Provide the rallying point for our somewhat disintegrated society and to

affirm the future of this country,” must contain at least four characteristics.

“It must be visionary — and totally unrepentant for being so. So many New Zealanders look for a kind of economic miracle as the answer to all our problems, but Jiis is looking in the wrong direction,” he said. It saddened him to see so much that was wasted in New Zealand. He referee ’ particularly to the “needless disregard of regional potential, especially in the South Island.”

“No leadership can really take hold of a nation unless it has a certain charisma, unless it exhibits a kind of spiritual dimension which shows that it is grounded in principles to which it would adhere in every condition and circumstance and which it believes' can be the only basis upon which a new society will be built.

“It is in this area that the Christian Church must exercise its leadership as firmly and aggressively as it can,” said Bishop Mann.

“When we allow ourselves to be bogged down at a thoroughly material level, then we will remain at out present imnroverished level,” Bishop Mann said.