The Dominion THURSDAY NOVEMBER 22, 1928. THE AFFLICTION OF THE BLIND

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 50, 22 November 1928, Page 8

The Dominion THURSDAY NOVEMBER 22, 1928. THE AFFLICTION OF THE BLIND

The visit to Wellington of the Band of the Jubilee Institute for the Blind comes as a reminder, if a reminder be needed, of a little community deprived by affliction of a large portion of their human inheritance. ._, , , , . , • A certain philosopher asked whether, if he had to maice the choice, he would prefer to be deaf or blind, replied that he would unhesitating y choose the former. “With the glorious privilege of sight, he said, “I can see the world and the things of the world, and, lacking hearing, I can reflect upon what I see in perfect peace and quietness. The blind live in perpetual darkness, their lives invaded by sounds and scents, the nature of which they can have no visual conception. To those made blind or deaf by accident, and thus deprived of pleasures of which they have had experience, these calamities are indeed tragic. It is much less so with those who have been born to their state. The truism that one never misses what one has never had, supplies a reason why poverty does not always mean unhappiness. Some of the happiest people in the world are to be found in Poverty Street. And so it must be with the blind and the deaf. Our visitors from the Jubilee Institute were a conspicuously happy little band. In noting this pleasurable fact at the civic reception on Tuesday, His Worship the Mayor uttered a sound sentiment when he remarked that, after all, happiness was only a relative term. Happiness, he said, really proceeded from a determination within oneself to make the best of any circumstances that life might present. There is no affliction which does not, as a general rule, carry with it some kind of compensation. In the case of the blind—and also the deaf—there is a well-established public sentiment, based on a cultivated sense of humanitarianism, that the best that can be done for them is little enough. To that end, occupations and recreations have been organised for their benefit. They have been encouraged to feel that it is possible for them to become useful and even conspicuous citizens. Not only has their own more or less isolated little world been made pleasant for them, but they have been given the means of establishing social contacts with the great seeing and hearing world outside. Thus far, that is all to the good. But the public should not be allowed to take what is being done by interested and zealous people, on behalf of the afflicted, too much for granted. The responsibility is upon the many, not the few. To the few must be credited the fact that the spectacle of a blind man, led by a dog or a child, soliciting aid in the public streets is no longer a familiar one. It is upon the many that the responsibility rests of furthering the good work that has transformed a blind person from a mendicant to a self-respecting citizen.