A CRITIC OF NEW ZEALAND

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 80, 28 December 1929, Page 8

A CRITIC OF NEW ZEALAND

REV. J. BURNS’S PARTING MESSAGE WHERE PUBLIC OPINION LAGS Dominion Special Service. Dunedin, December 27. The Rev. James Burns, who has supplied the pulpit of Knox Church for the past nine months, Is leaving again for the Homeland. During his stay in this city he has shown himself to be an ardent student, a keen observer, and a constructive critic, and a parting message from him to the people of this city is of more than ordinary interest, more especially as, the views expressed apply to the Dominion as a whole. Speaking first of educational matters, Mr. Burns said he was pleased Dunedin was very high—higher than any town at Home of equal size. It appeared to him to possess the characteristics more of a university town than of a commercial centre. “But there are two things which prompt me to criticise,” he added. “First there is the tendency to encourage a specialised form of education as against a more cultural form. The question has been asked, ‘Why teach languages and literature to pupils entering commerce or going in for agriculture? Specialise in those things which will fit them for the work they are taking up.’ This, I hold, is a mistake. It is carried too far at Home. More and more men. of business are going to public schools and universities for leaders. The specialised mind works in grooves. It is the broadly educated mind that can best adapt Itself to the ever-changing conditions of commerce and of life.” “You pride yourself justly on the absence of any disagreeable accent In your speech,” continued Mr. Burns, “but I have noticed in a great many cases that the children do. not speak as their parents do. They seem increasingly to use a form of Intonation which in the Old Country we call ‘Cockney,’ and which I, was surprised to find disfiguring the speech of many of the people in Australia. It would be a great gain if teachers and scholars could be encouraged- to preserve the purity of accent of their mother tongue, and if impure speech could be corrected at school by teachers who themselves are free of it.” Public Opinion and War. Mr. Burns went on to say that there were two directions in which public opinion in the Dominion seemed to lag behind that in the Old Country. Both were matters of great and increasing importance. “First," he said, “there is the movement for world peace. The old theory that if you want .peace you must prepare for war is discredited To prepare for war is to create the atmosphere which produces it, and to create a class which encourages it If you want peace you must prepare for peace, and create a public opinion which will make war impossible. That is the hope of the future.” He added that, although defence was of urgent importance to New Zealand because of its geographical situation, the present system would tend to breed the fire-eating type. After all, New Zealand did not realise what war was, for during the years from 1914 to 1918 she was not brought into direct contact with war and all its horrors, as was the Home Country—this notwithstanding the Dominion’s great and generous contribution of man power. Church Union. “The next movement to which I wish to refer concerns the union of the Churches,” said Mr. Burns. “In this respect, also, public opinion here seems to lag. This movement towards a union is going to be the great movement of the future. Nationalism is giving way to internationalism; science and philosophy alike aro moving towards a unity of all thought, and in the Church there is a rising demand for a union which will annihilate the old sectarian bickerings. So far this movement seems to have touched the Church in New Zealand lightly, but with its homogeneous population New Zealand should find it simpler to reach a compromise than we at Home. She should be a leader, not a laggard in the field. The desire for unity is really growing very rapidly, and the union of the Scottish Churches has given the movement immense impetus." When questioned whether he meant that without exception all churches should unite, Mr. Burns answered in the affirmative. “At present there seems little hope of getting in the Roman Catholic Church,” he said, “but the future must have this goal in store, and a iff the churches will be as one.”