BUILDING FOR FUTURE

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 9, 5 October 1933, Page 8

BUILDING FOR FUTURE

New Zealand Legion’s Task Now Beginning

ORGANISATION COMPLETE

Speaking at a meeting of the members of the Wellington division of the New Zealand Legion at the Dominion Farmers’ Institute last week, Dr. Campbell Begg stated that the organisation of the legion was now complete, and that he would from now on have no necessity to leave Wellington. It could be considered, he emphasised, that the real work of the legion was only now commencing. Dr. Campbell Begg said he was glad to be able once more to concentrate his attention on his private work, but did not regret the time and energy which had been occupied in the preliminary organisation. It had been well worth it, and it was a great satisfaction to know that divisions and centres were now working spontaneously throughout the length and breadth of New Zealand.

Progressive Plan Required.

The people’s thoughts had been directed toward the problems which faced them, and it was now the duty of the divisions and members to evolve progressively a plan to meet the purpose of the movement. That plan must be a long-term constructive one for attaining the safety and security of the Dominion and the whole of its inhabitants on a firm foundation. The chief obstacle to be overcome was that welter of apparently contradictory thought, only contradictory because it was directed to meeting the exigencies of the moment instead of building for the future. The necessity for clearly drawing the plan of the new Dominion —the New Zealand which the children of to-day were to inherit—had been lost sight of. The chief apparent discrepancies of interest w.ere because those concerned had not realised that what might be necessary iu a stage of transition need not by any means be desirable at a later stage. Because the architectural plan for the future had not been made, a great many of the desirable and essential scaffoldings had been looked on as part of the finished building. “Youth Must Construct.”

He believed that a picture could be drawn of New Zealand as tlie people wished it to be, say, in twenty years, with which almost every form of thought would agree. The real points of disagreement were in the method of building and the possibility of erection. It was for the legion to produce the picture of what the goal really was to be, then to analyse the present position and to devise the method by which the latter could be transformed, into the former.

That was why, Dr. Begg added, the movement was calling so insistently on youth to play its part. The present generation must design, the youth must construct, and the children must enjoy.