A WORTHY ACHIEVEMENT

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 254, 24 July 1935, Page 8

A WORTHY ACHIEVEMENT

. Mr. D. V. Brvant’s account to the Wellington Rotary Club yesterday of the origin and successful development of the Waikato Land Settlement Society is the story of a noteworthy contribution to the assistance of the unemployed and at the same. time a testament of humanitarian philosophy which compels admiration. Mr. Bryant is a successful business man who regards wealth as a profound responsibility, and in the discharge of this responsibility has used his wealth for the benefit of others less fortunate. He had already endowed a children’s convalescent home when the slump came, anu with it the. opportunity of doing something practical for the unemployed. With generous assistance from others, as related in his address to the Rotary Club, he organised the Waikato Land Settlement Society in the belief that work on the land offered not only a means of subsistence but a future. The result stands as proof of the soundness of his judgment. If, he said, they were to sell all their sheep and cattle at current rates to-day they would clear off all their liabilities and still have (5000 acres of good land, 34 homesteads and 12 cottages, besides /3000 worth of plant and horses. What will probably interest the public more than the details of the settlement scheme is Mr. Bryant’s own confession of faith. B deserves prominence in this column for its exemplary spirit in an age of materialism and self-seeking: I am not a philanthropist (ho said). I ham the word. I am 53 years of age. At 42 I made an endowment. 1 found it was nor enough. 1 had to give myself—to act forever afterward in an honorary capacity. If I had not given over accumulating wealth according to custom I would have buried my soul. It has made ail tlie difference to iny life; as it is 1 am happy in the work and my mind is at rest. Really all one needs wealth for is the protection of one’s own family, but custom takes us past that mark, and we become its slaves. There is enough human philosophy and to sp;ire in this personal testament to make this crooked world straight if the people in it were to measure their responsibilities as citizens by the same standards. Some may say: “But this man had the wealth and the time. That is not the'point. To every man, irrespective of his means or condition, is given the privilege and the opportunity of dedicating not only a portion of his substance but also of his personal attention to the service of others. And it may be readily granted that Mr. Bryant’s ideals have been the inspiration of many others in the difficul’ times this country has experienced. A shilling here and a heljiing hand there —that touch of human kindness that makes the whole world kin—-from people themselves hard pressed to make ends meet, has brightened the lot of many, and sustained people’s faith in human nature during a period when the whole organised structure of society seemed to have gone into the melting-pot.