CHARACTER BUILDING.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 123, 25 May 1908, Page 2

CHARACTER BUILDING.

SPEECH BY MR. F. MILNER, M.A. Mr. F. Milner, M.A., rector of Waitaki High School, delivered an address at the Y.M*C.A, roprap yesterday afternoon. As a, yqfing )|ipw Zealander he urged upon those present the necessity of doing what they.-could to purify the national life. In J this young^- Dominion the ravages of the older lands were just making their appearance, and it was the duty of an to stem 'the tide and siit an example to' the older portions of the world. The best way to ,do ihis was by character building. Character was nothing but consolidated habifc, and | they should also realise that on their character depended their destiny. Hs deprecated the narrowness of sectarian strife. If a young man fully believed in the simple 1 teaching of the Sermon on the Mount, if he" believed some day he would be 'made' answerable for his actions, and if he ''set' before him high ideals of life a*h'd character, and did what lay within his power to purify th« life around him, he woii^d not live his life in vain. They shduld be always optimistic, and continually fight any pessimistic tendencies within them. Mr. Milner spoke of the harm caysed, both to the nation as a whole and the individual, by indulgence in alcoholic liquors. The highest medical authorities at Home were ' now unanimous on the point that alcohol, , even taken in moderation, had a deleterious effect on the system. Latest experiments had conclusively proved that alcohol , at/tacked and weakened the white corpiiscles in the blood which existed to resist disease. Doctors dreaded to operate on a man addicted to drink. They should, through x the medium of 'English literature, become acquainted with some of tho noblest utterances of 'the human soul. By this means, and also through the cultivation of aesthetic' tastes, they Would get an utter contempt 1 for all things low.