HOW TO BUILD A GREAT NATION

Evening Post, Volume LXXXII, Issue 50, 28 August 1911, Page 2

HOW TO BUILD A GREAT NATION

"STRONG, STALWART. MEN AND WOMEN. Mr. W. M. Hughee, Commonwealth Attopey-General, speaking on 7th inst. at the A.N.A, festivities At Bftllftrat, said the ideal a grea-t nation must be incomplete nnleee it meant m abundance of good men and .women, The beginning and end of every natron was a race of strong, stalwart men and women, healthy physically, morally, and mentally. Mere was the real aim of all legislation. (Hear, hear.) It was nothing if the birthrate went up or down if the people, torn were neurotic, degenerate, .and lacking in enterprkn and the qualities that made a nation great. The first essential was good en, vironmefit, and it wa« the function ot the Legislature to provide that.. ThaV wae what his Government was tryihi to do. -He had read recently of womea, Hi Sydney, who worked long hour* every, day, earning something like M an hour, and averaging 10« to 17e a week. That such a wag© should be paid in any circumstftnoeft was a reflection on every one. it was a bitter insult that any woman should be ofieted for hard &.hd continuous work 10s ft. week. The function of the Legislature, Mr, Hughea proceeded, was to provide, among other things, for a decent WAge, It was not a party question; it was a national qnestiori. Anything that stood between a man or a woman, and a decent wage was a menace to the national greatness of Australia. The health of adults— I ft P at ) lctlla 4? °* chUdren— must be looked after. If they paid one half the attention to the breeding of good men and women that they paid to breeding good sheep and cattle they would have better men and women, And would, to I that extent, attain nearer to ,n*tional [ greatness. From -his own experience as | a «chool teacher, he was eatMed that the question of education— physical first | and mental aft«rwarde— Wa* one with which non-party organisations' would -concern themselves to the greatest advantage.