"FACING THE PROBLEMS"

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 76, 31 March 1922, Page 3

"FACING THE PROBLEMS"

TO THE EDITOR

Sir, —Your leading article in your issue of the 29th, based on the address by Sir Robert Stout to the Rotary Club, .1 feel sure is meant for each individual, and if it readies each one of us, is heoded, and an endeavour made to act upon the advice therein, then your leader from the invaluable advice from Sir Robert is a real message for humanity. Sir Robert Stout's exalted position or Chief Justice is indeed one to be proud of. Yet I venture to say that, after the passago of time, when another will be called to fill the place Sir Robert at present fills, our memories will be taxed to a greater degree by far, to remember tho justice of his administration, than to recall, if wo will only tako, heed, the kindly and good advice given in his address to the' Rotary Club. Sir, it does not need our Chief Justice to point out the existence of our many social evils, which are eating the very foundation of our moral life, and as must follow the decay of our rate, but it does need a Chief Justice, and others like him, to wake us up to a sense of our position. Are we to be called pessimists because we see what 'we do see a-nd speak of them? Then, let me, at least, bo one and keep, if I can, in check an approaching disaster for even ono short weok than your optimist of today who, to-morrow, is overwhelmed and, destroyed because he would not see the things that are. Look into our home life of to-day. Even, in our City of Wellington, why, Sir, it ia irksome for a family to spend' one night in seven under the roof of the parents who gave us all we have, oven life itself. Can our race exist and be carried on while we live so? Can young men honour and cherish, as the future mothers of humanity, girls ,who are nurtured in tho cinema house and the tearooms of to-day? Do they? You, Sir, and Sir Robert Stout know we cannot. So' long as this ideal of home life is absent, then dishonour, immorality, and decay of race must exist We, in the more humble spheres of lifeknow of tho existing evils, desiro most ardently tho reverse of such, but Sir, it is a, task beyond our power, to do alone. Each ■ one of us must commence alone, but wo must have, and need, example from those who wield more power than we. My earnest desire is that Sir Robert's address, and your leader of the 29th, Sir, may not be the last word. Is it not possible for Sir Eobert Stout to lend, at least, his moral support to the formation of a society to foster goodwill and good citizenship amongst _ tho young people of this city—something to inculcato a love of home-life, where we can find the peaco which the seeking for in continual pleasure is and always will be a myth? I feel, even though the extra burden Sir Robort would have to bear j in such a. work, would recompense him were ho to know that he at least, in word and deed, endeavoured to' lift the younger generation, as well as the older, to better ideals of life. Indeed, Sir, tho religious bigotry that exists, and which is fostered amongst the lower masses of society, ip one example, allowed by tho powers that are of "those watching the side-shows, don't see tho elephants pass." No matter what our religious convictions may be, virtue is virtue, no matter where wo find her. To me, Sir, it is no greater if found in one of my own belief, and this is what we all should desire. There are hundreds, Sir, who only desire a lead through your paper and a re- I sponsible person at our head, who will gladly band together to make this city a better one and better still to make each individual so interested, a better man or woman. I would, personally, and most! willingly do any minor work if ever such | a scheme as so many desire, which Sir Robert Stout and yourself say is so I necessary, is devised,—l am, etc. JUSTICE. 28th March. .