WHAT OF SOCIETY?

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 87, 12 April 1923, Page 8

WHAT OF SOCIETY?

TO THI EDITOI. Sir, —Sir Robert Stout is probably as humane a man as we have .in this country. Like moat men he has his foibles; but none may question the high ideals that actuate the Chief Justice. Speaking the other evening at tho inaugural meeting: of the English Speaking Union, Sir Robert spoke of the world being in a parlous state; and +he learned Judge went on to emphasise the need for better understanding in human affairs and for the cultivation-of the moral and intellectual qualities of, the race so as to elevate the whole human family to a higher plane. There are ways of measuring the rise and fall of morals and intellect as well as physical fitness of nations. It is said that between 1832 and 1872 the. standard of life and living in Great Britain and among the British race, the highest peak was reached. That wan the mid-Victor-ian period, when the Tennysons, Gladstonos, Newmans, . Saliiburys, and Spur r ?eons raised morala, religion, and ■public ! life to the highest plane. . 1 Some are ready to' proclaim that the standards of living are not so high to-day as fifty years ago. From this premise-they deduce pessimistically''the decadence >" of English-speaking peoples. Although the Great War shattered many of our ideals, and is responsible for'much that is unrealistic in present-day society, it may be contended reasonably that such is but the passing evidences of that great and shocking disaster; and that whatever lapses may be apparent the state of society ig capable of restoration just as the economic situation will in time be restored. ■ ■ .

We ought, however, to face and endea- ' vour to remedy any evidence of decadence. . The Chief Justice has frequently animadverted upon the prevalence of divorce and its causes as. proving the deterioration of society. Turning to,this subject and making comparisons among ourselves, the British and the Americans, I find a tendency for New Zealanders to approximate Amoricans more than the people of the Motherland. For instance, divorce in New Zealand has increasod by 300 per cent, as between 1911 and 1920. Of the total cases, 748, heard in the latter year mentioned, 670 were founded on adultery and desertion, while only twenty-nine, less than one-half per cent., weTe attributable to desertion, drunkenness, oruelty, and failing to maintain. The proportion of decrees nisi in New Zealand to marriages in 1920 was ,as 1 is to. 21; whereas in Great Britain the proportion was as 1 is to 127. But in the United States the average proportion extending- over a number of years was as 1 j is to 8; and accordng to the statistics ! is to 8; and according to th« statistics published by the "New York Tribune" j on 18th February of this year, the pro- • portion was for 1922 as 1 is to 4. "A .million' marriags weer recorded last year. and the divorce mills turned out 250.000 decrees." And this is the significant fact that in U.S.A. the increase- in divorces has been four timeß greater than the increase in the population. What are we to conclude? Are the j ■ideals of marital relations lower than ■, formerly ? Can -it be that American so- ! ciety has thrown overboard the compass ••: that guided the lives of the Pilgrim Fathers, and are adrift upon a stormy sea of general domestic strife? The facilities for divorce are blamed in America, but Hid not the people? themselves afford : these facilities ? That suggestion does not help; and the alleged cause of di- ; vorce. that of intemperance, is not appa- j rent in New Zealand, and it does not even exist in the United States. However, the facts stand, and the solution of tKe domestic problem presented is not to be found in this or that palliative. There is manifest positive failure in moral forces in U.S.A. in / this particular if not in others, and it is for New Zealand to discover and avoid the influences in .America that have induced so distressful a state of society.—l am. etc., J. D. SIEVWRIGHT.