BROKEN CONVENTIONS

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 22, 26 July 1927, Page 8

BROKEN CONVENTIONS

ARCHBISHOP IN DEFENCE

WOMAN'S NEW LIBERTY

(By Telegraph.)

(Special to "The Evening Post.")

AUCKLAND, This Day.

Support for the young woman of today was given by Archbishop Averill at a service at St. Matthew's Church on Sunday night. He considered that she was as good as her more conventional predecessor. Periods of transition were fraught with danger, but it was better to view them with an:open mind rather than to suppress them with criticism which was neither wise nor kind.

The greatest asset of the modern young woman was the proper"- use of her freedom. Although the girl of to-day was not a whit behind the young woman of a previous age in ideals, moral feeling, and a desire to render useful service, there was the odd exception of a type which sought notoriety and revelled in the footlights. SPIRIT OS 1 BRAVADO. "I believe, however, that the young woman who rejoices in shocking the susceptibilities of the more conventional is influenced far more by a spirit of bravado and a fear of being regarded as old-fashioned than by a real liking for the things she does," said the speaker. "What one most regrets when hearing of a lack of moral restraint is the loss inflicted on society by the fact that the gifts, graces, and opportunities which might have been used for higher endeavour have drifted into unproductive channels." Women had been splendid during the war There was no conflict between noble ideals and a life of happiness and enjoyment. It was a charge on the modern young woman to prove to the world that her social freedom, far from being a cloak for wickedness, was as great an incentive to living a full and an unselfish life as was service to the Creator. Liberty was one of the grandest and most abused words in the English language, but the word was so often used when "license" was intended. We congratulate ourselves on the liberty which we enjoyed under the British flag," continued the speaker, "but if we did not contribute to the welfare of the State by service and obedience to its laws we should soon realise that liberty was conditional on conduct The only real liberty consisted of a freedom to do what we ought. After a slow evolutionary process, woman has come, into a glorious liberty, but is there not just a danger of misinterpreting or even abusing the liberty! "I believe," he concluded, "one" of the greatest needs of the present day is the consecration of freedom to show that this liberty does not mean pleasing ourselves and riding rough-shod over the principles and prejudices of I others."