SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 7, 8 July 1931, Page 12

SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE

THE DUTY OF PARENTS

GOVERNOR-GENERAL'S VIEWS

It is difficult to sanctify mamago which is founded not on mutual affection but on illicit relationship and necessity. Mothers,- whether themselves thus handicapped ornot, cannot take /too much pains to keep their children from temptations, ' contacts, and suvroundings which may threaten them with.such an eventuality. In discussing the sanctity of marriage and parental responsibility in tho course of his'address to. tho mass meeting of the League' of Mothers at the Town Hall yesterday, His Excellency Lord Bledisloe prefaced this portion of his address .by the above quoted remarks. \ "The extreme intimacy of marriage: founded upon, and restrained by, love; respect, and mutual trustfulness has nothing sordid or unnatural about it, so long as its sacredness is recognised and maintained," proceeded His Excellency. "But if the marriage tie is desecrated by unfaithfulness it not only violates the laws of God and of civilised mankind; it destroys all that is lovely in _ married life; it creates a barrier difficult to bridge, and often leads to family disruption to the hurt of the whole body politic. Of all post-war tendencies, born of war-time conditions, this laxity in tho true conception of marriage threatens more than any other one factrr to undermine family life and shatter the fabric of civilised society. New Zealand has by no means a clean sheet in this respect. Let it be the paramount aim of the League of ' Mothers to cleanse this shoet and make the homes of this Dominion patterns of-domestic fidelity and trustful concord. PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY. "Men are far from being paragons of -virtue or even of constancy. But the capacity of a good, ' considerate, and tactful woman to bind her husband to herself is far greater than many women imagine". At least let those who have had themselves in their youth the incalculable advantage of a pure and wholesome domestic environment takGi meticulous care to pass oii to their 'children tho same- priceless legacy. They will bless you for it continuously in their after lives. "And this loads me to the problem of parental responsibility. Irresponsibility is a form cither of selfishness or of weakness. : The irrcpsonsibilty of parents involves the super-responsibil-ity of tho State and in extreme and ultimate developments the degenerating theory—said to be prevalent in Russia —that the sole function of parents is to bring children into the world, leaving it to the State to deal with them subsequently, like the output of tho factory or the farm, solely in the interests of its own maintenance and safety. The task of a mother if faithfully discharge cd —especially in a new country—is an unselfish altruistic task. But its very unselfishness makes it a happy task, and woman is seen at her best in the discharge of it. RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. "Any young mother who expects to indulge in self-centred and frivolous enjoyment without due regard to her new responsibilities is bound to bo disillusioned and likely to make others unhappy-through her selfishness. The splendid unselfishness of .women is tho outstanding characteristic of tho sex. Those who do not possess' it are unsexed. 1 The highest of all responsibilities that rests upon a mother is a religious instruction ■ and spiritual guidance, and this responsibility increases in direct ratio with the irresponsibility in this respect of the State. If neither in the' home nor1 in the school is religion taught the child will be starved in the one side of-its nature, and in tho one form of nutriment which is essentialto its eternal happiness and comfort. 'Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from'it.' " His' Excellency then referred to the necessity of maintaining a child's health, of keeping the child's mind and body usefully employed, and of surrounding the young with things that are beautiful.