"WONDERFUL"

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 112, 14 May 1934, Page 11

"WONDERFUL"

NEW ZEALAND WOMEN

LORD BLEDISLOE'S TRIBUTE

"There is no finer type of woman in the world," said his Excellency the Governor-General, Lord Bledisloe, yesterday when addressing a mass gathering of youth organised by tlio Auckland V.M.C.A. in observance of Mother-

ing Sunday

"We live in days of verbal exaggeration and impatience of control, particularly that exercised by people older and more experienced than, ourselves (said his Excellency). A good illustration of exaggeration (what the oM Greeks called 'hyperbole') is the word 'wonderful.' Wo describe things as 'wonderful' which are not wonderful at all, and in doing so destroy our sense of proportion, our accuracy of mental measurement. AH the time we ignore and fail to acknowledge the wonderfulness of much that should excite our admiration for its outstanding excellence, as, for instance, some of the recent glorious autumn sunsets or some of the noble solf-sacrineb m the homes of the poor during this period of acute economic stress. For over four years my wife and j. have lived amongst you and travelled extensively, with our eyes and ears open. After a full experience of life and with a knowledge of most parts of the world, I can confidently describe as 'wonderiul' four of your outstanding national possessions—your climate, your scenery, your native bush, and your women. There is no finer type .of woman in the world, and those wlio' are not true to type, whether amid affluent surroundings ox in humble cottage homes, a,ro conspicuous by their abnormality. Let all young people present, whose experience tells them that this 5s true, justify this gathering after it is over by embracing the loved one who gave them birth and exclaiming, 'You are a wonderful mother!'

KtESENT DANGERS,

"Only the wholesome atmosphere of a good homo and a deep consciousness of the responsibilities of motherhood can produce the typo of woman which, has in the past made for the physical, mental, moral, and spiritual well-being of New Zealand. I say advisodly 'in the past' because there are influences abroad in the world today which are I operating against the incalculable influence of home surroundings' and the responsibilities of motherhood under the delusive appellation of freedom. Impatience of control, whether parental or scholastic, unless accompanied by the strictest self-discipline, is apt to lead to moral degeneration and social anarchy.

"Those of us who after attaining manhood had the privilege of training at one of the old English universities speak of it lovingly as our ' Alma' Mater' -—our kindly mother: —an academic parent who, while acknowledging our freedom, guided us gently into the pru-' dent use of it for the benefit of manj kind. Like many another Englishman, the biggest debts that I owe and can never adequately repay aro to my human, and my academic mothers.

PRIVILEGES AND DUTIES,

"All privileges have corresponding responsibilities. The privilego of your being alive in 'God's Own Country,' your constitutional vigour; and your wholesome aspirations are either wholly or mainly due to your parents, and in a special degree to your mothers. 'There arc two special duties,or responsibilities which flow from these privileges. One is to spare them all pain and anxiety, and extend to them such material support as you can afford^ and the other is ia due course to carry out your duties to; your own children, when you have them, as faithfully and fully as your parents have fulfilled theirs to you. What, you may ask, are those duties? The first is instinctive, and every human mother shares it with the lower animal creation —namely, to shelter her offspring against physical harm. But as God. has endowed those made in His own likeness- with a moral sense and spiritual immortality, this protective instinct, if motherhood be faithful to its trust, must extend beyond mere physical protection to be a shield

against moral degradation and spiritual

apathy and atrophy. . MUTUAL FAMILY OBLIGATIONS. "The observance of Mothering Sunday is definitely worth while, if it reminds us all of out mutual family obligations as well as of our beneficent home influences, and thus contributes materially to the sturdy virility of, the community among whom we live, conscious always that the greatness of every nation has its foundation in the homes of its people. "Let us, as wo reach forth after a fuller life of self-disciplined freedom, maintain resolutely and gratefully affectionate contact with those beneficent influences which wo rightly call mater-nal-r-our dear human mother, who' nurtured us and protected us from evil in our infancy and childhood, our Mother Country, our mother tongue in all its unsullied purity and refinement, our 'Alma Mater' (if we have one), and. Mother Earth, with all her magnetic loveliness, from whieli wo aTo sprung, and which provides us with our means of subsistence. These filial loyalties will in no way hamper our progressivo development, still loss our freedom, but will assuredly enrich and beautify our lives and characters. Mothers all, your children deferentially salute you." .