STRANGE NEW WORLD

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 14, 17 July 1934, Page 8

STRANGE NEW WORLD

CHIEF PROBLEM TODAY

HOW TO USE LEISURE

'~ Speaking to members of the Auckland Rotary Club yesterday, tho Rev* Herbert Leggatt, of the Toe H movement, declared that the chief problem awaiting mankind was how to dispose of the leisure which had become available as thp result of excessive machin-

cry production,

"We have," said the speaker, "come into a strange new world. Men . have attained greater command of material things till one is somewhat afraid of what fresh miracles may bo in store." There appeared to b eno limit to the capacity- of man to use fresh powers, but the tragedy of it was that mankind was unprepared to live in this new world. ■ ;. ' ' ■

■In Liverpool, the speaker said, he had seen the sick children of the poor with parched throats almost dying for lack of oranges and lemons, yet at that very time hugo quantities of oranges were, being thrown overboard in the Atlantic Ocean in order that higher prices could be obtained for the balance. For a similar reason good wholesome fish was thrown back into tha sea. In America wheat had been used, as fuel and farmers had . been paid to keep land' back'from cultivation. .Mr. Leggatt said that he had come from Lancashire' with -the knowledge that not only were machines idle but'that the wheels would never turn again. ■ ' CAUGHT UNPREPARED. \ The humour of the trenches was renewed, the speaker said, on a placard he had himself seen, "This-mill in exchange- for a broody, hen." New Zealanders • were already anxious abou;c the future -of- wool, and it must be recognised • that first one and then another staple'would go down before the march of-science. Looking for a solution ■of- these ■ tragic anomalies, Gandhi, clothed -iii -his loin cloth, was preaching ",baek- -to-tha simple life," but, declared the speaker, "Mankind will nefver- go back, it must, and will go forward." They had ,read of a new wave of optimism at .Home, but the statesmen there knew that they must recognise as normal the existence of 2,000,000 unemployed. Tli ere were 150,000 young men at Home who had never been at work yet. Many of these, aged from 21 to 25 years, to his own personal knowledge, said Mr.-Leggatt, would take no part in any games involving violent exercise. They had apparently no ambitions. This change-over from work to leisure had caught Great Britain unprepared. In N.ew Zealand we still had resources which Britain had not, as the country was not yet fully developed. The same position was only delayed, but v we had a breathing space to got ready to deal with it. The new machine was going to bo deadly if it destroyed the creative instinct, and he appealed to Botarians to play their part in the education of the community so that the newly-found leisure would not be wasted but be utilised for the benefit of the 'communily.

Mr. Justice dv Parcq recently refused to allow a specimen of dry-rot-infested wood to be exhibited at the Liverpool Assizes, held in the famous St. George's Hall, in an action relating to the sale of a bungalow. The Judge said: "We do not want to start dry-rot in this building."