Y.M.C.A.

Evening Star, Issue 14688, 4 October 1911, Page 3

Y.M.C.A.

LECTURE ON HERE!)TTY AND ENVIRONMENT. Mr H. D. Bedford lectured to young men in the Y.M.U.A. Rooms last night on ‘ The Influence of Heredity and Environment.’ History taught, said Mr Bedford, that the one thing of paramount importance in the making of nations was tire character of the The terrible destruction of the best and strongest manhood of France from the time of the Revolution bronght about her decay. At the. end of the Napoleonic wars there were not many strong men left in France. She had not recovered yet, and would not for a long time to come. One of the most dreadful charges that could be levelled against war was that it destroyed the best of the people. Reference was made to the history of other countries, and statistics were quoted to show the extent of pauperism in Great Britain, and the increased cost of maintaining the inefficient in New Zealand. Much had been done to improve environment, but more would have been accomplished if greater attention had been paid to heredity. Records from gaols and asylums proved the necessity of preventing the marriage of the unlit', and the cry of the children to b© protected against poisons that axe inherent and against neglect would be the great cry of the first half of this century. A good deal of coming legislation, he believed, would be designed to provide a better start in life for oar people. Mr R. Duncan, president of the Y.M.C.A. Literary Society, presided. -A vote of thanks was passed to Mr Bedford on the motion of Mr H. Webb.