SEASONABLE REFLECTIONS

Evening Star, Issue 15072, 2 January 1913, Page 5

SEASONABLE REFLECTIONS

[By tho Chief Justice.]

In the course'of a thoughtful article in tho 'Oamaru Mail,' Sir Robert Stoutwrites:—• Our village life is being improved, and our towns are showing more signs of culture. The town of Wanganui (thanks to the generosity of the late Mr Sargeant and his widow, Mrs Sargeant) is coon to have a Fine Art Gallery, and a permanent endowment to maintain it. Improvements in "arts and crafts." and the development of the artistic sense are becoming manifest in our towns and-cities. One small township, "Havelock North," has set a worthy example to all villages. There is a " work" in Havelock North. They have Wednesday evening entertainments, readings, music, art. The population is only a little over 400, but their hall can seat 300. It has had "Morris" dancing, a Shakespearian pageant, and it has an arts and crafts shop, etc., etc. Perhaps more wonderful than all,' it has an occasional newspaper, the 'Forerunner.' This paper is the best "got up," from a typographical point of view, of all ths papers in Australasia. It is printed on the finest of paper in " pica." Each article begins with an illuminated letter, and it has an illustrated motto, "Piscatories hominuns." It has no cables, no advertisements, no court reports, no records of racing, no gossip, no locals, no scandals, and its price is thirteenpenee. It has charming articles, like M'Guthrio Smith's bird studies (I hope his book ' Birds of the Water, Wood, and Waste' is known), poems, and art articles. Havelock North is marching forward, and why should not all our villages make provision for the higher life? Men and women live not by bread alone. Wo are paying more attention to physical well-being. We are beginning to recognise that physical ability is the foundation of both mental and moral ability. ' Without physical health and strength nothing can bo" accomplished. . . Though much good work is being done, do not let ug assume, the millenium is near. We have crime, ignorance, disease, stupidity, unebarilabieness. still in our midst. We are not so thrifty as we should be. We are wasting much of our- means on that which prcfitotk not. In the nine months ending 30th September, 1912, wo imported 168,971,680 cigarettes. If we imported cigarettes for the next three months at the same,rate the total for the year would be 225,295 : 575. Wo imported" tobacco and cigars as well. The cost of the tobacco, in its various forms, imported, and the duties paid, will exceed one million pounds, without, including the profits of the wholesale dealer or the retailer. What "a. waste! We upend millions on alcohol. Drugs are always harmful to healthy people. We injure ourselves and waste our means on these drugs, because we are still uncivilised. If we are to believe anthropologists, the human race has been on the earth .for, perhaps, 500.000 years. What a slow growth has been its development !

—Not Enough Thrift. Then., -want of thrift is seen amongst our youths in their pastimes. The Dominion spent, last year, about half a million on motor vehicles. Some of this expenditure was useful. It will, no doubt, be in the interests of the public health of our towns when horse traction is unknown. The covering of streets or roads with horse droppings will pome day be thought, barbarous. But some of the expenditure on motor vehicles (including motor cycles) is merely luxurious waste, "if our young men were to walk more and cycle less, and cultivate that most useful habit, the Savings Bank habit, they would gain much. Do they realise that life is a serious business, and that, even to get happiness, vou must look both "both before and. after?" _ —The Picture Show.— There is one practice, or custom, that is flourishing in our towns. Picture theatres have quadrupled during the past year. Picture shows are often useful. They may be mentally stimulating and inspiring. But eome of the pictures are worse than useless if they represent life tragedies and the melodramas that a.ie popular in third-claes theatres. It is not uplifting to have scenes depicting crimes or vice.. Cannot our young people" see the outside pictures that are ever open to their view! And might not some hours in the evening be spent in reading the best books? Much is being done for intellectual culture. Astronomical observatories are being established. AVangnnui set the example, and a night sp?nt with the 12in telescope in its observatory would let us see the grandeur and the. beaut-v of the universe. Libraries are growing "and art societies are being formed. "But. alas, so much has yet to" be done for culture. —The Cigarette Fiend.— We must-look to our youths for their aid. Let them remember that the burden of the future rests on them. Jlavs they high ideals of life? Are thpy patriotic? If both these questions can be answered in the affirmative our future is assured. I have referred to the nicotine or tobacco habit. I think it requires more grave consideration than our people realise. I can remember when, in Dunedin, only one person smoked cigarettes. But now", if we take a walk through the streets of Wellington, or cross the harbor in one of our ferry steamers, we see a majority of our young men smoking cigarettes! ' Do they knew the effect of'tho'drug? It is a sedative ; it destroys alertness, It deadens the mind, and weakens the love of study. Elbert Hubbard has published a discourse. on. the "cigarettist." that I would like to see read by our youths. Yet me quote a few sentences from his discourse: The cigarette smokers are often active, alert, competent men. They arc quick to sec an opportunity, ready'to take advantage of it, appreciative,"sympathetic*. kind. But when you see such a one he is in his prime, at his best; his star is at the zenith, not on the horizon, or at nadir. Never again will he be as. much of a man as he is now. His future lies behind. He is not growing into a better man. He is not in the line of evolution. If you want a man who will train on* flee the cigarettist as you would a pestilence. He will surelv disappoint vou. And the better and brighter your voung man the faster his descent to Avemus. . . . As a close observer of men, and an employer of labor for over twenty-five years, I will-give you this: Never advance the pay of a cigarette smoker—never promote him—never depend upon him to carry a roll to Gomez, unless you do not care for Gome 4. and are willir.oto lose the roll. ' b

There axe some lessons our youths ehould never forget. Here arc five':— (1) Nothing can bo "got ■without labor. (2) Everything that tends to lessen physical strength is a wrong to one's self, and an injury to one's country. (3) Without thrift the_ outlook for the future is poor. (4) A savings bank habit is ten thousand times more valuable than an alcoholic or a nicotine habit. /,5) Without high ideals life is not. worth living. —A Plea for Liberty of Conscience.— There is one tendency amonsist our people that I think it my duty to refer to. It seems to be assumed by a growing number of persons that no limit can be set to the sphere and duties of Government. Humboldt, Spencer, and others •wovld appear to ha.ve written in vain, and the lessons of history to be forgotten. The injury that has been done to humanity by the assumption that a majority has the right to coerce a minority in the region of belief is colossal. " Country after country has been drenched in* human blood. This has happened in. all ages. This principle was carried by Europeans to Mexico and South America. James Bryce says the Spaniards put down human sacrifices, but immediately thereafter began to burn heretics. And even in North America the 'Puritans, in their persecution of the Quakers, forgot what religious liberty meant. In England, Scotland, and Ireland there were many burnings of those who did not accept the ciced of the majority- The burning of heretics is an archaic system, of dealing with minorities, but it does not seem that all our people realise that the Government is secular, and that true liberty demands that it should ever remain secular. The Balkan war is more a religious war than a, Tacial one. The., Turks have a State church. They proclaim the unity of God and that Mahomet.:was His prophet. The Allies

are mainly Greek Catholics, or allied to that faith. Their religion is a State religion. The Turkish peasant is not a had man, nor is the Bulgarian settler. Whydo they quarrel? The Governments in the past have persecuted heretics. The Turks killed Christians and the Christians have killed Turks. If the Governments had been secular there -would not have been the terrible wars that have so often ruined the Balkan people. Notwithstanding the dire evils that over follow upon those nations that have established a State religion, some of our people think that we can call upon the State to teach religion and that no harm will ensue. How slow is the —Growth, of True Brotherhood!— Will Robert Burns's dream' ever he realised:

"When man to man tho warld 'oer . Shall blithers be for a' that?" True brotherhood will never be realised if punishment of any kind is meted out to those whose religious opinions do not accord with those of the majority. Sincere men, ignoring the facts of history, and not appreciating what brotherhood means, are proposing even in New Zealand to make our Government cease to occupy its secular position. And yet we call ourselves civilised! And this is the twentieth century! Ought we to denounce the French who perpetrated the Bartholomew massacre, or the doings of the Spanish Inquisition, or the cruelties or death inflicted by Protestants on one another or on Catholics in our Motherland? How is it that the unenlightened aro still in our midst, and that we have citizens declaring that a majority has the right to impose its religious views on a minority and compel the State to teach its religion? Let us hope that by the end of' 1913 brotherhood may have grown stronger.