LOOK AND LISTEN!

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXV, Issue 12914, 16 July 1936, Page 8

LOOK AND LISTEN!

ADVICE TO ‘BRITISH EMIGRANTS LEARN ADAPTAI3I.LTTY. LONDON. June 11. Advico to iho emigrant was offer.\l recently by Professor F. Clarke, when he said, in speaking to an audience ealled together by the Society for Oversea Settlement of British Wanton . that no better maxim could be adopted by those going overseas than the maxim of “Stop, Look, Listen, and 1)0 willing to wait.” Professor Clnrko speaks from a wide -personal experience of the demands made upon anybody who, epecially when oneo over his first youth, is called upon to dig up his roots and to transplant himself to soil entirely strange. He lias himself Jived m nearly every one of the -Dominions, and is now busy, ho says, “being English” after, having for many years held the Chair of Education at .McGill University, Montreal, Canada. THREE STAGES. Oversea, settlement, says Professor Clarke, is apt to bo difficult, chiefly because-tho emigrant is apt to impose his own way of living upon conditions which do riot suit.it at all. Every emigrant, according to Professor Clarke, goes through three stages. There is, first, tho stage of pathetic; illusion, during which be surrounds himself with “reminders” of the old days; during which he plants familiar flowers and attempts to rear familiar animals in the belief that he. is keeping alive something of the man he used to be. TRANSITION. Next there comes tho stage in which present surroundings play upon his susceptibilities and, unconsciously absorbing something of the new life, he begins to adjust his outlook. Finally comes tho stage of acceptance m which, while never relinquishing his native history, lie yet adopts the history which is rowing up beside him and becomes part of it. Colonials, says Professor Clarke, are, and must be, people of action. They must have the gift of “all-at-oncon.css.” Civilisation has, at times, to he built up in a single generation, and because of this, the planning factor must ho of greater importance than the time or the tradition factors. ASSIMILATION. Tho man who is going to ho a colonial, ho says, may expect kindness and sympathy under these conditions, but he must not expect to feel at home. He will he wise to refrain from any Attempt to impose his own pattern upon his surroundings. He will be more than wise to allow the nature of the place to have its way with him,