"Self-Reliance."

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume I, Issue 20, 28 July 1887, Page 3

"Self-Reliance."

MS DxLAUTOVB AT THE LITEBABY AfiBOCU» A ixctxtbe ou the above subject was delivered on Tuesday night by Mi* DqLautpor, in connection with the Presbyterian Literary Society, There was a fair attendance. The President (Mr Mg Ar a) occupied the ehair and introduced the lecturer. They all knew Mr DeLantour so well, he said, that few words were required in bis behalfj but thanks must be expressed for the lecturer’s kindness in coming

forward. Mr DeLautour said he had at first felt he should not have complied with the request to come forward, but it was impossible to refuse anything to an earnest worker like Mr McAra. He (the lecturer) had net come with artistic preparations, but this in itself Was an encouragement Of self-reliance, and if he failed it would be an example for some of them to be guided by. As an nndercnrrent of all he had to say he proposed to suggest that self-reliance truest form of self-reliance, as beoomes a nation or an individual*— was in itself ultra-human, somewhat bordered on the divine. He ventured to suggest that that man who was full of seii”assurance, dogmatism, had not true self-reliance—it was not a reliance that we in any degree admire or respect, though it was no doubt a reliance on self. He referred to the reliance of Milton and other poets on the Creating Spirit, and followed out the subject as a key note to the suggestion he bad thrown out. Quitting metaphysics and coming to the more practical question, he wanted to think of the country in which we lived, and looking at the country one would also look at the individuals composing that country. Borne might ask, what can you say for New Zealand as an example of self-reliant people ? Are we not steeped to the point of ruin in

debt ? Have we not created all our works, railways, etc., by the money We have borrowed front other people ? What can you say of New Zealand as a country, a future nation ? He could say a great deal. He had been thinking of what illustration of a country perfectly self-reliant he could give them, but failed to meet with an example. The idea that a country which had largely borrowed in order to create its wealth and bring out the industries of its people was not selfreliant was a fallacy. Even the selfreliant Pitcairn Islanders had not prospered. They lacked that spark without which, the lecturer thought, there could be no prosperity whatever. In London we were told if a snowstorm interrupted for a very short tme the transit of supplies there would be a famine ; and he had read in a leading English paper that it would be possible for a ring in America or elsewhere to monopolise the whole wheat market of England for one year, and so deprive England of its wheat except at prices bordering on famine rates. So it was not possible for any civilised country to depend solely on itself. Look at the machinery being used in our own district for the breakwater, which was imported here from Bath. It was not possible for New Zealand to make these things so well and so cheap, and so by exchanges which may be by our natural production from credit, passing wealth, we partake perhaps before we should other* wise do in the prosperity which has taken place in all European countries, and advance in a comparative ratio Looking at figures the prospect was now very favorable to New Zea’ and. We find taxation very much less than it 1869, and the population hat SON than doubled itself by 100,000. We find prosperity really all through the country, and the temporal aberration of the commercial compass and its owaying a little one way or the cthor, although at the time creating disaster to individuals, yet on the whole does not make any great disturbance, and the country either-steadily advances or retrogrades. He thought, looking over the results of a period of yean, and even taking into account the low prices now derivable from our exports, New Zealand was steadily advancing as a country likely to be second to none in Australasia. Therefore it would be fallacious to point to our debt as a sign that we are not selfreliant. [The lecturer then referred at length to the education question, the remarks being entitled to more snace than can be afforded to-day.] Ha then referred to the higher influences—unexplainable, but always existing to a degree—which guide us in the path of life. There was a great difference between that man who is self-reliant though humble and deferential to others, and

the assertive, dogmatic man who repelled us; the one attracted commanded our respect, we could hardly tell why. Would it not be a help to them in dealing with practical difficulties ? Addressing himself to the young, he advised them not to trifle with impurity; the mere lingering with impure talk, little as it seemed, brands and burns inwards, and in the future its brands and scourges would remain, not to be wiped out with golden rivers of years. As they respected their mothers and sisters, they should respect the purity of women. Although there were doubtless many examples in the colony of the effects of drink, on the whole we were a sober people, and it had often been remarked that the young people of New Zealand were very sober. (Hear, hear.) They should keep up all wholesome agitation and firmly advocate those reforms which would place more and more power in tl e people, to prevent the making ot profit by that which did so much damage to the country. (Applause.) If we thus conducted ourselves actuated by pure self-reliance, how could we fail to see for New Zealand a great future ? It was possessed of all those features which according to history go to make up a great country, and it had the foundations of the finest country the world had ever seen. No bad management, extravagance, or corruption in this Minister or that could greatly mar our future, and we must remember that most of these stories of corruption were for the greater part exaggerations—the creations ot party spirit and bias. We should be very careful before con-

detuning public men who gave up so much to serve their country. Let us hear more before condemning them in the wholesale way it was the fashion ’ust now to condemn them, and it was bfaly fighi - t0 get at the truth before believing Wlidt w»« »«'£ about our neigbbof. bumming up, the lecturer dwelt Oh fdb pfdotioiJities of futurity,’ and said the time zriight come when all that seemed now so dark to uS would be explained, sit’d if the people could be inspired with a spirit of divine hope there need be no fear for the future of the country. Much applause was accorded the lecturerwhenhehad concluded, and the President said he wished to personally thank Mr DeLautour. Mr J. T. Evans proposed, and Mr R. H. Scott seconded, a vote of thanks to the lecturer. Mr DeLautour said he knew the subject was a little too high for him, but when speaking to such a Society all one had to do was to set the members thinking. It would always be his pleasure to help such Societies so far as it lay in his power l .