PUBLIC OPINION

Hokitika Guardian, 2 May 1931, Page 6

PUBLIC OPINION

HUM A N PER SON A LIT Y. “I range myself with the thinkers who cannot fit righteousness andtruth into a mechanical universe. Furthermore. I am convinced that, unless tne whole scheme of tilings is meaningless oi- irrational, human personality at its best must have eternal significance and value.”—.Bishop Barnes.

THE SPELL OF THE WILD FLO AVER “It is astonishing what a lot of stories and quaint old practices have grown up about the simple blooms that lift their sweet (faces so happily to th» sunshine. At first we love the flowers because of their beauty ; but when wo discover that almost every plant li«s some romantic association with people and time that we can never see, we grow to love them all the more because of this added attraction.” —MV Gareth Browning in his “Children’s Book of WildHowers.”

THE KING AND THE INDIAN PROBLEM. “The time has now come lor me to hid von God-speed on the conelus.-on oi your deliberations which 1 inaugurated some nine weeks ago. I have (followed your proceedings with the clos( st in-, t.orcst and have been impressed with the dignity and earne-tness with v nieh they have been conducted aiid'witn mi unity of aim p'hic.-h inspired them. It ,was not to he expected that in nine Week's, however close and intensive Hie labour that was crowded into them—and I know full well how exacting vour labours have been—a clear-cut and final solution of the vast problems which confronted you should he touml hut 1. am persuaded that, great as rs the volume of patient thought and care Ini work still to be done, you have opened a new chapter in the history of India. 1 am sure you will one and all strive to secure the aid o*l your countrymen in carrying on the task in the same spirit that Inis marked your discussions, and 1 hopefully look lorwird to an outcome which will restore peace and contentment throughout Indi,. Mis .Majesty the King m a farewell message to 'the India Round 4 ah’c v.(inference.

RUSSIA’S THEATRICAL TRIAL “The case which has just ended was not an Denary trial. It. was a public spectacle. From beginning to end it was conducted as a vast propaganda im-cting designed to glorify the Soviet and expose (he wickedness of its enemies. 'The Soviet regime cannot he regarded as cnilised or stable so long as Ihse violent and panic-stricken measures have to he taken in its defence. This search 'lor scapegoats,” says the

“Times.” 'this hunt, for victims to throw to a people who during the last few years have become accustomed to slaughter and avid for Mood, has b’eromo extraordinarily intense ever since it became plain that .in spite of partial successes, the Five-Year Plan of industrial organisation was not, being cartied out according to programme. The oligarchy which rules the country though the organisation oi the Communist Party seems to feel that power is slipping 'from its grasp. On no other .--.apposition is it puss hie to explain the ■fierce revival of terrorism during the last few months and the almost frenzied search for scapegoats to carry the odium of the food shortage and the shortcomings in the execution of tne Five Year Plan.”

INSURANCE AND ASSURANCE “The basic principle of all insurance transactions is th t cf co-operation. In other words people pool small amounts to create' a central fund out of which the unfortunate among them may he reimbursed against certain happenings which would he too great a strain on | their individual resources.’' writes Air I'D. ('ameroii Forrester ill the “Daily -Mail Year Book.” “By applying tinlaw of averages the contribution required from each subscribing member, plus the margin required for overhead charges and fluctuations, may he ascertained. Between ordinary forms of in-surance-—whether they be lire, accident.. third party, workmen’s compensation, marine, or what not —and li'l’i* assurance there is one essential difference .In the "one case one is paying for protection against a happening which may never occur. In lile assurance ,tiu* benefit is to ho received definitely. That is why a life policy is called an assurance in contradistinction to an insurance'.”

THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNIST. “To support isolation upon national freedom or a diminution o' national authority is quite as grotesque as it would he to insist that Robinson Crusoe oil his lonely and isolated island was doing more for himself than would he the ease if his talents and his capacities were at work among his neighbours ns a member of organised society in his homeland. If the hosted advocate of national isolation and exclusive ness were to catch a true sight of himself lie would set' an ostrich which, with its head buried in the sand, was exposing the whole of its large body. to the amused gaze of the passer-by. Jlis printed hooks and newspapers, nis trade statistics, his systems of transportation and communication, his science, hi-, literature, his .schools, his

churches, his music, his art, are all ! hopelessly intertwined and interniingled with those of people of other climes and other tongues. His very vradestatistics annihilate the notion of isolation.”— Dr Nicholas .Murry Butler.

“TUNING IN.” “It does not suffice that the person’ who is. attempting to communicate his own idea lias a clear notion of it; he must also lmv t > the skill so to act upon the other that he is enabled to discover the right road. And again the only means which he possesses to this end is language. But all the skill and tact of the speaker in of no avail unless the mind of the other is able and willing to receive what is off red. He must he ‘tuned in’ if the words of the speaker a r e to cause reception in him. Naturally the preparation and the tuning are the most difficult, the more abstract and complex are the ideas which are to he communicated, and often it is a matter of luck if the audience is found which is wholU captivated by the words of the speaker.”—Dr Fischer.

AVAR DEBTS AND SLUAIP PRICES

“The effect of the fall in wholesale prices noon debtor countries has been disastrous. A striking instance of U"a is afforded by the British war debt to tlm United States. This debt, like our own to Britain, is paid in goods and services, and is expressed in terms of gold, and so varies with the purchasing opwer of the sovereign. When the British debt was founded in 1923 it stood at £945,205,000; since then £35,000,000- have been repaid, and the debt amount—hut adjusted to the changed value of sterling it is actually £1,2-3-1.205.00 I, of £289,051.000 more than, when it was funded! And the same thing applies to us. W c pa\ our overseas loans in goods—wool, wheat, etc. -the prices of these have fallen, so we must now send more of our nroduets to cover our obligations. Sir Otto Niemever tells us to produce more' raw materials. If to this advice he had added a guarantee that Britain would buy all w« produced—as she easily could do—that would have been a business proposition worthy of our consideration.” —Mr AY. Al. Hughes in the “National Review.”

SACRIFICES OF VANITY. “At the present moment while we are comfortably discussing the-matter, not fewer than a million fur-hearing animals are struggling in traps. Their limbs have been crushed by the steel jaws, and when they move or lip down the edges of the broken hones are displaced against one another. The pain has induced thirst, hut since they wore caught, days ago, they have been unable. to quench that thirst. And this Icciser Cc.lvnry, this .tong-drawn-out crucifixion, is being transacted all over the world in order that women in Paris, Vienna, and London may look a litth> handsomer in the eyes of their admirers.”—Captain C. AY. Hume. M.C., lion, secretary of the University of London Animal AA’elfare Society.

A FAIR. DEAL FOR THE ANTAIAT.S

“AA’hen once you have succeeded in getting a hoy to watch an animal for the sake of finding out something about it. you have gone a long way towards securing at his hands ‘fair treatment’ for all animals,” said Air Oswald H. Latter, of Charterhouse School. sneaking at the Conference of Educational Associations., “More then one sportsman ere now has refrained from pulling the trigger of his rifle because some act of his intended victim has at the critical moment excited his curiosity or his admiration; and has thereafter abandoned the rifle in favour of the camera. Photography has already done something towards diminishing the number of eases of impaled insects, and of trays of blown birds’ eggs discarded.by reason of lack of any real, satisfying intellectual interest in them.” THE BUILDING AND ITS CHARACTER. “It is nearly two hundred years since the Mansion House was designed : the neighbourhood is the most- important and valuable part of our City, where new buildings are constantly being designed by the leading architects of today. But the Mansion House ‘holds jts own.’ and a thoughtful observer might ask if there has been much improvement in our -architecture in two hundred years. Has not the spirit or advertisement crept into our designs? A big building seems to shout. ‘Look in, me, I’m a Bank,’ and the next building seems to cry out, “Don’t look next door, look at me. Fin an Insurance Office’ ; and so they compete for publicity. In the meanwhile, the Mansion House seems, like an ancient dame, to smile and snub them with its quiet dignity, and show the contempt of the old regime for tlie nouveaux riches.”— Air Sydney Perks, F.S.A.. Architect and Surveyor ol Hie City of London.