THE WOMEN'S COUNCIL OF NEW ZEALAND.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVII, Issue 11235, 5 April 1897, Page 6

THE WOMEN'S COUNCIL OF NEW ZEALAND.

. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —It lias been suggested that the Women’s Council, shall nominate subjects; for discussion amongst the various societies of New Zealand, and it has occurred to me that the basic question should be asked whether the enormous train of sin and crime, of want and misery, are not large enough to indicate something fundamentally wrong - in our mode of life. If it be thought that there is this wrong, then this fundamental error should be sought for, so that when it'is found efforts should be made to induce mankind to tread the true path. For myself, I have learnt to answer the query in the affirmative, and believe there is something fundamentally wrong. Co-operative selfishness, especially family selfishness, is the basic and the only cure is a broad recognition that the mode of life of man, the most social of animals, is each for all. 1 believe there is something fundamentally wrong, because scarcely anything that is done in our complex productive life gives satisfaction. Yet any student of evolution knows that any function that aids in a creature’s persistence must give it Let us glance at a list of the evils. Think first of the waste; the tens of millions of the unemployed, with the starvation and the general deterioration resulting; the production of senseless luxuries; the duplication of labour. Take, again, the subject of sex; the problem of the Sphinx it has been called. Many ( good people look upon passion as a curse; yet love is the very wine of life, the red flower in the garden of the soul that gives colour to the whole of existence. The present system demands its obstruction; and, instead of flowing in its true channel and giving beauty everywhere, the obstructed stream overflows, becomes stagnant and putrid, weeds replace sweet flowers, and instead of delicate odour we have malarious gases. But one dare not enlarge. Let us give a list of some of the evils. War and its costly preparation; starvation wages, sweating and'long hours, with accompanying despair, disease and immorality; the social evil generally, with its moral and physical taint to humanity ; the commercialism of religion, with its accompanying hypocrisy, cant and formalism; the desire to make gain out of others’ losses, as seen in gambling, card in sweeps, in the totalisator,* &c, until healthy games have become as antagonistic as a war. Then consider narcotics, hypnotics and stimulants, with their incalculable train of evil. Trust in our fellows has given place to a state of espionage and examinations that is destroying all originality and bringing everything to a dead level of mediocrity. The struggle to live is so great, the mere strain upon the race is such, that even an occasional holiday is tainted with a sense of neglected duties ; yet man’s productiveness is so great that were it organised he need only labour a few hours a clay for a rich leisure of art and travel. Doubtless, there is something fundamentally wvonc. The race is suffering from atavism. The broad, communistic life of service that has evolved men from the brute has, given place to selfishness, germinal in us from our brutal ancestry. Instead of living in social palaces, where four generations of a coherent family would often lie together ; in which the mating of sons and of daughters would mean only the gain of another ■ child to the parents ; where there would be no sharp line of ownership between the family and humanity, and where a joyous, Christ-like life of service would he the- only life possible—instead of this, for the sake of an ideal that does not exist, we each live with our hrood in our separate den, and ycjoice that we have the right to growl at an intruder. We fear to lose a privacy we do net possess, yet might have, were we to realise the tremendous truth in Christ’s .words: “He that loseth his life shall save it.” How Christ esteemed this high life is seen running as a golden thread, through the precious fabric of his work. “Who is thy niother ?” “ Let the dead bury their dead,” and so on. Let but a number understand this noble life and desire it, and it is with us ; no law need be interfered with ; no vested interest be touchech An understanding thousand could live it here and now, right in the midst of mankind, and be the leaven which would permeate the whole world. But first there must be the conviction of the sin of the present system, and conversion to the belief in the possibility of the Kingdom of Heaven. —I am, &c., A. W. BICKBRTON.

THE PREMIER'S tRIP. TO THE EDITOR. Sie, — I see the Premier has, after some consideration, at last determined to accede to the wish of tho Colonial Minister and take part in the Royal Show to be held in June. I’anCy Richard Seddon of bygone days, the working man’s friend, the great Democrat, announcing that he believed that for the -well-being of the masses such shows were of the utmost importance, and should be attended by representatives from all parts of the British Empire! IVhat an effect such a statement would have had upon a democratic audience ! How that audience would have appreciated such sentiment! How their thoughts would have wandered back to those happy and privileged days when true Democrats were allowed to wrestle and do battle with dogs for the bones that were left from the feast of royalty and its satellites! Those days have parsed, and now instead of the bones the people’s hunger is to be appeased by the remembrance of giided shows, red-coated soldiers, taken from poverty to hedp to keep poverty in submission. People may object to this as rot. It is true nevertheless, and it surprises mo that there are not more out here that have awakened to the fact. If there be gods that look down upon tho doings of men, methinks they would not rejoice in such scenes as these; but rather shed tears when they remembered such a picture as the one drawn in your paper of the chain-makers a week or two past. Is this colony going to assist the oppressed or the oppressor ? Let it decide soon, or it will be too late. We have numbers of instances hero where the will of a-few men in power is absorbing the will of the masses. The desires of tho people are being

neglected, and the very class who have been the enemies of progress ' are being pandered to. T have no objection to Mr Seddon going, but lot him pay the costs. 1 would also be willing for him to stay when he gets there, as ho has just about reached that stage of democratic Liberalism that would fit him for a seat in the Home Parliament. With regard to New Zealand he has just about outrun his usefulness. — I am, Ac., ’-''GEO. BARTY.