THE MORALS OF AUCKLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18089, 13 May 1922, Page 8

THE MORALS OF AUCKLAND.

Generalisations about morals are always dangerous, because exceedingly few men or women have the knowledge or perspective to warrant them sitting in judgment. It is as unfair to assess a community by its police courts as it would be fallacious to judge it by the number of its churches. Mr. E. D. Mosley takes a balanced view of the morals of tho Dominion as a whole, only to lapse into an inconsequential comment upon Auckland in particular. Ho perceives many influences making for improvement, as must every man who is conscious of the questioning spirit of the age, of the modern passion for social justice, and of the constant groping of democracy for the general weal. But Auckland " is notoriously rather worse in some respects than other cities of the Dominion." In what respects? Frankly, we suspect that our " notoriety " is not deserved. This city is not behind others in public spirit, civic service, philanthropy, or social effort in any form. Like other cities it suffers from a certain lack of selfcontrol and over-indulgence in pleasure. But; is it really worse than others 1 Mr. Mosley accuses us only to multiply excuses. Auckland is the largest city in the Dominion—and some allowance must be made for size—-and as an important seaport it has a considerable floating population. His only specific charge against us is that our too-genial climate weakens home life. That is a matter of opinion, but it may bo remarked that a wise parent will know how to carry home influences into the great out-of-doors and will influence his children as easily in the picnic field as in the drawing room. For the rest, Mr. Mosley's gentle reproof appears to rest upon an assumption having no surer ground than tho convention that Londoners and Parisians are the wickedest people on earth—a convention which ignores the circumstance that tho pleasures of the large city, innocent and evil, exist for and are largely maintained by the strangers within its gates.