NINETY-FIVE YEARS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19732, 3 September 1927, Page 8

NINETY-FIVE YEARS.

DB. GILES' BIRTHDAY,

richly varied career.

INTELLECT UNIMPAIRED.

A LECTURE FROM HIS BED

To-day Dr. J. Giles celebrates his 95th birthday. For the first time the anniversary finds him bedridden. Some four months ago infirmity placed the shackles upon him and now ho rests through the days, only getting up to sit in. a chaff for a little while each evening. But his infirmities are only physical. Although deafness and failing sight impose some handicaps upon his mental ao tivities, his mind, with a vigour unimpaired, carries him to the higher realms of thought. From his philosopher's watchtower his gaze sweeps the world in search of truth. Because he is a free-thinker many would dispute his philosophy of life, but none who know the patient spirit of inquiry within him, the kindliness of his judgment, the fervent honesty of his mind, could to . honour and repect him. Pre-Victorian Days. Born in Somerset'eight years before Hobson came to New Zealand, Dr. Giles is a link with pre-Victorian days. George IV. ascended the throne only two years before he was born and doubtless he retains memories of England during the short reign of William IV. He studied medicine in London, but interrupted his studies to go the Crimea. It was at the base camp at Scutari that he served and there formed a personal friendship with Florence Nightingale. After the war he completed his course and in 1858 came to New Zealand, where he has had a most varied experience, embracing the tasks of an army surgeon and a civil medical practitioner, a pioneer settler, gold digger, mining warden, newspaper editor, departmental nnder-secretary and a magistrate. V I have never been back to England," he Remarked to a Her.am> representative yesterday. "If I had been told in 1858 that I should never see England again I think I would have backed out of coming. If I could go back I suppose I would notice changes in the manners of the people, but not a different kind of people. As Herbert Spencer says human nature does change, but very slowly." England and the British. A remark about distinctive characteristics of the various branches of the British race prompted the comment that New Zealanders might have their peculiarities, but he did not fancy the people of the Dominion were different from the parent stock. " Prophets say," he continued, " that a new sub-race is forming in the world. Experts skilled in that sort of thing say it is perceptible now, especially in America and to a considerable extent in Australia. However, I do not think there is much difference between the New Zealander and the Englishman. - " One of the most permanent thoughts in my mind is the wonderful way the Old, Country has been fighting its way through the enormous difficulties since the war. If I could have had a vision of such difficulties when I left England I should have had great fear for the country. Yet she has done it. At present I should suppose that Sovietisrn is the most mis chievous influence, yet even in regard to the controlling of this influence I believe that England will again lead the world.. England always leads the.: way, and takes the moderate course! Impatient spirits in the world outside are bridled a good deal by the influence of England. America's Position. " The tendency of the times," he proceeded. " is to do things by negotiation rather than by violence. I think that all nations are beginning to come to that opinion. Ido not think we know enough about America yet. I have always thought of England as being the leader in true civilisation, but I do not know anything about the soul of America. She keeps herself wrapped up in a big cloak, she keeps aloof a good deal from the rest of the world. She is loath to. commit herself to any party among outside states. I hate no doubt she will become a preponderating influence in the world, but." added Dr. Giles, with a gleam of humour, in his eyes, " some scientists say the American continent in the course of ages will go down in the water, that the east will crumble away and the west push itself."out - into the Pacific, which will result in a new type of mind in the evolutionary process. Education and Religion. "Yes," continued ths doctor after a few minutes' reflection,, "knowledge is increasing, but whether education is always the right kind is another matter." "What have you in mind;" he was asked. '"'That religious education of the present day is doing a good deal of mischief," he replied. "There is a vast amount of superstition- and prejudice that has to be got rid of. Religious education indirectly helps to encourage these things by doing so little to cure _|hein. , There are influences that pull in different directions. On the one hand there is a persistence of ignorant and superstitions notions about the order of Nature and the authority of the Bible which makes great obstruction to the progress of real knowlelge. On the other, religious education itself has become a very dead and monotonous thing and young people grow up with a great disregard for it. It looks as if we were to have a population with no great hold upon deep spiritual truths, yet worshipping the forms of religion and guarding them devotedly because of the feeling that if the forms were not kept up the whole thing would collapse. "There are big material interests mixed up with religious teaching. All Churches have an enormous amount of property at stake. I wonder if clergy all over the world were deprived of their station as teachers, if their office were done away with, how many of them would continue to be upholders of religion? How many would drift into secular camps ?" Tho economic view forces itself into almost every religious question. Reconciling Differences. "There is one hopeful sign—the movement among thinking people to get all the important religions to unite and form one body or to become friendly with one another." He instanced Christianity-and Buddhism, the followers of which worshipped their ideal. Could one imagine the Christ and the Buddha quarrelling over the question of supremacy? Yet there was the absurd spectacle of Christian missionaries trying to convert' Buddhists and now Buddhist missionaries carrying their religion to convert England. Children bit by bit should be taught the natural law; how the world is not a chaos, but an orderly - arrangement,. Religious education taught people that the natural law could be evaded, that God could be persuaded to change His mind. Cause and effect was the great fundamental doctrine that should be forced on people's minds. "I have never had a hard and fast creed," said Dr. Giles. "I have always tried to keep my mind open to any influence. I have tried to see some good in every system. Of late years I have been more attracted to theosophy than to any other system of belief. It seems to give a good deal of hope and throw a good deal of light in dark places. But. I do not commit myself to it altogether. I reserve the right to judge anything it teaches. Many of the best men are agnostic. It is better to say one does not" know than to pretend to know."