MEMORIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20426, 30 November 1929, Page 1 (Supplement)

MEMORIES.

OF SORROW AND JOY.

BY MATANGA

Someone, when tho plans of the War Memorial Museum were drawn—so says tho president of the Auckland Institute — marked ono room in pencil, " Hall of Memories." Whoever that someone was ho deserves a pension or a peerage. His heart was iu tho right place. The particular room ho thus marked may have been, as the president says, a mere cupboard compared with other rooms, but what better could this meditative draftsman do, when he found this ono alone unnamed in a building whoso memorial character seemed in some danger of being overlooked, than to designate it so ? He, at any rate, was not absent-minded about the main purpose of tho building, and a hall, of course, may bo big or little. It may bo a mere passageway, and this, when you come to think seriously abolit it, is tho idea of the whole structure —an entrance-corridor of thought to all that the war taught of things worth recall.

It is one great Hall of Memories. Memories? They make life. Without them human good would be impossible.

Only by knowledge of the past can future advance be rightly made. The road that stretches back and back until it is lost in the morning mists of the world is not for retreat, but for getting of direction iu sane expeditions of hope: "the name of hopo is remembrance." It is the way down which may be brought needed sustenance and munitions from humanity s base of supplies. To burn bridges may have an air of heroism: in reality, it is wanton recklessness, a recourse of frantic desperation. There is no dead past Little and negligible as wo may account it, it is all about us to-day, the influence of its deeds and dreams moulding our endeavours and pointing our aims. Not that history lepeats itself: the changes it -chronicles gave new circumstances to after ages, and the impact of them niters, year by year, the situation to be handled. Nevertheless, great principles abide amid the changes, and to see them steadily and whole calls for wise retrospect, with, as large a place for thankfulness as for criticism. Roses and Thorns. There arc things we would gladly outgrow, and therefore would fain forget. It is a temptation to be resisted. Loss of memory is a disease, not a virtue. Sometimes, when all seems to have gone ill, we weakly long for an opiate that will blot out th'e experience and make our minds a tabula rasa from which all the sharplv-incised record has been rubbed off. The wish is foolish. There can be no memory of only the good and right and happy. To pluck roses from remembrance is" to risk the piercing of thorns. Bravclv, the risk is to be run. It must be, unless , life is to fail of its requisite profit from the days that have gone to

their account. . That was a dreadful gift, which, in Dickens' " Haunted Man," the spectre gave to Mr., Red law- The unhappy man craved forgetfulnoss, his life and that of others seeming no better than a tissue of sorrow and trouble. He got his wish, content close a bargain that frankly entailed the surrender, also, of all kindly and serviceable recollections, and involved the diffusion of a like general loss, to others. The spectre hid nothing'of the baleful risk, but the bargain was struck. " The cift that I have (riven, youl shall give again, eo where you will. Without recovering yourself the «o\ver that vou have ■ yielded up. vou shan henceforth destroy its like iu all whom you approach. Your wisdom has discovered that, the memorv oi sorrow, wrontr and trouble, is the lot of all mankind, and that mankind would be the happier, in its other memories. %vithout it. Go! Be its benefactor J Breed from such remembrance, from this hour, carry involuntarily the blessing of such freedom with you. Its diffusion is inseparable and inalienable from you. t-o Be happy in the eood you have won. and iu the eood you do!" The result was terrible. The boon proved a bane. An influence that tore life to tatters, wrecking its noblest instincts, was spread. But as wonderfully the devastating gift was taken away. Came a day when even the most sorrow lul recollection was seen to have a core of blessing. Mr. Redlaw saw this 111 another's heart.

" It's dreadful thiiic to think now. of l0 "Nof°no. no!" returned the old man. "Think of it. Don't say it'sdreadful. It's not dreadful to me. my son. (f "Tt cuts you to tho heart, fathoi. , FOl the old man's tears werofallingonhini^ J Tfdo cood. a W sorrow tune, hut Hdoes.me eood. ?oo°. r an'd your heart will be softened more and more." Shadows Made by Light.

That is the case with the awful days of th, war To crav. tb.ir obliteration from the tablets of the mind is weakness and unwisdom. There is a hea\y sorrow," without doubt, yet to have the memory blotted out would be to lose much that sanctifies and inspues. We have an inner " hall of memories where liehts and shadows mingle, and tlieie is no way to get rid of the shadows save that of banishing the radiance. Clouds are the children of the sun. We should not chide ourselves overmuch that sometimes we have longed to forget, and it was hut natural that when the days of stress were over, we shmild seek relief in carefree enjoyment of the peace, bought even at so great a P>' ice - Yet we erred in imagining that the terrible davs could be, or should be, forgotten. Now as the outswinging pendulum comes back' from its extreme, of either depressing sadness or reckless relief, it is well to give calm reflection full opportunity and scope. Remembrance is a duty not to be shirked, nor is it be dreaded. Our only care should be to do justice to all th Some tS are sordid, unwholesome, deeply regrettable. Others are greatly inspiring. Both orders are to be given place in recollection. Each of them has its ministry of counsel for the coming years. Inspiration.

They both have embodiment in the erection of our provincial War Memorial. Oft as its purpose is appreciated theio will be musing on the honor of the fatoful years, and on the losses sustained when civilisation was fighting wath its back to the wall. Yet such thoughts will l e denied dominion. Along with this memory, pedestalled 011 it, will be the proud and heartening realisation that in the time of testing oyr manhood and womanhood was not found wanting. i>o heart that beats true can fail to till ill at tho remembrance of courago and sellsacrifice. These were magnificent beyond reckoning. . . ~ Historians will patiently examine the critical episode in human life, seeking to set down all in order; even folk ess skilled for such a task will feel impelled to have their say about it 111 this way: but all, skilled or unfitted for that employ, will be constrained to own that out ol the struggle much comforting emerged. Especially will it be gratefully remembered that courag6, not long ago in danger of being dethroned from its high estate os an essential virtue, came back to honour and that self-sacriiico, no less essential to worthy life, was still ready to play its great part in social uplift. It is good to be reminded that thfese things have not perished from the earth. It is better still to be given good reasoD to hope that with thep lies safely the . waiting future.