NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20625, 25 July 1930, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE INDEPENDENT SPIRIT. " Most people—one may say the best sort of people—greatly prefer to do things for themselves, however badly, than to havo things done for them, however well," says Lord Fonsonby in a collection of essays. " The peopl* m the mass may Lie slow in assimilating the educated enlightenment which hitherto tho few alone have hern privileged to enjoy. Rut you cannot, force the pace or drive tliein; and it is possible that by their own efforts and initiative they may find a path for themselves by which in time a degree of educated enlightenment will bo reached that may excel that on which tho few pride themselves Also it is easily observed how much peoplo prefer the pleasures they tiave themselves organised, however clumsily, to the beautiful equipment for sport, games, or entertainment provided for them by outside agencies. There is always room for tho help of the tactful organiser who can supplement efforts and contribute the knowledge which may be lacking owing to inexperience. The mistake comes when there is dictation and an insistence on giving peoplo ' what is good for them.'

EXPERIMENTAL TRUTHS. "Modern society is chaotic; it lacks direction, wholeness and authority. But its condition is not unwholesome, for it realises tho deadness of its crstvvhilo unscientific, and, therefore, misguiding authorities," writes Carl Heath in his book, "Tho Free Spirit." "It will havo nothing that is not realistic in tho sense of being rooted in an experimental knowledgo of reality. What then is to penetrate the spirit of man and determine conduct, if religion fail to be realistic also? Any world outlook, any survey of international lifo and service, can but enforce tho sense of need for a concept of religion w}iich has no hidden fear of tho modern spirit of challenge, which invites and demands tho test of experimental truth. A diehard, fundamentalist or static attitude of spirit is deadly, for it offers no true response to tho modern need. The insurgency of youth and the new methods of thinking call for as great a love of truth and realism in religion as in every other factor of human lifo. And the answer is fateful, for upon its strength and clearness rests tho direction given to world conduct. What is needed is tho sense of a burning reality, the fruit of hard work in the spiritual laboratories, and a resultant inward authority which it is tho task of religion to establish. But that religion must he ' •» not impossible religion' for the young spirit and tho modern mind Essentially it must bo a religion that knows no finality in its eternal search for God and in tho progressive realism of its life for human kind."

UNDERGRADUATES OF TO DAY. "I consider this present generation of undergraduates to bo tho finest lot of fellows I have ever encountered. I have been in Oxford for many years arid have watched undergraduates como and undergraduates go, and it is my firm opinion that tho present generation is the best of all. It is true that from time to time there have been deplorable among the undergraduates, but it is not fair to judge the great mass of the university by misbehaviour on the part of a very small section," said Mr. A_ D. Lindsay, Master of Balliol College, in an interview reported in tho Evening Standard. "Let us bo fair to tho undergraduate of to-day. We cannot compare him with the undergraduate of the days before the war. In pre-war days thero was a settled, ordered outlook on life. But tho war has intervened and upset everything. Now, what man knows to-day what tomorrow will bring forth ? Taking this general atmosphere of unsettlement into consideration, I find that the student of to-day is tackling his problems in a satisfactory, manner. I will not say it. has been so ever since tho war. On the contrary, I think that just after tho war there were reasons for grave doubts. But now wo have the university in its stride agiiin, although it is striding in an unsettled world. These young men work harder than did tho pre-war generation. And I say that from mv experience, both as master and tutor. Of course, thero are exceptions, but not many. If you want a final word concerning tho outlook and alleged idleness of Oxford undergraduates, let mo say that in my opinion tho undergraduato of to-day is inclined to have too wide an interest in life and affairs. Sometimes their wido interests are bad for their work. I liavo to pull more students for devoting too much time to political societies and literary associations than I do for their not working."

EMPIRE MIGRATION. "For a long timo politicians have been telling us that we must not even mention unemployment and emigration together, lest we should give offence in some way to oui fellow citizens oversea," says General Iliggms, head of the Salvation Army, in a letter to the Times. "The Salvation Army has always held that the two problems should bo dealt, with on parallel lines, and that tho army founder's dictum of over 40 years ago, that 'of all the remedies propounded for the immediate and permanent relief of distress arising from unemployment emigration holds the field,' is still true. Then again, we have every confidence in tho common sense of tho people oversea and their ability to distinguish between unomployables and unemployed. Incidentally, they know that tho unemployables are the last of nil the people who want to leavo tlieso shores; it is tho strong and virile who want to get away—firstrate human material; in fact, such material as tho oversea Dominions require and would welcome. The report of the Industrial Transference Board, published nearly two years ago, calls attention to tho fine quality of tho prospective migrants to the oversea Dominions, and their ability to make good settlers is rightly stressed The distinguished investigators (Sir Warren Fisher, Sir John Cadmari and Sir David Shncklcton) gave it as their opinion that emigration on a largo scale was a solution to a most baffling problem Surely it is time that that opiti'on was acted upon. Tho moral results of piolonged unemployment ore devastating; tho financial and economic effects must bo a considerable handicap on industry; while human, spiritual, racial and Empire considerations cry aloud fur an immediate, generous, definite, and forward policy. Transplantation within the Empire is not a political matter, but just a great human businoss proposition."