WOMEN OF DOMINION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21799, 14 May 1934, Page 11

WOMEN OF DOMINION

FINE TYPE PRAISED LORD BLED ISLOE'S TRIBUTE PRIVILEGES AND DUTIES A thoughtful address touching on various subjects was delivered by Lord Bledisloe at the Mothers' Day rally held in the Town Hall yesterday afternoon. He had been deeply impressed, he said, with the numbers and earnestness of the assemblage, and with the beautifully eloquent and penetrating address of Dr. Graham Scroggie. As Dr. Scroggie had pointed out, in these days when among large numbers of people brought up in good homes there was a disinclination either to practice or to preach their religion, there was yet a strong nucleus in this Dominion —to which His Excellency could testify—of solid, earnest, God-fearing people whose power for good was simply enormous if they would but realise it and exercise it. His Excellency warmly congratulated the Young Men's Christian Association, which organised the gathering, on the extent of its salutary activities in this city and its suburbs. "We live in days of verbal exaggeration and impatience of control," said His Excellency, "particularly that exercised by people older and more experienced than ourselves. A good illustration of exaggeration (what the old Greeks called 'hyperbole') is the word 'wonderful.' We describe things as 'wonderful' which, are not wonderful at all, and in doing so destroy our sense of proportion, our accuracy of mental measurement.

Wonderful Possessions "All the time we ignore and fail to acknowledge the wonderfulness of much that should excite our admiration for its outstanding excellence, as, for instance, some of the recent glorious autumn sunsets or some of the noble selfsacrifice in the homes of the poor during this period of acute economic adversity.

"For over four years my wife and I have lived amongst you, and travelled extensively with our eyes and ears open. After a full experience of life, and with a knowledge of most parts of the world, I can confidently and without exaggeration describe as 'wonderful' four of your outstanding national possessions—your climate, your scenery, your native bush and your women. There is no finer type of woman in the world; and those who are not true to type, whether amid affluent surroundings or in humble cottage homes, are conspicuous by their abnormality. "Let all young people present whose experience tells them that this is tru»3 justify this gathering after it is over by embracing the loved one who gavt» them birth and exclaiming 'You are a wonderful mother.' Enemies of the Home "Only the wholesome atmosphere of a good home, and a deep consciousness of the responsibilities of motherhood can produce the type of woman which has in the past made for the physical, mental, moral and spiritual well-being of New Zealand.

"I say advisedly 'in the past' because there are influences abroad in the world to-day which are operating against the incalculable influence of home surroundings and the responsibilities of motherhood under the delusive appellation of freedom. Impatience of control, whether parental or scholastic, unless accompanied bv the strictest self-discipline, is apt to lead to moral degeneration and social anarchy. "Those of us who after attaining manhood had the privilege of training at one of the old English universities speak of it lovingly as our 'Alma Mater' —our kindly mother, an academic parent, who, while acknowledging our freedom, guided us gently into the prudent use of it for the benefit of mankind. Like many another Englishman, the biggest debts that I owe and can never adequately repay are to my human and my academic mothers. "All privileges have corresponding responsibilities. The privilege of your being alive in 'God's Own Country,' your constitutional vigour _ and your wholesome aspirations, are either wholly or mainly due to your parents and in a special degree to your mothers. Are there not two special duties or responsibilities which flow from these privileges? One is to spare them all pain and anxiety and extend to them such material support as you can afford, and the other is in due course to carry out your duties to your own children, when you have them, as faithfully and fully as your parents have fulfilled theirs to you.

The Protective Instinct "What, you may ask, are those duties ? The first is instinctive, and every human mother shares it with the lower animal creation, namely, to shelter her offspring against physical harm. But as God has endowed those made in His own likeness with a moral sense and spiritual immortality this protective instinct, if motherhood be faithful to its trust, must extend beyond mere physical protection to be a shield against moral degredation and spiritual apathy and atrophy. "The observance of 'Mothering Sunday' is definitely worth while if it reminds us all of our mutual family obligations as well as of our beneficent home influence, and thus contributes materially to the sturdy virility of the community among whom we live, conscious always that the greatness of every nation has its foundation in the homes of its people. "Let us." concluded His Excellency,, "as we reach forth after a fuller life of self-disciplined freedom, maintain resolutely and gratefully affectionate contact with those beneficent influences which we rightly call maternal—our dear human mother who nurtured us and protected us from evil in our infancy and childhood, our mother country, our. niothei- tongue in all its unsullied purity and refinement, our 'Alma Mater' (if we have one), and mother earth with all its magnetic loveliness, from which we are sprung and which provides our m<sans of subsistence. These filial loyalties will in no way hamper our progressive development, still less our freedom, but will assuredly enrich and beautify our lives and characters. Mothers all, your.children deferentiallv salute you!"