"THE BATTLE OF LIFE"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22056, 12 March 1935, Page 10

"THE BATTLE OF LIFE"

EXAMPLES OF GREAT MEN OPPORTUNITIES FOR SERVICE [by telegraph—OWN correspondent] DUNEDIN, Monday Interesting reference, backed up by a citation of notable authorities, was made to-day to the recent controversy on pacificism by Br. W. Newlands in an inaugural address at the opening of the Otago University year. "In spite of present-day pacifist teachings," Dr. Newlands said, " life remains a battle, although the weapons and some of the rules may alter. Even the preacher uses language bristling with the metaphors from war. Admiral Fisher tells us that a man's finest possession is not money, not fame, but the ability to look any man in tho eye, and, if need be, to tell him to 'go to tho devil.' Fisher was a fighter and his advicO in this as in many other instances may sound rugged, but Birkenhead went farther in his much criticised Glasgow rectorial address a few years ago when lie proclaimed his conviction that life still offers glittering prizes to those with sharp swords.

"Neither believed that one could load a. lotus eater's slothful existence and survive. They acted rather on the maxim of Kipling's 'Captain of the Mary Glostor,' 'You keep your light so shining a little in front o' the next.' Life's contests, however, constitute one aspect only, inescapable as I believe theni to be, at least until we shall have achieved Rousseau's socialism, or the Millennium, and we cannot afford to shirk the equally insistent and nobler call for service. "Is it not a striking fact that our greatest modern teacher and exponent of this human duty is a great soldier, Baden-Powell P" said Dr. Newlands. "Service does not mean that you must rush to join up with all or any of the too numerous leagues. Opportunities occur daily to the individual who has eyes to see and oars to hear. If I may allude to one particular sphere of usefulness I would commend you to join the blood transfusion donors at our hospital."