NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22412, 7 May 1936, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS

THE IDEAL HOME Modern life is full of a number of things, international affairs and party politics, the civic life of town and village and the ever present and absorbing need to work and to earn, says the Evening News in writing of the Ideal Home Exhibition in London. But when we come to measure that imponderable thing, human happiness, there is something that bulks larger than these, larger even than the interests and amusements that lighten the tedium and widen the horizon of our ant-heap life. That thing is the home. It can be squalid, drab, unlovable. It can be a thing of beauty and a stimulation to the spirit. Flowers may blossom in the dust, but the human spirit grows mellow in pleasant and easy surroundings. Ideals are man's certificate of redemption, and an ideal home, where beauty reigns and mind and hand are released from the tiresome drudgery, is not the least of them. BUTTER BREEDS CONTENT "The question of fats is a very vital and important one in nutrition," asserted Viscount Astor, speaking in the House of Lords. "It is very important to have cheap fats available. There are different sorts of fats which are available. A sufficiency of fats contributes more than anything else to a sense of well-being and of mental stability, whereas a deficiency of fat 3 ! promotes discontent and restlessness. Those are proved statements, and 1 wonder, when I compare the price of butter in England with the price of butter in France, where it is 50 per cent higher, and the price of butter in Germany, where it is 100 per cent higher, whether the price of butter in the different countries might be taken, among other things, as a fair index of the present political temperature. Let us do all that we can, not only to make milk cheap, but also fat foods cheap. I am sure that if we can do that we shall get not only more nutrition but greater contentment." WORK FOR OTHERS I am speaking eagerly to those who are going into business and into the professions, writes Canon Peter Green in his new book, "Faith and Service " Do not let life be all getting and spending. Find room also for gi* ing. And remember this: In the long run nothing is worth giving but yourself. And how unstinted giving enriches life! What has impressed me, during nearly 35 years in Lancashire, is the way in which many of the leading men work hard at their business, but find their relaxation, and the interest of their lives, not in hunting or shooting, nor in their golf or their motoring, but in the services they gi y e to public causes, political, philanthropic and religious. I find their lives enriched and their characters deepened and strengthened by such service. What I find true in the case of great merchant princes I find true also in the lives of working men and women. And then I remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." So I would urge you to be in tfee world as they that serve. BIRTH-RATE AND OPTIMISM The present population of the world is estimated around two thousand million, and is probably rather less, says the Listener. The maximum population which could be supported would vary greatly, of course, not only with the progress of agricultural science, but with the forms of political organisation; and it has been estimated at perhaps five times the present figure. Certainly, few people who have studied the question maintain that more than ten thousand million would be likely to live comfortably. Some years ago, Dr. Kuczvnski, a population expert, explained how, if present tendencies continue, the countries of Western Europe, including Great Britain, will die out because the rate of increase, five-eights of 1 per cent, means that each group of a hundred mothers only bears 93 future mothers, who, in their turn, will bear a proportionately reduced number. It is the Slavonic and Oriental peoples who, on present form, will inherit the earth. But fertility is not easily predictable. It can be temporarily encouraged by dictators' bounties, temporarily discouraged by special adverse conditions. It is closely bound up with a deep-seated optimism, and so with beliefs, and it is the view which people take of the world which determines what the world shall become. LOOKING FORWARD A recent letter sent by the Archbishop of Canterbury to the British Prime Minister on behalf of the Churches sums up their beliefs and aspirations on the international outlook in the following points:—We fully recognise that the recent action of Germany in remilitarising the Rhineland is inconsistent with the respect for treaty obligations which "is a fundamental principle of international life and an essential condition of the maintenance of peace." Yet we feel bound in fairness to admit that other Powers have not always fully observed the spirit of their obligations both under the Locarno Treaty and under the Covenant of the League of Nations. Whatever measures may bo deemed necessary to express disapproval of the recent action of Germany, the matter of supreme importance is that the statesmen of Europe should now look not backward, but forward, and make every effort to use to the full the singular opportunity now offered —an opportunity which may not return —of inaugurating a reconstruction of the system of European peace on a basis of international equality. Wo therefore welcome the proposal that as soon as possible an international conference should be summoned by the League of Nations. Wo hope that such a conference may take into consideration not only the political causes, but also the economic causes of the restlessness and discontent of many nations. Wo trust that in the better atmosphere which may thus be created a new and resolute effort may be made in accordance with the obligations of the Covenant of the League of Nations to bring about a general reduction of armaments. For we are convinced that the growth of armaments can never bring security. It only increases that sense of suspicion and fear which is the ultimate cause of insecurity. It is not material but moral and spiritual force which can fully and finally overcome fear.