NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22987, 15 March 1938, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS

OTHER VOCATIONS I suppose that as we grow older wo all wonder if we might not have done hotter, or, at any rate, have had more fun, if we had been something else, writes Mr. E. V. Lucas in a recent article. Instead, say, of a stockbroker, an estate bailiff in the country, with men to order about and a horse to ride; instead of a Member of Parliament, even with six-liundral-a-ycar and the possibility of a pension, a naval officer; instead of a safely entrenched lawyer, a cat-burglar, continually taking all his nine lives in his hand; instead' of a clergyman, an explorer. Whether we should have done bettor or have been happier it is now too late to tell; most of us arc probably fulfilling our predestined tasks, while the others are gathering no moss; but we shall never definitely know unless, on the other side, there is an Information Bureau to provide the souls of the departed with this kind of fact. NO ENDURING FOUNDATION "It cannot be doubted that the hectic rearmament which is going on at present, assisted by all the means which are available, has, very recently, given rise to an apparent improvement in economic conditions," said Mr. Thomas Madsen-Mygdal. ex-Premier of Denmark, in an address delivered in Lon-

don. "The fall in international trade seems lor the present to have been arrested; the frc; price-level for raw materials and foodstuffs has risen; the shipping trade has e::t|>erienccd a recovery, and unemployment in several countries —unfortunately not in all — has been greatly diminished. It is hardly possible, however, on these facts to build any hope that economic life is 011 the way toward recovery. A patient may feel a high fever as a relief, but this does not mean recovery. Human beings cannot live by waging war against one another, nor can we build our future on war preparations." SULLIVAN'S MUSIC As a rule, trained musicians—"the real people " in that art—are not childlike enough, not pure enough in heart to see God in the guise of music such j as Sullivan's, writes Dame Ethel Smyth, the music composer, in her book on Maurice Baring. And for that reason the opinions of amateurs who are naturally musical have always interested me more than those of my own clan, except, of course, one or two people of genius. Amateurs don't bother about what is the right thing to admire, and consequently have not tampered with their instincts. Unfortunately, it is not always easy to get at their views, because here in England they have an exaggerated respect for the professional musician, and are apt to be apologetic —which troubles the waters of sincerity. Later Dame Smyth remarks: To place Gilbert in the same rank as Aristophanes, it is said, would mean he should have written lyrics as beautiful as those of Shakespeare. But to compare Gilbert and Sullivan with Aristophanes is not, 1 think, a wild comparison, for the lyrical beauty which is to be found in the choruses of the Greek poet is supplied, and plentifully, by the music of Sullivan. NAZI INSULATION Every year the world is growing smaller as a result of the development of means of communication, and the nations are thus increasingly dependent upon each other. The extent to which an individual nation can isolate itself is limited, writes Sir Josiah Stamp, economist, banker and business director, in an article contributed to General Goering's monthly journal, Four-Years Plan. The greatest contribution which any one nation can make to the well-being and prosperity of the world is to be strong, capable and selfconfident. But this goal must not be attained by means opposed to natural world progress, and bv denying the mutual dependence of men upon each other. We shall continue to observe Germany as the supreme example of centrally controlled industrial economic planning, and to hope that she may gain all the advantages possible from this distinctive economic philosophy. Britain and America, on the other hand, will stick to their own methods marked by a regulated individualism, and Britain will devote herself, as far as possible, to internationalism. I arti convinced that the more we learn of the aims of the Four-Years Plan the more sympathetic understanding we shall have for the efforts of a determined people to attain the goal which it has set itself —so long as its successes are not won by a course of action which will isolate us spiritually from each other. RELIANCE ON AUTHORITY Authority in Church and State has often been used as a means of enslaving mind and conscience; in the name of some alleged authority people have been frrbidden to think, writes the Dean of St. Paul's, Dr. W. R. Matthews, in the Listener. Certainly I have no sympathy with any appeal to authority, whether it be Church or Bible, which would place fetters on the mind. 1 agree with anyone who says the only final authority is truth, and that he who admits any right to obedience as residing in any other place but truth commits intellectual suicide. But we do not always realise how much we depend on authority in every sphere of life, or how little we should have left if we cub out everything which we accept on authority of some kind. How much, for example, we rely on the testimony of other people! The whole of history is built up on the evidence, very often third :or fourth-hand evidence, of people who have left some record or indication of past events. What we know, you and I as individuals, of the results of science is entirely derived from what the investigators tell us. We cannot test their conclusions ( and the same thing is true of the scientists themselves. They build on the results of other scientists who went before them and they make use of the results of workers in other ' fields. If they did 'not rely on authority they, would never • make any advance. The fact is that jsome very considerable reliance on authority is absolutely necessary for any full life or any progress. But let me add at once that this reliance ought never to be blind and uncritical. We have to decide for ourselves what authorities we shall trust and how far we shall trust them.