A GREAT SCOTTISH JUDGE ON PUBLIC SERVICE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18871, 25 May 1923, Page 5

A GREAT SCOTTISH JUDGE ON PUBLIC SERVICE

The new Lord Justice Clerk, Lord Alness, gave a fine address the other day to Edinburgh students on “Public Service.” He said:

“Pursue high ideals. Shun an otiose life. It was a dead and hopeless thing. Self-indulgence was the straight road to mediocrity and failure. Self-denial was one of the highways to success and even to greatness. One of the chief pleasures in life arose from work well done., The theatre, the dance hall, the cricket field, and the gymnasium all had their attractions, and all had their appropriate place in a well-ordered life. But do not make the mistake of assigning to them a larger place than they deserve. Cultivate a sense of proportion. ‘ “Do not be swept off your feet by the tempest of pleasure that is blowing to-day. , Keep your eye on the future. They would never regret the time they spent in study. Their remorse would rather be if they frittered away the opportunities which the University afforded them of qualifying themselves for the battle of life. “Youth was a golden gift. It would never return. There was naught that they could exchange for it. It had possibilities which were infinite and which maturer years could not afford. They had adaptability, resiliency, freshness, and virility. loose things diminished with the passing of years. Read hard. Play hard. Think hard. Don’t be content with the second best. There was little room for it in the world to-day. “This was an age of achievement of specialism. In sport as in work things were probably better done than they ever were before. At the, same time do not let them be discouraged by an intellectual limitations which' might be theirs. _ The judge of the talents was a. just judge. They were living in an age which had no parallel. The World in the Melting Pot.— “The world was in the melting pot. It still rocked and reeled under tho shock of war. New ideals jostled one another. New forces were let loose. These things tended to confuse the mind and to confound the judgment. Into that world they had stepped. See to it that they played their part. See to .it that the claims of public service were heeded. The University man by training and environment could do much to right the wrong. He could expose crude fallacies. He could correct hasty and ill-considered judgments. He could, in short, wield an influence in public affairs which few cbuld equal and which none could excel. Think of the great men who had gone before them and who had made this University what it was. . “And 'resolve that with God’s help 1 they would not in thought _or ip word do anything which would bring discredit or dishonour upon it. Tbps you will go into the world,” Lord Alness concluded, “your mind stored with knowledge, your imagination quickened, your emotions touched, your iudgment balanced. You will be, not a "recluse, but a publicist. You may not obtain fame. You mav not obtain wealth. But there are much bigger things than these. If you live for others, if you seek to ameliorate the lot of your less fortunate fellow-men, if you honestly strive to leave your country better than you found it, then you will in the end hear the great ‘Well done.’ ’