OPTIMISTS’ CLUB

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21266, 21 February 1931, Page 2

OPTIMISTS’ CLUB

LUNCHEON ADDRESS. The first luncheon of the Y.M.C.A. Optimists for the current year was held on Tuesday. There was a good attendance of members, the speaker for the day being Mr W. Downie Stewart. Mr Stewart chose as his subject, “A Message for 1931,” and gave a brief resume of the conditions’ affecting the British Empire to-day, with particular reference to New Zealand. In the course of his address, he remarked that many people were in the habit of saying that they wished they had lived in sonic previous ago, when things were much better than they were to-day. However, if he had read history aright, he felt that there was not an age equal to the present one, in spite of the world-wide depression. The much-talked-of advantages which people were said to enjoy in those days, were more than offset by the disadvantages under which they suffered. There were practically only two classes—a ruling class and the class of the people who were little better than slaves. Freedom of thought and religious liberty were unknown. and the medical services and sanitation of the present time were undreamt of. In much the same way were people accustomed to speak of school days remembering all the pleasant episodes, but forgetting entirely the unpleasant ones. The Great War and the suffering it caused were often mentioned as evidence of man’s retrogression in the scale of civilisation, but it roust be remembered that there 'vas no deliberate cruelty, Botn sides endeavoured to have the war ended as quickly as possible. When one read in Gibbons’s “ Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire” that the victor in one battle, ordered that t]i*i eyes of 30,000 prisoners should be put out, except in the case of one man who was to have onlv one eye destroyed, in order that he might lead the remainder to do obeisance to the conqueror, one realised that the present day was not so bad after all. It was heartening to learn that the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Mr Phillip Snowden, considered that New Zealand was probably better off than any other country in the world to-day. It had also been stated that Great Britain- had suffered less than any other great industrial country from the after-effects of the war. Mr Stewart referred to the work of Lord Durham, who had devoted practically the whole of his life to evolving a constitution for all the British dominions. He had even refused the office of Prime Minister in order that he might bring to fruition his many years of endeavour, and the constitution evolved by him had stood till the present day practically unchanged. It had been the steady aim of Great Britain to give all her dominions self-rule, and sooner or later India would obtain self-rule also. Mr Snowden had said that optimism was required, but mere optimism in itself was not enough; there must be determination on everybodys’ part to work diligently and lend a helping hand wherever possible. What New Zealand wanted was faith, courage, and perseverance.