PIONEER SPIRIT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26110, 25 March 1946, Page 4

PIONEER SPIRIT

HAS IT DEGENERATED? DANGER OF BLIND WORSHIP? ANNIVERSARY DAY ADDRESS “ Has the spirit of the pioneers degenerated into imitation of an ideal and often unreal past instead of being the initiative of a very living present? ” asked the Rev. J. S. Somerville in his Anniversary Day address to the Otago Early Settlers’ Association on Saturday. It was right that the pioneers should be honoured for their achievements, said Mr Somerville, who was a padre with the'Second New Zealand Division, but in blind., worship of the past lay stagnation and decay, from which maladies Dunedin and Otago suffered to-day. “From earliest years many of us, and not least, I am sure, myself, have been surrounded by the history and traditions of this province,” Mr Somerville said. “In childhood Anniversary Day was a holiday, just another holiday, which boys would spend thoughtlessly and gaily, but gradually its meaning dawned on the mind, and we all have learned to appreciate the value of its observance. Perhaps after the war years, and specially for servicemen, the anniversary of the province has a much richer significance. Its bounds have b£en widened lo those places from Norway to New Caledonia, where sons of Otogo have striven and fallen for this little piece of hilly country anr 1 this fair city. Its hills and valleys, its people and its way of life, were more treasured than ever in Africa or Italy, and never more so than by those who have returned. “ In fact, those of us who have been away sometimes feel that the observance of our anniversary breeds a perennial danger—the danger of resting only on our rich heritage, of blind worship of the past, of stagnation and decay. Dunedin and Otago suffer from these maladies to-day. Has the spirit of the pioneers degenerated into imitation of an ideal and often unreal past, instead of being the initiative of a very living present? New Zealand Soldier Abroad “If I have any right to speak to you like this it is found in three things,” Mr Somerville continued. “ First, I speak to 'you as a member of the Second N.Z.E.F. It has been the fashionable thing in every, age to decry the standard of its youth and almost in every age youth has given its own answer to the Jeremiads. I would like to pay a tribute to those men with whom I companied for so long. Some of them were the de-' scendants 6f Otago pioneers. In fact, the job they had to do was in a real sense a . pioneering one. It is characteristic of the New Zealander that he can adapt himself very readily to strange conditions. In Egypt, North Africa and Italy, not only did he make himself at home, but he made a way for himself with characteristic initiative. . “Our men of the 2nd N.Z.E.F. were in a real sense pioneers—pioneers in friendship as well as in overcoming physical obstacles. Whatever they did they did it with all their might, but they love the jobs of peace-time far more than the tasks of war. They were civilian soldiers pioneering into a strange half-feared world. And they did it so well. Have they come back to a society where initiative and innovation are discouraged; whose slogan is what was good enough for our grandfathers is good, enough for us? Where they show the pioneering spirit and suggest innovation, we all ought to be glad, for tradition lives by innovation and the tradition of , this province can only live by pioheering.” Christian Influences In the second place, Mr Somerville said, as a direct descendant of . the settlers of 1848, and in' that connection he quoted the conditions of the province in showing the cheerful and courageous way in'which the pioneers had overcome their difficulties. “ Our pride in them,” he said, “will be justified only by our own achievements. “Thirdly and' lastly I speak to you as a minister of the Church,” Mr Somerville concluded, “not to preach a sermon, but to remind you of the place the Christian faith played in the establishment of this province. A close friend of mine, after spending many years-in commercial life in England, came back to Otago recently, and one of the first things he said was. ‘How well you can tell a community that has been moulded by Christian influences.’ And you can! The hospi-. tality, the integrity, the charity, and the learning of this city and province have a common source in the humble faith of Christian men and women, who. in their pioneering, put the precepts of religion in the very forefront of their life and work. If you wish to see their memorial look-around you. Yes, says the cynic, you can see it in the stones —in First Church, Knox Church, the University, the High School—but what about the lives of the Men? That is our task.”