Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, SATURDAY, JULY 21, 1928. LITTLE THINGS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16703, 21 July 1928, Page 4

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, SATURDAY, JULY 21, 1928. LITTLE THINGS

Great things are what men look for, hope for, work for, and, very largely, live and die for. Ambition is not lightly to be despised. Greatness would rarely be, attained if unpursned. And yet great successes are rare: the odds are against .the great man. There is only one Prime Minister, one Chief Justice; fiv o per cent, of men engaged in professional life for a short time earn big incomes; an even smaller percentage of men become abnormally wealthy. Their earnings hardly affect the average earnings of the community. In tho world of nature, as of fact, the normal is more in the ascendant than the abnormal. The thunder has its uses, but the fruits,of the earth are the earth's response to clear shining after rain. When the greatest effort is made, as it ever should be; when "all a man's powers have been directed to accomplishment of a great thing, success has often been secured by sonic little thing, a momentary inspiration, a coincidence, a happy thought or a friendly gesture. Lord Riddel relates that a friend of his once told John Bright that he had heard him deliver his finest speech in the House of Commons. John Bright smiled and said, "I suppose you refer to the Angel of death." "No," said the friend, "it was the speech you delivered on the Burial Bill." John Bright's eyes lit ui) and he replied, "You are quite right, but that is not the general opinion." That great speaker, second only, if second at all, to Gladstone, went on to say he had rehearsed that speech for three, days. The Burial Bill, which recognised the right- of Nonconformists to burial in the churchyards of the .English parishes, was a'matter of the. keenest controversy at the time. But it was not that great effort Of preparation for three days that captured the House of Commons: it was an unpremeditated phrase used in a few opening words. The orator commenced by saying "I am glad that the chief opposition to this Bill has come from the University of Oxford: that ancient seat of learning and—after a pause—undying prejudice." The churchyards of England became free to Nonconformists, after centuries of exclusion, not by a great speech, but by a happy phrase. It would not be. a fair conclusion that the effort of preparation in that particular case was wasted. No one can sny to what sub-conscious cause an unpremeditated phrase owes its birth. In politics, little things are often more potent in the decision of really great issues than prolonged deliberation in Cabinet or caucus. Mr. Coates must have had some such idea in his mind when he characterised the Leader of the Opposition "his greatest, asset." Mr. Coates did not mean that Mr. Holland was showing great gifts of statesmanship, or .that his ,\Vord as to Samoa was to be weighed, valued and accept-

ed. He did mean that his attitude^towards the administration of the'Mandatc was so wrong that"by its continual emphasis, he was destroying; his personal influence, and that of his party, in the country. He rneant that in ignoring proved facts —proved so before the eyes of the world —in order to satiate an inveterate bias, he was degrading his position as Leader of the Opposition, which should be one of strength, to an intolerable weakness. Mr. Holland, as leader of the Opposition, occupies a position of honor and responsibility. Any action by him, which weakens that position, is an injury to the country. It is a distinct injury to the Dominion when any one of its leading statesmen denies proved facts for political purpose. Some jealousy of the dot nil of what, after all, can only be a coercive protectorate over an uneducated native people, is right and proper. To ignore the result of a Parliamentary Committee of both Houses; a judicial Commission sitting in the islands; the Council of the League of Nations, and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, as to the legality of the deportations, .although apart from its danger, as ministering to possible disorder, if not worse, is a refusal to admit error which is an intolerable weakness in a public man. Candidly we do not want the leader of the Opposition to be "a. great 'asset' - ' to the Prime Minister. He is and should be the only alternative to the Prime Minister. There can be no satisfactory. Government unless there is an Opposition capable of taking its place and of carrying on the best traditions of Parliamentary government. Constitutional politics should not be prostituted to. little things.. Mr. Holland lifts very considerable gifts. He is unsparing of hiniself and capable. Imperturnbilitj\ of no ordinary kind; powers of organisation which are evidently considerable, will fail to sustain any public man in the front rank if he is unable to get out of the rut of little things. Breadth of view, toleration, pipe judgment and vision, are requisite before the politician can become the statesman. These qualities are wholly inconsistent with narrowness and bias. Happily, although our Parliament is in session, we can, at moments, forget politics and politicians. In ordinary life, in every society; in every household,.the little things are of the greatest importance. The big things will take care of themselves when they come. At any rate, it will be easier to deal with the big things, when they prove to be adverse, if care has been taken of the little, things. The little kindnesses; fhe little, courtesies; the little considerations, over the ill-effects of the continuing wear of the common-place of life. Even thought the right place of little things may be acknowledged, yet. it .is indisputable that the natural desire of -everyone is to be permitted to do something great. Dreams of greatness begin at the nursery. Only rarely are they given up during life. Dreams merge into ambition: ambition spurs action for personal ends, although perhaps "it should be made of sterner stuff." This desire for personal success should not be held to be wholy blameworthy, unless everything that is natural could be so held to be. The question, from the viewpoint of the moralist, is the purpose for which success is sought. If ambition becomes the main object of life and fails; if success has been sought simply for little things; if the end is failure there is no room left for recovery. Dagon will have fallen upon his face before an ideal of bettor things; there is nothing left but the handless stump. If ambition has been impersonal, if nil that a man has, and is has been given to the service*of others, whatever may be the finarrcsult of his pursuit, there should be satisfaction. So, William Pitt, absolutely fulfilled his ambition. At the time of his death there had been disasters at Ulm and Austerlitz, but Nelson, at Trafalgar, had saved England from danger of invasion. It was almost with words.of despair the great Commoner, at the early age of 47, lay dying. "Oh, my country! how I leave my country! " Pitt was great, in little things, as well as in great things. At the last banquet he ever attended his health was proposed as the "Saviour of Europe." His whole speech was composed of some forty words. "I return you many thanks for the honor you have done me; but Europe is not to be saved by any single man. England has saved herself by her exertions, and will ,as I trust, save Europe by her example.'' Who can doubt but what, in spite of the surrounding clouds, Pitt's life was justified.