TOPICS OF THE TIMES

Southland Times, Issue 19770, 19 February 1923, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE TIMES

The models and plans of the New Zealand War Memorial at Le Quesnoy and Longueval have been set up in the Parliamentary Build'ngs, Wellington, so that the members and the public may see them. It is to bo hoped that members will remember that the public who live outside of Wellington are also interested in these plans and models and will see to it that they are exhibited in all parts of the Dominion. If the Southland members do not bestir themselves the need for action should not escape the Southland League.

On another page appears figures prepared by the Wellington Progress League to show the total value of goods shipped from each port in the Dominion. This return is made up under the system which was introduced a little over a year ago. It will be noticed that in spite of the handicaps it has had in the past, Bluff comes out in a good position. Much is heard of the “four main ports,” but it will be seen that Bluff is only £5O, 000 lower than Dunedin and that Napier is actually £130,000 higher than Dunedin. It must be remembered, too, that a good deal of Southland trade still bulks in the figures shown for ports other than Bluff.

“The whole atmosphere of missionary enterprise to-day is completely changed,” said Dr W. E. Orchard, preaching at the King’s Weigh House. “This enterprise, like all others for an idealistic purpose, must have suffered enormously by the cutting off of young idealists and the collapse and discredit of idealism which the war has brought upon us, with that consequent apathy from which it is so tremendously difficult for many of us older people to shake ourselves free. The attempt to pay the debt of the war is going to make this luxury of foreign evangelism very difficult indeed. I call it a luxury because we spend on foreign missions precisely what we spend on tobacco, or upon golf. Moreover, the treaty arrangements have, among other iniquities, wiped out entirely all German missionaries in the Allied areas of the world, which practically puts an end to the whole of German missionary enterprise. One of the worst effects of the war has been the criticism which has been awakened in the minds of natives peoples by the spectacle of Christendom at war. From Africa and China and India comes the constant complaint of missionaries that they are having difficulties in explaining it. These simple souls were often unable to discriminate between one side and the other. The question arose: Had Christians no other way of settling their disputes than by wholesale slaughter? Again, the awakening of consciousness of the backward peoples of the world is turning their thoughts to subjects which have a way of blotting out religious concerns. It is difficult for Christians of a conquering race to preach the Gospel equally if they represent a Government which is resisting in any form, no matter how wisely, the demand for autonomy or political liberty. Again, the emergence of an economic consciousness not only makes these backward people suspect that the West has designs for their exploitation, but they feel that there is a danger lest Western civilisation should come along behind Christianity and overwhelm what in their simplicity they regard as a superior form of civilisation.”