The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. ”Luceo Non Uro." WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1933. GETTING AND SPENDING

Southland Times, Issue 22207, 27 December 1933, Page 6

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. ”Luceo Non Uro." WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1933. GETTING AND SPENDING

It is, admittedly, a great mistake for people to take their pleasures sadly. At this festive season when a true spirit of goodwill permeates every section of the community hearts may well rejoice in the joys of the present and the mind may well turn to formulating reasons for a belief in rapidly returning prosperity. This is no time for thoughts of sadness; there are holidays to be enjoyed and recuperative hours to be lived. Yet it may perhaps be salutary to ask whether there is not on the part of many people a tendency to pay overmuch regard to the material things of life. It is no doubt essential that the Government of any country should turn its attention to economic rehabilitation, just as it is natural that men should think of a restoration to prosperity only in terms of pounds, shillings and pence. But however necessary the balancing of the household and national budget may be, it has also to be realized that material things are subordinate to the true satisfaction of a higher life in which honesty, humanity, charity and loyalty play a more vital part than a substantial bank balance. In estimating success many philosophers have differed; but both science and religion have agreed that materialism is a false doctrine and that it has a deadening influence on the soul of men and nations. An American preacher recently declared that the great bulk of the people in the United States were quite content with the trend of affairs provided that their sons and daughters were not kidnapped, that corrupt politics, gangsters and racketeers let them alone and that they retained, or added to, their money. Such an indictment rings all too true even when applied to New Zealand, for it has to be admitted that the world is too much with those who dwell in this fair part of the Empire. At no time of the year are people afforded such an opportunity for ridding themselves of materialism, at no time are they so ready to be charitable and reverential, at no time are they so sensible of living in a moral, not an economic, universe, as in the glad period when the old year is ending and the new year dawning. It is good that Christmastide comes to challenge the doctrine that the production and distributing of goods, the amassing of money, are the sole aims of man. May the lesson not be forgotten in the months that pass so quickly until Christmas returns to revive ideals and restore faith.