THE WILL TO WHINE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 16037, 23 January 1918, Page 2

THE WILL TO WHINE.

(By “The Optimist.”) , It has been well said that the present day race are phrase slaves, and there i* no greater phrase slave than ouv own dismal James. He repeats every one of them with unction, turns them over on his tongue as dainty morsels; h* -revels in them, they are the outward sign of his intellectual barrenness, and he hugs his mental chains. Just now Jimmy is still very busy in war matters, carrying out the work of the Hidden Hand, unconsciously perhaps, but to the best of his ability. With gloomy mein and in solemn tones he assures all and sundry that the .position is hopeless, “the French ard bred'white,” he quotes—good old phrase—bub quite untrue. “America has come in too late,” he opines, “moreover, the Yanks will be of no use, they can only skite.” Remind him that they beat the British on two occasions, and that outside the Napoleonic battles they carried on the biggest war of the nineteenth century, ahcl he will cither shrug his shoulders in disbelief or flatly contradict. To him there-is no alternative; ruin and desolation stare the British Empire in the face; facts, arguments, reason are wasted on him. Fortunately his opinions do not count. Although in matters of world-wide interest our own Dismal James is innocuous, in the narrower sphere of local and district, affairs he has been and is mischievous. ..Nowhere else, in the Dominion is the olaii stronger in proportion than in Now Plymouth ;• nowhere else has the dirty art -of fouling one’s own nest been, carried on to/such an extent. Nowhere else has misf arable carping spirit reached suoh: -jj pitch. Nowhere else has the “Will to Wliiitel’ been so fully developed; and the place has suffered in consequence. Every work of -public utility, every private industryj everything that may make for the betterment of the district is instantly, continuously, and whole* souledly condemned. And woe .betide the unhappy wight who seeks office as a. member of any. public council, board, or committee; whatever character he may have previously had for uprightness and fair dealing is at qpco by these dreary disciples of the Will to Whine. Incapacity is at once alleged, graft, nepotism, self-seeking, find disin* genuousness insinuated, and the result -only too frequently is that a ver/ large number of estimable citizens, men of abil, ity, will on n'p account seek election _tq any such bodies, and valuable service is lost to the district. : :

For. many years the harbour works were Jimmy's piece-de-resistance. Do* lorous, insistent and persistent his wail, “It was, impossible to build a harbour At Moturoa, quite impossible, money lit* erally thrown into the sea; it was”—. how Janiesf must have- blessed that phrase—“it was an interference with nature,” forgetting that every artificial work is in the same category. The work went on, however, with many mistakes and difficulties at first. These were remedied and at last there came a day when fee first oceangoing steamer was to be berthed there.' Dismal James fairly extended himself in 'doleful prophecy before the event. But the day came, and the crowd went put, and Dismal James was there in full force eagerly hoping that some untoward thing might happen to confirm him in his malignant wishes. Nothing of the kind occurred, but not to be denied, bo said; “Well, she’s in'all right by n fluke; she’ll never get out again.” But she went out as easily as she came in. Alas poor little Jim! He says very little about the harbour now, it would have to be in appreciation, and James would never say a word in that direction—never. .. . j And so it goes on. The borough council inaugurated the electric light system.: D.J. was to the fore .with doleful prescience of impossibility, and visions of bide ruin. Again he Was proved wrong and ibecame conveniently silent. Later, the .tram system was mooted and carried through amid the agonised prognostications of woe, and desolationAgain they are doing' better than eveH reasonable people expected, add Jimmy’s whining clamour about them *is slowly dying away. ' It is surprising how this clan, this cult, this habit of mind, this Will to AVhine is found in all classes of society. Men who owe all they, have and, are to the place, who are in good positions, comparatively wealthy, and of good education, are found Jn its ranks. Most of these having achieved their ambitions, have retired and settled, in other parts and spend their time in ceaseless disparagement of the place that made them; some remain with us—so dees this unfortunate habit. 11 -may be that there is just one.little ambition that has not been achieved and, like Hainan of old, all else availeth them nought, and they are embittered in consequence. These men, with . their money, influence, and position, .are the greatest' Obstacle to progress'that the place has, for their opinions carry weight with;those not gifted with the power of analysis, . “Surely you will not invest in New Plymouth property, one of these wiU say. “Believe me, you are making a terrible mistake. The place is quite unsound. The bottom may fall out of it at any time. Just look at it, it is absolutely rotten. I implore you to consider this, matter very, very carefully or you will bitterly regret it. I won Id not an Investment here on any account. ’ the prospective investor, swayed by tins opinion only too frequently abandons his idea of settling in the place and goes away to conic back in after years and find "how misled be bad been. This wail of uusoundness is of all the most silly. The prosperity, arid stability of any place rests primarily on the extent of..fertile land- in. its vicinity. All other things are more or less evanescent. Mines, whether of gold, iron, or coal, will ultimately work out, even oil wells will run dry, but a gqod area of fertile soil under proper treatment will always remain and can even be improved. This is x I h r great factor upon which the faith of those not infected with the taint of-Dismal Jimmyism rests locally. It cannot bo denied, and there are other possibilities, but that is another story. But the Will to AVhine in so many of our citizens is ouf curse. -Liko—the, poor it is always with us and is ineradicable.