CIVIC IDEALS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13683, 27 August 1908, Page 3

CIVIC IDEALS.

LECTURE BY MR H. D. BEDFORD

Mr 11. D. Bedford, 51. A., LL.B. of Duncdiu delivered a lecture iu Chalmers Hall last evening on t.he subject of

" Civic Ideals." The attendance was not t><> large as at previous lectures, the seating being about half filled, the chairman, Her. E. &. Guthrie, expressed some surprise as well as regret at this fact. The hall should have been full of young men, nt all events he was pleased to see so many young men there. It was their duty to come forward and take up the burden of responsibility as citizens. Mr Guthrie gave a pleasant introduction of Mr Bedford as a fellow student at Duncdin, and a student of renown as a debater.

Mr Bedford gave a very fine and inspiring address He began with a few remarks about the prevalence of Socialistic ideas at the preseut time, in Europe, saying that it was due to •discontent among the workers, with tfie. sham they received of the wealth, they were producing ; they claimed that production had now become,. co-operative, and 'the distribution tl wealth should be co-operative alco.. He feared that the Socialistic programme, if adopted, would do away with \vbat little independence still remained to the workers. His purpose however, was not to talk of Socialism, but to emphasize the importance of the individual, though what he had to say was not. antagonistic to Socialism. His subject was the conditions that made lor the prosperity and progress of a nation, and these were that the people must be sound iu body, mind and eoul. as the condition of a people depended upon the conditions of the individuals composing it. Rome was great so long as its people were individually great, sound In body, active in intellect, animated by high principles; Rome fell when the manhood of its people declined, through luxury at one end of the scale and slavery at the other. Mir Bedford explained, tiie greatness of Britain by the sticngth of the elements of which the race was compound. Ho quoted Lord Brassey on the British Navy, and the mercantile shipping statistics in proof. of the stamina of the British; but quoted also Dr Waddell's observation of conditions in England resembling those that preceded the ruin of Rome, conditions which Iluskin and Rosobcry had noted and bewailed. Proceeding to Civic Ideals, the. lecturer dealt with the duty of developing to their highest the body, the mind, and the soul. As a contrast to the correct view to be taken regarding the physical nature of man, he described some of the extreme asceticisms practised in former limes by those who held the body to be a vile tenement of the soul; and as a subject for regret and amendment, quoted the indications of physical deterioration in the British race afforded by the statistics of recruiting for the Boer War (only 1200 out of 16,000 offering in one quarter being accepted) and by the medical examination of Board school children. . The duty of developing the body and preserving it from deleterious influence was well' insisted on. More important strll was the development of the mind, There was less and less demand for muscle and more for brains in the world's work today, and a puny man of intellect) was worth a, dozen Sandows. He instanced some of the famous men of the past and present, who had done immense things for ths progress of the world, and said there was an enormous total of mental force! wasted because young men did not feed and train their miuda as they ought to no. Mr ' Bedford attributed the great progress made by Western Europe, and not least by England, through the re-lmi.-siinee, the dissemination of Greek philosophy when lhe Turks- drove the learned lrom Constantinople, the new knowledge giving a stimulus to the mind of the world that led to adventurous explorations, discoveries and inventions, and to the Reformation. An equally Great Age was possible now, if men would cultivate their minds to the full. That the-- did not dt> so was to some cxten'S due the fact that iu New Zealand 1 in 290, iu Britain 1 in 282 of the population, were in lunatic asylums. But still more important 'ban development of body or of mind was development of soul—character. Gieat souls had accomplished more than .great minds. The iutelleetl was subservient to the moral nature, andi a gieat intellect divorced from this might be an engine of enounous evil. Herbert Speueer iu his old age warned the world that training of the moial nature was more important to the Stale than the truiniiig of the intellect. Mr Bedford' instanced John Knox at; an instance of high principle swaying the world to a greater extent; than liner intellects had ever done, and John Roberts recently, Abraham Lincoln, Gladstone, and Peter the Hermit furnished other illustrations of the power of conviction. These then, should be tiie ideals of "he couununity, the development of sound bodies, active uiiuds, ami high-principled souls: .these secured, the development of lesourees, progeius and prosperity would follow without- fail. The close of the address was followed by great applause. The chairmau, m moving a vote of thanks to Mr Bedford for his inspiring address, made a lew applications oi the principles se„ forth, tunl the vole was carriej by acclamation. .

Air Beulord speaks again ibis evening in iiii;- iheatic, on uie »Nu License (|UtsLl'Jll.