THE DRIFT IN N.Z.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20629, 1 June 1935, Page 25 (Supplement)

THE DRIFT IN N.Z.

“Country at Sea Without a Compass.” CAUSES OF UNEMPLOYMENT. Ey K. J. HOWARD, XI.P. WTEP softly Terese, we are on holy ground. The gentleman who surveys my copy sometimes adds a word that I had not intended and that alters my meaning somewhat. Last week I quoted Cocker, an expert on draughts or checkers. Xow Cocker

knew every move as this world is a checker board on played, where a few men move the rnass as ’f they were just pieces to played with, the alteration of the word Cocker to Tocker spoilt

my meaning. We do not complain; we merely explain. We have a lot to be thankful for, and so give praise. What we are trying to do in this column is to show that our troubles are man made. If we believe they are beyond the capacity of man to rectify, then we are in a hopeless state and might as well sky the towel and go to our corners beaten. Man is a superstitious animal. He comes into the world bringing with him certain inherited instincts. He brings fear with him. He inherits the instinct of self-preservation. Xow if these inherited instincts are cultivated, we produce a selfish and sometimes cowardly individual. Stealing, lying, cheating, hatred and fighting are what can be termed cultivated instincts. On the other hand human culture should be to give to every human, as nearly as possible, an equality of knowledge. Man has ever found difficulties in trying to understand what appears to be mysteries surrounding him. Prayers for Peace. Last Sunday we had a day of prayer in our churches praying for peace. Some of the sermons were delightful pieces of elocution and rhetoric. They carried great thoughts with them. And as this writer believed that thoughts are things, then some good might be expected from them. But almost the next day we got the news that thousands of airships were to be built for the purposes of war. So those good thoughts apparently were screened as it were from the very people who needed them. Our aim in our educational system, should be to cultivate the young mind to understand that there are no mysteries in nature. There may be things yet that we do not understand, but science is ever opening the door wider and wider, and things that would have been looked upon as mysterious, say forty years ago. are mere commonplace even to the boy of to-day. We are in trouble because we have withheld from the mass 'a certain standard of culture that is conferred on the few and withheld from the many. And so the mass is haunted by fears of the unknown. Tyranny and oppression find their roots in the ignorance of the people. • Indian Rope Trick. I sat on a balcony at Larenco Marques and saw an Indian do the rope trick. We had dined well at the Governor’s expense and this thin wisp of an Indian was produced for our entertainment. For days afterwards the air was filled with argument to prove where the boy went. But eventually a photograph was produced which clearly showed that the boy actually disappeared into a basket at the foot of the rope. I have that photograph and will send it to the editor. He may not reproduce it as the picture may not be suitable for reproduction. But the audience consisted mostly of highly trained and mentally alert men. That Indian, apparently, was a poor half-starved bottom dog; but he knew a lot more on a certain subject than those men who were present. So he was able to deceive us and to make some believe the boy actually disappeared up the rope into the air. We had a piece of disquieting news in our journal on Saturday last, figures were produced to show that we can expect at least 7000 unemployed men this winter and that at present the figures are a record for Christchurch. With all our tinkering with Mortgage Adjustment Acts the poor are getting poorer. On the other hand the Public Trustee said in a report last week that he had estates in his hands declared at £60,000,000. The Public Trustee has probably not got a third of the estates in his keeping. It must be remembered that these estates belong to living people and are declared for death duties. New Zealand a Rich Country. This is not a poor country. We have a rich country in our keeping. Rich in actual wealth and richer in what is termed potentialities. But there is something wrong. If thoughtful men and women would seek the cause ’ We are giving money for research in cancer, and that is right. But we have to search for the cause of 7000 men being unable to find the place where they can produce their own needs. The Church must get up off its knees and dig into the cause of this lost legion. For the year ending December 31. 1934. we imported £1.450.000 worth of wearing apparel. If we are looking for the cause of some of our girls being out of work, well there is the cause. We imported £1.293,000 worth of electrical goods. Much of that could have been made in New Zealand. We imported £400.000 worth of boots. Those could have been made in New Zealand. The thing becomes monotonous to repeat again and again that the 70.000 unemployed could produce the things they need. Take a typical family of. say. five. Take a pencil and paper and jot down the things that family needs in a day. a week, a year and then see how much of these things they could produce. But we imported 16 groups of things we need to the tune of nearly £10,000.000. That does not include all our imports; that is only a random few lots of which much could be made in Xew Zealand. Shaping the Child Mind. Wells, in his “ First Men in the Moon.” speaks of children they found up there in jars, and being shaped according to the wishes of the rulers. Our minds have been jarred and shaped for generations along the lines our rulers required. Our children’s minds are still being, jarred and shaped to suit certain interests. Our naturai advantages in Xew Zealand are so many that we could fill this magazine by recounting them. If we compare it with any other coun-

try in the world—Germany, for instance —a country with poor soil, no coast to speak of. and a pood deal of poverty. Yet one man is inspiring her to lash out and defy the world again. That man tells us straight out that they are coming for their lost colonies Japan is giving us the jumps. Again a poor country as compared with New Zealand—poor in soil and poor in raw material. We are at sea without a compass and a log. We are drifting, drifting, drifting. To borrow a term, we are a nation committing hari-kari. Our birth rate is falling, falling, falling. We will be 19.000 children short at school next year. What must we do to be saved ? The answer is obvious.