PRACTICAL HELP

Waipa Post, Volume 43, Issue 3392, 24 December 1931, Page 5

PRACTICAL HELP

FOR THOSE IN NEED.

"LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR AS THYSELF."

The season of Christmas giving is at hand. People are determining what gifts they will make to their friends as an expression of their amity and goodwill. No doubt they are anticipating a few presents for themselves. The resultant state is one of pleasurable anticipation. Let us not in. the midst of the Christmas bustle forget those people who are not our personal friends, but who have an equally strong claim upon our generosity and goodwill. This Christmas is likely to be a hard one for many citizens who have fallen on difficult times through no fault of their own. One of the worst years for unemployment is ending, and is leaving a carry-over of large numbers of good, hard working people who are without occupation and the means to live. They will have a very miserable Christmas unless the bighearted public comes to the rescue and provides them with seasonal good cheer.

It is sometimes difficult for people in comfortable circumstances to imagine what the lot of the unemployed worker and his family actually is. New Zealanders are proud, and are diffident about accepting help which may carry with it the stigma of charity. Men who are bringing up families on a slender income have no chance of saving money for a rainy day. The best they can do is to gather together a few articles of furniture for the home by paying for them by instalments. The man in a permanent job may buy his home, but the casual worker who has no guarantee of permanence rarely accumulates more than furniture. When unemployment comes and the pinch of poverty is felt, most New Zealanders keep a stiff upper lip and hope for better times. In a season such as we have experienced this year the hope has been long deferred. And as the pinch increases the home furnishings begin to disappear. One by one the cherished possessions are turned into money until no more can be spared. Christmas approaches, but a cloud of want passe before its sunshine, and the period of rejoicing and general holiday threatens to pass by those whose lot has fallen in evil places.

Such people have a big claim on the generosity of the public. Christianity, which means a great deal to us, is kept alive as much by festivals as by services. Christmas is really a period of thanksgiving not only for a noble religion, but for a beautiful method of life. , The old religion was built on fear, but Christmas Day. now gives it a new foundation stone of love. On that broad base has been constructed an edifice on the lintel of which are inscribed ineffaceably the words, "Love thy neighbour as thyself." They are the text of religion as we know it. It is the practice of them which keeps our faith in the goodness of human nature.

Men and women can bear their misfortunes mostly without complalhl't. But to be unable to celebrate the Christmas season in which we rejoice in our beautiful religion, practice its doctrine of loving kindness, and renew our faith in human nature is to place a great strain on our belief in these things and even to turn us against them. If the best qualities of humanity at a season which is peculiarly their own are not displayed towards the unfortunate, how can we complain if those whom we pass by lose their grip on the universal belief drift into the dark ways of life, and are for ever lost?

A happy Christmas for the stricken means the re-creation of manhood and womanhood and the salvation of youth. Te Awamutu itself has its needy residents, and we hope "the spirit of Christmas" will bring joy to them in practical form. At least two thousand families in Auckland city and suburbs will spend a cheerless season, unless those who ■ haye; money .-.to spare are generous with it;' There are numerous funds to which to subscribe. Let the Christian spirit therefore assert itself, and for a brief space at least let gladness reign over the whole community., -•-'■'.. /