A NEW OUTLOOK

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20100, 20 March 1928, Page 6

A NEW OUTLOOK

ROTARY IN BUSINESS LESSON OF THE GUILDS Drawing a parallel between the spirit of trust and service which animated the old guilds of Europe and that behind the Rotary movement of to-day, Afr O. Holst addressed Wanganui Rotarians at their luncheon yesterday. The speaker along the lines of Rotary’s relation to the public as seen from the standpoint of the vendors themselves. Rotary, he said, was first and foremost a spiritual factor in the community, and he contended that the universal need for friendship had been proved by the remarkable growth of Rotary since its inception in Chicago 20 years ago. He felt that the whole social system to-day had been built up on misunderstood legal action, and out of many theories had arisen vague and wrong conceptions. It had come to be thought that the mainspring of human endeavour was greed and envy, but such a basis must necessarily be fundamentally Yvrong. Air Holst said he took comfort at the thought of the good work of the guilds which, flourished in Europe for about 400 years from about the thirteenth century. The giuld movement commenced in the soul of one man— Francis of Assisi, who Yvas poet, dreamer and saint, and had its genesis in a small Italian town where it was fostered by “The Little Friars.” He thought they could hope with confidence that if the same spirit as was carried on by the Friars were carried on by Rotary they might take heart at the future. In conclusion he said he felt that Rotary’s relation t® the public must grow on education so that a sounder economic sense might be developed. It was generally admitted that there was something wrong with the New Zealand educational system, and he suggested a series of addresses on education by several men in Wanganui whom he knew to be thoroughly competent to state the case. The speaker was accorded a vote of thanks.