POWER OF YOUTH

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 112, 14 May 1931, Page 2

POWER OF YOUTH

SERVING THE STATE AN INSPIRING ADDRESS A striking address, in which emphasis was laid upon the great power in the hands of youth to servo the nation, was delivered by Dr. J. S. Elliott at tho Town Hall last evening, on the occasion of the congratulatory ceremony iu honour of graduates of Victoria Uni versity College, states the Evening Pest of Satur lav. In the present Jay. said Dr. Elliott, New Zealand and ilip whole world was beset with difficulty and danger, and they who were war-worn, tired, and ageing were looking to the young University man and woman to make a saner and happier world. “Bring your gilts of priceless youth to your countrymen,” said Dr. Eiliott. “Edmund I Burke, in one of his bursts of impassioned eloquence said: ‘lt belongs to that great and unspeakable power, the Deity, Who with His arm hurls a comet like a projectile out on its course, and enables it to enduro alike the sun’s heat and the pitchy darkness of the chilly night, to aim at the formation of infinite perfection, but for us poor in capable mortals the only safe rule of conduct is experience!’ You young men and women have not yet gained much experience, hut experience will be a safe guide for you if it is based on principle and not on expedicncv. and is strengthened and adorned with the qualities of eternal youth. Three Ages. “An alleged philosopher has said that when wo arc young we think of all the naughty things there are of which we desire personal experience when we arc older.” said Dr. Elliott. “This is the ago of innocence. When we are older we do the things we should not. This is tho age of experience. When we are older still we think with pleasure of all we’ve done, ond regret that owing to advancing years and other limitations we arc no longer able to err as we had done. This is the age of wisdom, and it entitles those who have reached these halcyon days to give good advice to their juniors. In accordance with inexorable custom this is what 1 propose to do, but cautiously, because 1 have had enough good advice given to myself ro ruin me, and briefly, apologetically, and timidly as becomes my somewhat belated and uncertain respectability. Far be it from me to point the finger of scorn or attempt to advise younger people who have had a generation of experience longer than mine. I cannot speak about myself, but I may say that the opinions of my contemporaries arc considered somewhat mouldy by tho rising generation, for, in the jargon of the man in Mie street, in 1931 youth ha« no inferiority complex and is not to be condemned for self-expression, whatever that may mean; but on the other hand, let me remind you that none of us is infallible, not even the voun<’-est of us. ‘ n ' Character or Cash? “No matter how gay and carefree the graduates may be/’ the speaker continued, “they must determine whether they are in existence to make a life or make merely a living, whether they are hero Io make character or only cash. If they settle this question aright they have ideals. They have the spirit of their college, their alma mater to inspire and sustain them. This spirit is woven through the whole fabric of its corporate life in succeeding generations, so that a university never is old. for its spirit, which is its fountain of life, rises ever full and fresh within it. VVe grow grey and old with the strife of a, few poor years, but our universities sec crowns fall, governments pass, customs change, but every vicissitude passes them by, for they have tho. spirit, of perpetual' youth. “What constitutes, tho. spirit of perpetual youth? Ideals, courage, self-reliance, enthusiasm, simplicity, and the love of work and effort. The quantities decline at times in the nation and in the communitv, but their vestal (ire flames in our academical halls, otherwise Oxford, Cam bridge. Edinburgh, and even the com paratively recent University of New Zealand would ere this have'fallen into senile decay and dissolution. A’ou must. I take these qualities which are, or 1 should be. the spirit ot every wniversilv j out into the uninstructed world; and 1 never was it more necessary than at J the present time.”