UNITY OF MANKIND

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 12, 15 January 1932, Page 11

UNITY OF MANKIND

DEPRESSION’S RESULT i VALUE OF EDUCATION CHANCELLOR’S ADDRESS. DUNEDIN, Jan. 13. ‘•The most remarkable feature of this depression is its universality; it stretches i the world, missing not even the primitive and isolated communities like the Archipelagoes and islands of the Pacific Ocean,” declared the Chancellor of the University of New Zealand, Professor J. Macmillan Brown, in his address to the Senate to-day. ‘‘For the first time in the history of the world.’’ he went on to say, “it has brought out the essential unity of mankind and his interests. It has acted like the pneumonic epidemic of 1918, and taken the spirit out of even the most vigorous and enterprising community. America and Europe, East and West, are at last felt to be one in fluctuations and destiny. This human unit is the goal towards which we now can see all history has been evolving. For the first time we begin to realise that there is an evolution ■of the whole human race in process. Hitherto we have recognised it at work only in sections of our race. Now we feel that where one is affected, the health of all the rest is involved. “It is impossible for any community, however large and self-centred, to isolate itself and follow its own destiny without regard to the events and movements that are shaking other centres. The world is at last an or ganisni with all its parts linked up, though not to a central will, to a central heart and brain by a nervous and circulatory system that is almost as delicate and unifying as that of the human body. For ages every new empire and every new religion aimed at this and failed, some just at the point where it seemed to be in sight of achievement, coming to grips with a rival inspired by the same ambition. It has come about almost naturally by the growth of industry and commerce, aided by science and invention, and guided by self-interest.” There could be no turning back now. the Chancellor went on to say. The Hague Court and the League of Nations were the first infantile efforts to lead mankind to settle its disputes without resort to war. The destructiveness of war was the primary cause of depression. “The beginning of the cure of this epidemic is the removal of fears and suspicions. And that cannot be accomplished till the proofs and signs of their existence, the armed barriers and defences, are removed, i Disarmament is the first step towards | the revival of that mutual confidence which is the primary basis of all industrial and commercial intercourse.” Hard Work and Thrift. Democracy, the Chancellor pointed ‘out, should do everything in its power to keep in abeyance or obliterate class-consciousness, which destroyed all chance of a truly united community. The surest way to achieve this was by education, provided the system gives free passage to talent through all its competition, nature’s chief method of progress. “In conjecture that this depression I is not going to pass completely away soon any more than its post-Napoleonic predecessor of a century ago did. There is no political or economical magic, such as some of our Labour friends are so fond of suggesting, to conjure away the results of this financial blizzard. We shall have to replace the vanished capital by the same toilsome work and thoughtful thrift as slowly built it up. What comes by gambling generally goes in the same easy way. It is only by hard work, aided by thought, that a stable basis of prosperity is attained, and in attaining or restoring this the very powers that originally gained it are strengthened and renewed. Education Vital. ; “One of the foremost duties of a I democracy to itself and to its future is to keep raising the calibre and intelligence of the average man and woman so that their votes in the election to their parliaments and boards 1 may be efficient. But it is even more essential for its well-being that the exceptional talents of each generation be properly developed and trained for the organisation and management of its vital industries and the solution of their problems.” The rank and file needed training and support, and still more they needed faith in the capacity of their leaders to discover and point the way, concluded the Chancellor. Economies were ‘ necessary in times like these, but the ’ least economical and most unwise of 1 economies was to stint the system that ’ selects and develops the exceptional talents demanded by the fundamental » industries. ; It tas one of the seemingly anomal- : ies of periods of depression that the number of University students in- ’ creased. Prevalent unemployment - turned the thoughts of thrifty and 5 well-to-do parents of boys and girls leaving school without the chance of getting permanent employment or fixed ’ career to university courses. It was the duty of Universities to use their funds wisely in attracting and encouraging the talents of the country into a career of fuller development. Periods of depression demanded all the brain power of the country to pilot it through them, and it was the function nf Universities to set the talents of a country in the right direction.