Address by Sir Robert Stout.

The following is the full text of the address delivered at Invercargill on Monday by the Chief Justice:—

We are citizens of no mean country. New Zealand is not a vast territory like Australia. The area of that island continent, as it has been called, is greater than the area of the United States of America if Alaska is left out. The area of the continguous States and Territories amounts to a little over 3,000,000 square miles, and that of Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea is about the same extent. New Zealand has an area equal to the area of England, Wales, Scotland, and half of Ireland. It is about half the area of Germany in Europe, and its territory is about half that of France. We have heard much of late of Belgium, Rumania, Switzerland, and Serbia. The area of New Zealand exceeds the total area of all those four nations. The population of those nations was, before the war, about 20 millions of people. New Zealand, however, had only about one million people. In all that makes life desirable New Zealand is equal to any country in the world. It has beautiful forests, rich mineral deposits, and large, level, and fertile agricultural and pastoral lands. Its climate is all that can be desired. We are geographically more favorably situated than most parts of Europe. Let us see how we stand in reference to the sun. Do we realise that the 47th parallel of southern latitude passes through the centre of Stewart Island, and that the 50th parallel of northern latitude passes through Land's End in England? All the territory of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland is further from the sun than any part of New Zealand—even Stewart Island. No page 4 part of Germany in Europe, or of Holland, or of Belgium is so near the sun as Invercargill. We have a climate of eternal spring on all our seaboard, and almost all Europe has a more severe winter than any part of New Zealand. In the United Kingdom there may be said to be five-months of winter, and in Scotland cattle have to be fed indoors for about that period. In the North Island of New Zealand our flocks and herds do not require housing or feeding indoors, and except in providing winter food, such turnips, outside, and to some of our stock oaten chaff, our flocks and herds in the South Island do not require to be housed or to be fed indoors. Another test of our climate may be of use to us by looking at the situation of our towns. Invercargill is about the same latitude in the south as Lausanne, in Switzerland, is in the north; Wellington the same as Barcelona, in Spain; Christchurch is about the same as Marseilles; Auckland as Cadiz, in Spain; and Halfmoon Bay about the same latitude as Paris. There are hundreds, nay, thousands of people in the North Island who have never seen a fall of snow, and there are thousands who have never even seen snow on top of a high mountain or hill. Even in Stewart Island frost in the winter along the shores is unknown; in fact, along the sea coast of Stewart Island there is less frost than you will get even in Hawke's Bay. It is said, however, that the latitude of a place is not everything so far as heat or climate is concerned. This is true. We know that the effect of the Gulf Stream in Western Europe is such that there is warm water along its western shores right up to the north of Norway: but we also have a warm current striking Stewart Island, which comes from the Queensland coast. Our climate is more equable as a whole than any climate in the world. Then we have a page 5 great asset in our scenery, in our mountains and our lakes, in our forests, in our rivers, in our perpetual glaciers, our highest mountain being no less than 12,359ft in height. Our West Coast sounds—our fiords—are unequalled in grandeur by any inlets in the world. With such a country and such surroundings as we possess, we mast become the home of a strong and able people. We have not the heats of Australia, nor the frosts of the northern United States or Canada. We have another great advantage to start with: we have a goodly race settled in New Zealand. Our early settlers, and those who have come to us since, are physically, mentally, and morally strong people, and in such a country as New Zealand we can look forward, surely, with hope and faith to a great future for our new nation.

We have made considerable advances since our colonisation began. We have vast flocks and herds. Fifty years ago our sheep numbered about 5,000,000; today we have about 25,250,000. Our cattle have increased in the same period nearly tenfold. We had then about 250,000; we have now a little over 2,500,000. We have numerous other domestic animals. Our trade has also increased so that during the past year (1916) it amounted to nearly £60,000,000—namely £59,625,670, and before the war—namely, in 1913—our total trade amounted to £45,275,024, a total trade per head of £42 7S 3d.

"The Fortunate Isles."

We have in our country all that tends to the training and uplifting of mankind. We have a public school system that is found in all parts of New Zealand—infant schools, primary schools, secondary schools, technical colleges, and university colleges. We have also a system of scholarships that gives aid to acquire a high education to every bright son or daughter of New Zealand. We have four university colleges page 6 established, and we make provision for granting degrees even to those who may not be able to attend university colleges but who may be self-educated. We have numerous philanthropic associations, all tending to weld us together in the love of humanity and for progress. We have art societies Mattered throughout New Zealand, also literary societies, and we have begun a literature of our own. We can now count amongst those born in New Zealand poets, artists, writers, inventors, and we need not be ashamed of New Zealanders when they go abroad and compete with the inhabitants of older countries in arts and sciences. They have been successful in England, in America, and on the Continent of Europe. That we have a strong race and a healthy country can be shown by our death rate. The death rate of New Zealand in 1915 represented 9.06 per 1,000, and in 1916 9.64. It was as low as 8.87 per thousand in 1912. This compares more than favorably with the death rate of any part of the world. There is no country in Europe with such a low death rate. In the United States the death rate in 1914 was 13.6 per 1,000, in England and Wales it was 14. in Scotland 15.5. in Germany 15, in France 19.6, whilst in that isle where, according to the poet, "every prospect pleases"—Cevlon—it was 32.2 per 1.000. The death rate of the Commonwealth as a whole was 10.51 in 1914. None of the States of Australia has had such a low death rate as that of New Zealand.

The Value of Thrift.

We have done much to train our people to thrift. The deposits in our banks and the number of people insured in New Zealand are great. I prefer to take what advance we have made before the war. In the, Post Office Saving Bank in 1914 the total amount to credit of depositors at the end of the year was a little over page 7 £19,000,000. The private savings banks in the same year had nearly £2,000,000. The amount of deposits to the credit per head of population amounted in 1915 in New Zealand to £21 19s 7d. The amount insured—the ordinary life insurance—in New Zealand amounted to nearly £41,000,000 in 1915, and in industrial insurance nearly £3,000,000. Our land has been greatly improved since 1840, when our first immigrants landed, and the total value of our land, with improvements, amounted in 1916 to £389,164,729. We have ships and railways and roads and motor cars, and all the amenities of a highly-civilised life. Our prisoners relatively to our population are few, the death penalty has rarely to be imposed, and we are a law-abiding and law-honoring people

A Free Government.

We have the freest government on the face of the earth. Adult suffrage prevails in the election of our Parliament. Our Parliamentary election is triennial, and the piping "of an Act of Parliament by the King has rarely happened. We have "a government of the people, by the people, for the people." We are a democracy. With all these advantages to soil, of climate, of people, of civilisation, of free government, surely we have a right to look forward with hope to the future. The pages of history lie before us, showing the enormous advances that mankind has made. A Greek poet, 440 years before our era, could write of the conquests of man. May I quote a few lines from Sophocles in the 'Antigone.' He said:

Many the forms of life,
Wondrous and strange to see;
But nought than man appears
More wondrous and more strange.
He, with the wintry gales.
O'er the white, foaming sea.
'Mid wild waves surging round.
page 8 Wendeth his way across;
Earth of all gods from ancient days the first,
Unworn and undecayed.
He, with his ploughs that travel o'er and o'er,
Furrowing with horse and mule,
Wears ever year by year.

And speech and thought, as swift as wind,
And tempered mood for higher life of States,
These he has learned, and how to flee
Or the clear cold of frost unkind,
Or darts of storm and shower.
Man, all-providing, unprovided, he
Meeteth no chance the coming days may bring.
Only from Hades still
He fails to find escape;
Though skill of art may teach him how to flee
From depths of fell disease incurable.

And if a poet had to exalt the glory and prowess of man to-day, he could say much more than Sophocles said 2,500 years ago. What a wealth of invention there has been in even 50 years; and there is not a year that passes over our heads but what gives us more knowledge and more command of Nature by man.

When we consider what mankind has done, what our own race has done, what our own communities of New Zealand have done, may we not feel proud and he elated at the conquests of our people? We have shown during the present war that heroism is not extinct, that courage is as great as ever, and that self-sacrifice and love of country still inspire our fellow-citizens. A Norwegian poet, Bjornst-jerne Bjornson, wrote a patriotic poem called 'The Norwegian Song,' and I think page 9 that some of its lines might be sung by New Zealanders. He said:

In my land will I dwell,
And my land will I till;
Hers my prayer and my arm
And my children shall be.
Her soil I will defend,
And her wants I will tend,
From her uttermost hills to the sands of the sea.
Hers is sunshine enough,
Hers are seed fields enough,
If we all give our strength to our dear native land.
So sweet our Norse song,
And our might is so strong
That her fame must rise high if together we stand.

And he winds up by saying:

Oh, dearest on earth is this land of our birth,
As it was, as it is, and as yet it shall prove;
For the love that springs forth
For our home in the north
Makes the northland wax great with the fruits of our love.

What is Our Prime Duty?

The question we have now to consider is What is our duty to this our land of New Zealand? We are living in a world where there must be a continual struggle if man is to maintain his position and make any progress. We have many enemies to fight; we must keep our banner of liberty always flying. There is often a continual struggle by coteries of men to get the control of our government. Some people want to dominate their fellow-men, and if any party dominates our institutions, then liberty disappears. The government of the people by the people for the people must ever remain our watchword and motto. If it page 10 ceases to be government of the people by the people for the people, than democracy has vanished. There are often seen in our midst what must be termed forces of evil. We develop habits that do not tend for the advancement of the race, and we see in all countries in the world, even in the most civilised, habits and customs that tend to deteriorate mankind. It was well said many, many years ago by a Swiss geographer that mankind could only advance where there was a perpetual struggle with Nature. He said that a temperate zone produced the best quality of mankind, because there had to be a continual struggle for life preservation; that if Nature was dominant, as in the Arctic circle, mankind deteriorated; and if life was too easy, bread and water being sure with little effort, as in the tropics, where the struggle for existence was unknown, man degenerated. The only hope for humanity lay in a continual struggle for existence. And perhaps the fact that Southern New Zealand has a more rigorous climate than the balmy north may lead to the production in the south of a more vigorous race than in the north. Our south-westerlies that strike Foveaux Strait are not all evil. We have struggles in our midst; we have many evils to fight. May I point out to you one evil, what I may term the drug habit? We see in use amongst our people two drugs—namely, alcohol and tobacco. We have not been troubled in New Zealand much with the opium habit; it exists in different phases in our midst, but not to any large extent. In some countries it is a great menace to human life, and tends to great degeneration. The opium habit is not confined to China; it is found, though not extensively in many large towns in the world. We look upon the taking of alcohol and the using of tobacco as not being any menace to page 11 our civilisation. Are we wise in underestimating the evil influence of these two drugs? Let us look at the question from a mere money point of view. We are spending in New Zealand many millions a year on these two drugs. I estimate the expenditure at £5,000,000. We spend as much on these two drugs as we spend on all our Government departments, save Post and Telegraphs and Railways, and these two departments give us a revenue. Such expenditure is utterly unnecessary for any good purpose. The use of the drugs by a man does not make him a stronger man physically or a better man morally or a wiser man intellectually. Taking the lowest ground, it is a wasteful expenditure of our resources; but when we consider the physical effects, the moral injury, and the intellectual debasement that follow from an extensive use of these drugs, then it becomes surprising that we should treat their use in the kindly way that is common in our midst. One great evil amongst our youths is cigarette smoking. It seems to me almost universal, and it is not surprising that a disease called "cigarette heart" is not unknown amongst our young men. Cigarette smoking tends to slackness in business and to inefficiency, as well as being a potent cause of ill-health. It lowers the staying powers of our youths. For the cigarette habit no argument can possibly be made. Cigarette smoking is not periodic—it is continuous—a slow, insidious, sure poison. Its results can be foretold as accurately as the expert doctor can foresee the end of incipient locomotor ataxia.

Prevention Better than Cure.

There are diseases also from which we suffer that we do not take sufficient means to prevent. We cannot expect a robust race except our public health is carefully guarded. The physical basis must page 12 be the basis on which our moral and intellectual advance must be built. Without physical strength we can do nothing, and yet what are we doing as citizens of this great nation to build up our physical strength and our public health?

Prevention of Slums.

We have not the slum areas that they have in large cities in Europe and in America.. We have, however, the beginning of this evil state of things, and it is necessary for us if we are in maintain the physical standard of the race, to look after the health of the people in the towns, as well as of those in the country. To adequately undertake the supervision of public health we ought to have town-planning; we ought to insist on open spaces; we ought to insist upon sanitary dwellings We know what has happened in England, where the best sanitation schemes have been inaugurated. In what are termed the garden cities in England the death rate has, in some instances, fallen to about six per thousand, and I do not see why our death rate should be any higher in New Zealand than it is in these garden cities; but we know that in every large town in New Zealand there are areas that ought not to be allowed to exist. We ought to have everywhere fresh air and sunlight, and every attention paid to cleanliness.

Capital and Labor: Improve the Relations.

There is another question that stares us in the face, and that is the need of some new regulations in reference to labor. There has been during the past few years a continual contest between what is termed capital and Labor. We have had strikes innumerable both in New Zealand and in Australia, and the waste of money has been great. There is the utmost need for some reform in our industral life. If page 13 there are industries in our midst that cannot afford to pay adequate wages, so that those who are employed in them can obtain decent lodging, decent clothing, decent food, and decent amusements, then that industry is of no use to the community. There are many ways in which this problem can be solved. We have attempted to solve it by having an Arbitration Court for the fixing of wages, and if that Court is to be a success its decrees must be obeyed. There is no use in having an Arbitration Court if the decrees of that court can be flouted by either employer or employee. I believe that such a Court is one means of settling the labor trouble, and the Court must have the widest possible jurisdiction. It should find out what the profits of the employers are, and, second, whether the business is a proper or profitable one to have in the community, and third how the employees spend their wages. If, I repeat, the business is such that it cannot afford to adequately and properly maintain those engaged in it, then that industry should be abolished. I do not believe that we have any industries that cannot afford to pay wages to provide reasonable lodging resonable food, reasonable clothing, and reasonable amusements for those who are engaged in it.

Advocates Profit-Sharing.

Another matter that will have to be considered is whether there could not be some arrangement made between Capital and Labor to give Labor some share in the profits that are made in any industry in which Labor is engaged. This system of sharing profits has been tried in France, in some other Contimental countries, and in England, and where they have had judicious employers and judicious employees it has been a success. It will not succeed, however, unless there is a spirit of loyalty to a great end—the brotherhood of men— page 14 operating in carrying it out. I believe we will also have to constitute a court to fix not only the wages but the prices of goods, and our people seem favorable to such a court being tried. There is no use, however, in creating tribunals if we do not realise that, there can be no progress without order, and unless there is obedience to the law we ourselves have made. There must be civic peace. Those who engage in strikes and violate the orders of a court are not good citizens. If there were no courts having jurisdiction to settle disputes a strike might in some instances be justifiable; but where we have a tribunal with due representation of both Capital and Labor there is no excuse whatever for setting aside the decrees of such a court, nor for a party to the proceedings in a court to fix, without regard to the other party, the wages and conditions of Labor. Every strike is a blow struck at true democracy—at the brotherhood of men. Some of our people demand the fixing of prices and of profits, and that, may have to come in the near future. But what is the use of fixing prices of goods if the owners can set the rate at defiance? Now, a strike against the rate of wages, or of the conditions of labor, is civil war. It is flouting the law, and it is doing more: it is showing that the Stale ought not to fix the price of anything—of labor, or labor products. No man who justifies a strike can justify the fixing of prices of goods or profits. There is yet another industrial problem demanding solution, and that is

The Discontinuity of Employment.

Workmen are employed one week and are out of a job the next. This is seen in various employments, and is a great waste of efficiency, and of labor and of capital, too. How is this irregular or unsteady employment to be dealt with? It is prevalent in our pastoral and agricultural in- page 15 dustries, is to be seen at our waarves and in other industrial departments. Many remedies may be suggested. So far as pastoral and agricultural work is concerned, it might be met by having those who work on farms provided with houses and small allotments, so that when out of work for wages they might have work of their own to do. At present, shearers travel in Australia and New Zealand, and in this way fairly continuous employment is found for them; but I doubt if it is an efficient system of work that necessitates men leaving their families and travelling thousands of miles every year. The other system of having small allotments with intensive culture to attend to when their work on a farm was not, required would, I believe, be more efficient so far as labor is concerned, and better for laborers. There is much intensive culture that could be followed, such as producing fruit, honey, flower seeds, eggs, etc. Another remedy is that the employees should have diverse work to do: when one kind of work was not required another kind could be undertaken. Let us take, for example, waterside workers. They should, in my opinion, be selected for their character and industry, and the infrequency of their work should be done away with. They should have fixed salaries, and the employers—the harbor boards, etc.—should provide accommodation for them—perhaps in flats near their work, the flats to have restaurants, kitchens, etc.—and there should be some arrangement arrived at, perhaps with municipal councils or other employers of work, for employment to be given to the harbor board employees when there was no work on the wharves for them. There is not doubt a scheme could be devised to get rid of discontinuous employment were we only to face the question.

The Burdens of War.

Another problem which, if we are patri- page 16 otic, we must consider is the enormous burdens that have been laid upon us by the war. On the 31st March, 1917, the Public Debt of New Zealand, including the debt of the General Government and local bodies, had risen to about £150,000,000—was in fact. £150,236,239. No doubt we have large assets for much of that expenditure, but consider what such a debt means! it means over £6,000,000 a year in interest. How are we to meet the large amount of taxation that must be imposed upon the Dominion? Our debt next year will be increased by many more millions. How will we ever be able to meet the interest on this enormous debt, coupled with the many duties cast upon the Government—duties the expense of which can be paid for only by taxation—our public health, our education, our roads, our streets, etc.? There are only two ways in which we can get of grinding taxation and the lowering of the standards of life. First, we must be thrifty—the abolition of all wasteful expenditure on things that are not necessary—and, second, by greater efficiency in our industrial life. We must have greater production. Science must be applied to our main industries, to our pastoral industry, to our agricultural industry, and to various other industries that are now in their infancy—our manufactures, our fruit farms, etc. We need scientific education in order to make our people efficient producers. We have not yet half developed the resources of this country, and the only hope for us lies in greater thrift and greater efficiency. I have already spoken about the need of the abolition of slums, and steps are being taken to say that where they do not exist they shall not be created. That touches on a question that has been dealt with in a very able book called

'Eclipse or Empire.'

For example, there are towns in England page 17 on which there are thousands of tons of soot thrown out of chimneys which fall in those towns every year. The air is bad—everything is bad for the maintenance of human life. Now, we are placed in New Zealand in a peculiarly good position so far as energy is concerned. We have so many storehouses of water in our lakes and rivers that by transmitting water-power into electricity, we would be able to provide all the energy, all the firing, all the light necessary for 12 million or 20 million of people from our water-power. If we were to create this water-power into electricity we could have smokeless cities, clear, sweet, and clean; and the result, as far as regards the health of the people and in the enjoyment, of the people, would be surprising. This is within our reach if we choose to be patriotic and efficient. With electrical energy utilised we could have all our factories clear of coal dust, and we would not see men with blackened faces and grimy clothes pouring out of our factories at the close of the day. Even where electrical energy is not used, there are some factories in America where arrangements are made for factory hands to change their clothes. Each hand has a cupboard for the purpose of keeping his clothes. He goes into the factory clean and comes out clean, leaving his dirty clothes behind; and in many factories there are hot baths for all the factory hands to use before they put on their clean clothes and go out of the factory and go to their homes. Why should we not have such a system in New Zealand? There is

Great Waste in our Social Life

in many directions. We will have to have greater co-operation in domestic life and in our social life generally. I was much struck at the improvements that have been made in many ways in America. Let us page 18 take a very simple thing—roadmaking. In America they are making hard concrete roads far quicker than we make them, far more lasting, more efficient, and at a great saving in expense. Let me illustrate what can be done in America. When America went into the war she had to create camps—or, as they call them cities—for her soldiers, and Lord North-cliffe, in one of his papers on what America had done during the war, said: "Early in July there lay, 300 miles outside San Antonio. Texas, a stretch of ground round with a difficult kind of scrub or bush. By July 6 there appeared an army of between 9,000 and 10,000 workmen, of every known Nationality, directed by voting Americans of the Harvard and Yale type. The 10,000 arrived in every kind of conveyance—in mule carts, farm waggons, house cabs, motors, and huge motor vans. At the end of tile day's work, when the whistle had blown, the scene resembled that of some eccentric, elabmately-staged cinematograph film. Together with the army of 10,000 men came many kinds of sets of automatic machinery and hard concrete roads were made with a thorough nessand permanence which should attract attention in Europe. In this new town outside San Antonio 12 miles of rails, 25 miles of road, 31 miles of water pipe, 30 miles of sewers were accomplished in 45 days. . . . On August 25 a considerable part of the city was ready for occupation. The strongly and comfortably built huts wove provided with heating arrangements for the winter, and baths (hot and cold) are attached ton each building. There are vast stores and vast blocks, several post offices, a huge bakery, laundry, stables for 1,300 hurten and nudes, hospital, schools—in all between 1,200 and 1,300 buildings, And what has been done in Texas was being simultaneously done in 15 other parts of page 19 the country." Contrast that with what we did at. Trentham with what we did in making the road between Wellington and Petone.

"We Must be More Efficient.'

But there is something else to be considered, and that is what is termed the soul of the race. We must, if our race is to be a great race, have the highest ideals kept ever before us. Man does not live by bread alone, nor even by industries alone; man, as a social being, must have a high ideal of social life. It is our duty to look after the weak ones of our State. Let us ever remember that both as individulas and as members of a social organisation we must try to eliminate the weak by making them strong. We must so act that all may become strong. It would however, be a poor race that worshipped strength alone and eared nothing for the weak, but left them to their own poor resources. We need kindly actions; we require hospitals, and we must give of our strength to help the weak; we mast cultivate love for others. A kind act may help the weak; we must cultivate love for others. A kind act may help a fallen brother or sister, but it has another merit. If has been likened by an American writer to an Australian boomerang. The boomerang when thrown, returns to the thrower so a kindly act done comes back to the doer, and it elevates him in the scale of being perhaps more than it helps the recipient of the kindness. Let us apply this.

Prison Reform Must Not Stop.

What are we to do with those in our midst who are anti-Social, who violate our laws who (touse a legal term break the peace? Forgiveness will not do; we may thereby encourage disorder. A society that treats a lawbreaker just in the same way as it treats a good citizen is page 20 pursuing a dangerous policy. The Civil Magistrate, as was said long ago, has still to be a terror to evildoers, and [unclear: a] praise to them that do well; but punishment, if inflicted, need not be a complete refusal of freedom to the culprit. There must he an effort to reform and redeem the violators of our law, and they must be treated as erring sons of men, not as mere outcasts. There are many new ideas afloat now on prison reform. We have tried what is called the probation system. It means letting the lawbreaker at large, but subject to certain limitations on his freedom. He cannot go where he likes, nor can he do what not likes, and on the whole great success has attended its operation. Perhaps it may be extended. Why should not a violator of our laws not have his political as well as social or personal privileges restricted for some time till he shows that he has realised what the duty of a citizen signifies? If it should happen that it was not safe to allow the violators of cur law at large, that they must be interned, we will have to see that their training must be of a civic and of an industrial character. The men who should be in charge, at all events, of our prisoners under 30 years of age should be wise schoolmasters accustomed to deal with wayward youths—of youths wanting mental or moral balance. The schoolmaster and the doctor and the specially trained warder should be in charge of our institutions for interned people, and in the places of internment there must be profitable and trained labor and many educative agencies. Amusements will have to be provided for as well, and kindness must reign. We will best reform our weak and stupid law-breakers by work, equation, and kindness. There will be a residuum who may have sunk so low in the Social-scale page 21 that they will be as unable to use freedom as if they were mentally afflicted. They may have become social degenerates. Even for them, although they must remain without freedom to go where they please, we will have to try to give them some happiness in life, and the boomerang will come back to our people. It is not therefore a mere struggle for industrial efficiency or for the production of wealth in which we are engaged: it is

A Fight for a Higher and a Nobler Race;

a race with physical strength, brain power and kindly heart. We must have a high idea of social life and of the capacity for untold progress of mankind. What a struggle it is! It is not surprising to find pessimists amongst us who think that the day of the millennium will never dawn. Even those things that seem at first sight to make for progress often delay it. We me longing for peace and brotherhood. What a number of associations we have whose aims are high—churches, philanthropic associations bearing all Kinds of names clubs, lodges, friendly societies, etc., etc., and yet how often do they hinder true corporate unity of the people of a, nation and delay social progress. How often it happens that the welfare of an association whatever name it is called, comes to be looked upon as the must important object to be attained. We want our church, or our society, or our club, or our political party to dominate; the mission of the association is ignored; the welfare of all ceases to be our aim, and our effort is partial or sectional. Patriotism means that humanity and nationality must count for more than party. Let me illustrate this by a story from France. A stranger was sympathising with a French woman because her husband had left her and joined the army. The French wife expressed her astonishment at this sym- page 22 pathy. She said; "Of course he had to go; "I am only his wife; his country is his mother." If they have many such in France we can understand what French

The Crux of the Problem.

How can we create true patriotism? May we not recall the past? What is behind us as a nation and a race? The deeds, of our ancestors from whom we have sprung are behind us. Who has not read of what many a thin red line has done an our countless battles? Are there not names of heroes that are for ever remembered because of their courage, their loyalty, their ability, and their glory? And have not our hearts been stirred within us in the present, great war by what our lads have done on the fields of Gallipoi, of Egypt, of Palestine, of Greece, and of France; and our sailors have shown that Trafalgar was not the last great battle our Navy fought. We have behind as also the struggles made by our ancestors for liberty and righteousness. Often in the past our ancestors hace fought not for glory, not for riches, not for honor, but for liberty alone, which they said no good man loses but with his life Our children are not going to forget the deeds of glory of our ancestors. They may have to fight, as we had to fight [unclear: otuola], with wild beasts at Ephesus, but the will struggle on, and fulfil their duty to their nation, to the race, and to humanity. This war has bound us together: it has made us feel as one; our differences in politics and in creeds have been forgotten. The few shirkers and pacifists are not worth mentioning: and may we not hope when the war is over that we will take more interest in inculcating civic duties and civic peace and civic brotherhood! Our schools should be the true training grounds for love and brotherhood, where children are riot separated from children page 23 because of their parents' beliefs. We hopo to see true patriotism everywhere, and love reigning, where children in their games and in their studies will not be separated by barriers of nationality or creed. Citizenship will be the biggest thing. We can look with hope to the future; in the dim distante it may be, but a new vision and a new earth are coming. Human life will be more sacred, and future social life will be pure, and our cities will be clean and sweet, with no slums, no bad citizens menacing our civilisation; liberty will reign, man will tell his thought to man, and all will recognise that truth alone can make men free. Our education will be higher. The knowledge of the Sixth Standard is too restricted a vision for me future man; life will be on a higher level; each will work for all, and all will work for each. A State conscience will be created, and brotherhood will dominate all our actions. Poets have seen this vision; prophets have foretold its coming; woe to us if we do not struggle to attain it. It we do not, our race will pass away, as many past races have gone, and other races will take our place. What is the Golden Age? you may ask and may I quote to you an American poet for the answer:

Have you heard the Golden City
Mentioned in the legends old?
Everlasting light shines o'er it,
Wondrous tales of it are told.
Only righteous men and women
Dwell, within its gleaming walls,
Wrong is banished from its borders,
Justice reigns supreme o'er all.

We are founders of that city,
All our joys and all our groans
Help to rear its shining ramparts,
All our lives are building stones;
page 24 But the work that we have builded,
Oft with bleeding hands and tears.
And in error and in anguish,
Will not perish with the years.

It will be at last made perfect
In the universal plan,
It will help to crown the labors
Of the toiling hosts of man:
It will last and shine transfigured
In the final reign of right,
It will merge into the splendors
Of the City of the Light.