SEX QUESTIONS.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16267, 18 July 1918, Page 8

SEX QUESTIONS.

LECTURE BY CAPTAIN PETTIT.

There was a large attendance of men at the Choral Hall last evening, when a lecture on "Sex Instinct, its Importance, Education, and Control," was ' given by Captain Pettit, N.Z.M.C. Tho bpoaker did not mince ins words in dealing with his subject, and his remarks were frequently applauded. Dean Carrington, who presided, ! apologised for the absence of Bishop.; Julius, who, he said, was to have pre- ! sided, but was away on the West i Coast. Captain Pettit stated that he had no ; sympathy with those people who believed that the 6ex question was so deli- ; cate a subject that it must be kept, in i the dark. (Applause.) He thought ■ that this attitude had been the cause/ of many of the evils _ that had arisen. • i The question -of sex, viewed biologically, < occupied the central space in nature. He' protested against the view that the sex instinct was uncleam.. The sex : instinct was natural and right; it had

a place in the purpose of God. Christ did not condemn the sex irastinct, but only tie gratification of it by unlawful means. If the sex problem was of such vital importance it was surely not necessarv to continue the conspiracy of surrounding It with secrecy. The child was kept in ignorance of it by its parents, the subject was left severely j alone in the schools, and so the child i grew up in ignorance of _ the ques- I tion. The child turned for its information to where?—to any source that would answer its questions. During the most innocent and tender years of its life the child picked up its know- ; ledge from the gutter, tainted and un- [ clean. When we saw the fearful re- ' stilts of this policv surely it was time that we became alive to the fact that the worst efforts of narent or teacher were preferable to tlie depraved, and connoted sources to which the child j was driven to 6ecure enlightenment. Dwelling then upon later years. Cap- j tain Pettit snid tnere was not a doctor j in the Dominion who would 6ay that a i man was one whit worse off! through leading a life of purity an ,d self-control. There was every _ evr-1 dence that great evils were arising, as the result of the war. There was the great increase of venereal disease with all its terrible resultant sufferings to innocent women and children, but he believed there was a rreater menace than thaj. Great numbers of men'. were coming back from the front with lower ideals concerning social morality. One did not have to look far to see that in many quarters. Men were ad-; vocating making immorality as safe is, possible from the risk of venereal dis-j ease. Prophylactics were being used, { but there were men who wanted to go ! a step further and adopt;the Continental system. "1 say that if our nation adopts that course or any other it is on the road to national decay," de-clared-the speaker, who went on to say that prophylactics were not the : safeguards against venereal disease that they were claimed to be. In spite of the use of prophylactics the? found venereal disease the greatest foe to efficiency in our Army. The man who advocated them was absolutely blind to the position, or he was a fool or deliberately seeking to blind men into a false sense of security. Licensed prostitution had never provided a safe immunity from venereal disease. Tho man who advocated any system ot licensed prostitution was absolutely blind to the lessons of the past and at' the same time was shutting his eyes to moral proprieties. Every advocate therefore of licensed prostitution cr anybody who _ advocated increasing facilities for divorce were setting their fares against those immutable authorl- j ties which God had set i<n motion, A hearty vote of thanks was accorded Cnntain Pettit for his interesting i address.