SLASHING CRITICISM

Chronicle (Levin), 5 November 1947, Page 5

SLASHING CRITICISM

N.Z. NO LONGER GOD'S OWN COUNTRY CHRISTCHURCH, Nov. 4. B "Anvone will surely say this land of ours lias liecn singularly blessed of God, " said Dr. Leslie Sutherland to an audience of 1200 at a public session of the Presbyterian Assembly in Christchurch last evening. Dr. Sutherland re turned a few months ago froiu nine years'- service on tlie inission liolds oi Xrorthern liulia. He compared the needs of India in the turbuient time following independence, with the advantages Xew Zealaiul possessed. "This is a land fiowing with milk and honev although the honey, 1 gat.her, does not ahvavs flow as freely or as far as some would like. It is a land where only unenqiloymeut is voiuntary. a land where there is no snortage of food aiul no laek of money, if the drink bil! or totalisator rcturns are any indication, and a land where the sick and aged get mouey for what care they

need, although all too often they can get no oue to give service for that money. It is a land where, on paper, at least the four frcedoms have full swav. But looking beneath the surface, what do we lind ! ' ' In the first place I think it very significant that among the people I iiave met in the last six months, not one lias mentioned what we oi'ten used to hear, that New Zeaiand is God's own country. That is our whole trouuie. It is no longer God's own country and! we know it. j "One of the earliest commands God gave to man was: In the sweat of thy | tace shalt thou eat bread. We shail I jupersede that at our perii. God soon after gave ten commandments and only God Himself can add or subtract from them. Our new fourth commandment goes something like this: Remem'ber Saturday to keep it holy. Five days shalt thou labour and do all thy work out the sixth is saered to the gods of ease and sport. In it thou shalt not do any work — thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor shop assistant nor factory wor^er, for these gods are jealous gods and the only ones held guiltless will be their own servants such as tram conJuctors, bar tenders, ice cream vendors and so on. "No one would deny that meat, butter, chbese, wool and fruit had nrade New Zeaiand 's name, developmg talents given by God. But by our strict observance of the sixth day aud tear of getting sweat on our faces in tlie other five, we are not now inaintainmg tliese talents as we should. We are domg what M r. Fraser said only recentty we should not do — niaiang a fetisli of the 40-hour week. "In days of unemployment a 35-hour week might be good but the time ot Britain's and Europe's anguish is surely not the time for a 40-hour week. Our efforts have resulted in £2 buymg what only £1 would buy before. Our soeial security sclieme is grand in uuiii_) of its aspects but is it producing just ihe result we wished for? "We pride ourselves on our health} land but might not a visitor get the impression that our busiest people are doetors, dentists and ehemists? 1 have heard of doctors who are so busy thal all some patients can hope from them is a presoription to (lrinx more medicine whereas, if the doetor iiad more time, the patient would perhaps come

away often with advice not to drink more but to eat less. ' ' I seem to see the same tendency in our educational system. I am inclined to agree with a visiting educationalist who said that we tend to maxe it iixe a golf course without bunkers. Unless children learn to deal with bunkers at school they will have trouble in dealing with the "bunkers that life will surely hring them. Our educational system is an ofiieially Godless one. Make it so at our peril. Do many of our children leave our schools with a sense ,of vocation, with the idea that by their lives they may give rather than get?"