PIONEER DAYS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 49, 13 March 1937, Page 6

PIONEER DAYS

Hardships of Australian Settjers YALUE 0F R0TARY A word-pieture of life in Australia, from the very early pioneering days np to the present time, was given members of the Hastings Rotary (jiub yesterday by Rotarian ijeorge bruith, Prison Administrator for New bouth Wales, who is on a brief tour of the North leland after attending the Pan-Pacific Conference of Rotary at Wellington. When paying homage to tlie memory of those women who went out with their men into the wild bush of Australia, Mr. Smith said that all' they asked fior was the love of their own man. ' ' Those fine noble women had no fine mansions, no cars and no servants. They split slabs and stripped' bark to build their homee. There were no nails to hold the structures togethor, but big wooden plugs," he said. "Under these conditions those women reared families with no other women within a hundred mUes to comfort them or see to their needs; they bore their children without the help of doctors, nuxses or the eomforting companionship of other women; they brought up their children at their knees, and taught them, for there were no schools. ' "They did more than just teach their children such things as we now learn at school," he said. "They taught them the value of good character aud the wonderful joy of living for .others as well as for themselves. As a result of their tremendous sacrifice there was left a generation that was second to none in the world — a generation that has gained success in almost every place and in every sphere of life. "There then set in an era of prosperity with the third generation. It was a perio.d of enormous and perilously daneerous prosperity for squatters,

graziers and a lot of others," said Mr. Smith. During this period, he explain-' ed, there was a general move from the country to the citi.es, where the wealthy settlers went into flats and enjoyed all the amenities of city life. "Then came the depression and it bit these people very hard — harder than anybody else," he said. ' ' Their incomes vanished and they were no longer able to live the life that they had been living. Quite a number of the younger people were determined to have the luxuries, and the result was that hyndreds became involved in trouble that led to their losing their liberty." Moralising upon these circumstances, the speaker said that it was xemarkable how few really appreciate the joys of life. Our outlook becomes selfish and a lot of ns do not realise our responSibilities as we should. He urged upon members of the Rotary Club to realise to the full extent the ideals of Rotary and to appreciate the latent talent that was in each and all of us. "Rotary came into being just when it was needed," he said. _ "Four years of warfare had left mankmd in a state of frenzy and upset. Rotary then came in as an influence for good in practically every community in the eivilised world.

"The name 'Rotary' is comparatively new, but Rotary in itself has existed for centuries," he said. "Each and everyone can look forward with confidence and hope if the great ideals embodied in Rotary are appreciated. These ideals, which are cherished and which go to building up the best type of individual, strive. to bring about peace on earth and gcodwill among men."