MODERN YOUTH.

Hokitika Guardian, 18 November 1924, Page 4

MODERN YOUTH.

PEOPLE WHO ARE BUSY DOING NOTHING.

LONDON, September 23. Sir Hugh Allen, director of the Royal College of Music, in his address to the slwdeiils yesterday at the opening of the college year said the corporate atmosphere of an institution was the result of bringing together an infinite variety ol individual atmospheres. Those who read the weather reports (and who had not done so this summer and found it a. dismal pursuit) would realise that changes of weather were dependent on depressions or anticyclones, and as the pressure decreased or increased so the weather was finer or fouler. The students who had just left were, they Imped, set fair on a prosperous voyage; the students who remained were, in the language ol the weather glass, steadily rising. Could it be that the batch of new students, whom he saw like a cloud

were a depression coming in from the Atlantic; or were they (as was believed) bringing with them anti-cyclone conditions which foretold fine weather, warmth and sunshine One of the chief difficulties voting men or women encountered when entering a freer and lltcrclon* mote icI toil -i I •!'- life Has the oi deling id their lives to the best advantage. A lot was included in this ordering ol their lives—what, they wanted to ho, what they ought lo he, and what they probably would lie; what help the college could give them and what they could give the college. ONE JOB THAT MATTERS.

The danger arose of falling into a ditltision of energies. It was so easy to be fearfully busy and really to do nothing effective. .Many thought that to be in a hurry was a virtue and that

to perspire was a sign ol grace. .Many believed in having tt number of irons in the lire hut forgot to look nfter the lire itself. There was always one job that really mattered. Many people expended on the unessential things the warmth and interest they should he to the things that ‘mattered.

Diffusion of energy was the greatest

waster of time yet discovered. Young people were ant to think they could alter their minds as many times as they

liked. They were ill danger of turning freedom into something like a license to taste indiscriminately of all kinds of fruit, only to find if had led them into the position of being unable to decide

as to the merits of anything. They reversed the order of the saying, " Marry in haste and repent at leisure,” for they repented in haste and never got married at all. This danger of not getting properly wedded to anything lurked about today rather more than was safe. Young people did not like being tied up; they wanted lots 01. freedom and plenty of means of escape. DISLIKE OF SETTLING DOWN.

They did not want to settle down to any jolt which looked like lasting. They said they were were too young to do so, hut after a hit they might find they were too old to settle down at all. It was only by the way they tackled their jobs and first responsibilities that they could create a firm habit of steadfastness and prove themselves worthy of bigger jobs in wider fields. Parry pointed this out when he said: “ I know to well how difficult it is to prevent one interest interfering with another, what temptations there arc to drop a thing directly it gets wearisome or boring.”

Sometimes students said, “I want to make a change. I am not getting oil. T seem to he stuck.” What they really meant was just the opposite—they were not getting off tho mark; they had not made a start. They often meant they had not the pa-

tience to let things take root. They kept on pulling up the plant. A tine and stimulating atmosphere was not a thing of chance. It was the result of contact among fine-minded people out to do their job in the host way, not for themselves only hut for others. It was service all the time in a great cause ami in a fine spirit. It was this atmosphere that made the earth inhabitable.