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Hokitika Guardian, 24 December 1924, Page 2

AVitrri.vo of Christmas, an exchange remarks that in one of his brilliant essays on the origins of law, Maine comments oil the inveterate disinclination of man to admit the advance of morality. He has much of that pride which apc.s humility. He pictures human development as a continual process of degeneration. He credits primitive man with impossible virtues and invents for the dawn of society a golden age, the mythical perfections of which can never he recaptured. He takes a gloomy pleasure in declaring that by the inexorable rules of human development he is worse than his grandfather, hilt hotter than his own grandson. Two thousand years ago n Roman poet compressed this theory into the pithy pronouncement, “Our sires, inferior to our grnndsires, begat us who, inferior to them, will in our turn beget a still worthless stock.’’ A crescendo of decadence. Rut while the theory may ho true of individual men or of individual eras, it is not true of the long cycle of human evolution. As Maine shows from his study of the history of legal institutions, man dues improve, morality does advance. For example, the idea that a promise as such is binding, the idea that a man should ho free to dispose of his services or settle his affairs bv contract, instead of having his rights and duties fixed for him immutably by status, are both comparatively modern. If mail’s feel are still in the gutter, his eyes are fixed upon the stars and he is gradually. painfully, uncertainly groping his way to hotter things. Have wo not this year some evidence iff this; are we not approaching another milestone on the road of human progress? Not long since we emerged from a war which suggested that our vaunted civilisation Was hut skin deep. It put hack the clock; it shocked the conscience of mankind. And out of the horror and revulsion it inspired came the concept of the T.engue of Nations. Had there been no war there would have been no League for many years to come. It reipiired a catastrophic war to induce in the nations a mood favourable to the acceptance of the League. Though the League has not yet taken the plaie which its authors designed for it. the most sceptical are now constrained to admit its value. Again, the achievements of the Washington Conference are memorable; never before have we had such grounds for the hope that we are at the beginning of a new era in international relationships in which llic rule of reason will supersede the rule of violence. And in a more general sense the omens for the future are encouraging. A feeling is abroad that whether lietween nation and nation, class anil class, or man, cu-operatioii is better than obstruction, confidence than suspicion; that more, in fact, is to ho gained hv crediting the other fellow with good intentions and honesty of purpose than by treating him as if he were a natural and predestined enemy. Altogether we should he of good courage. The goal is still distant; the road is beset with didieulties. but at any rate we are moving in the right direction.

Tim holiday season begins to-dav. Some of tin* smaller sawmills, pnrticuarl.v (lioso engaged cutting rod pint* for which the market is restricted, finished up on Saturday. 1 tut the )e----inaiiidcr pi the mills and industry generally will practically wind-up the year to-dav hy the cessation of worktor the holiday period. In most cases where outside labor is employed, the wheels of industry will not he in full molieiu again bill about' the 12th. January. It can hardly he said that we take our pleasure sadly. Christmas is the most generally observed holiday of the year, and being in the summer season is the most extended. The weather which plays so important a part in all outdoor gatherings—for at this season of the year the folk are mostly out of doors—is being closely canvassed. The weather is not likely to lie atrocious and Coasters have the facility for making the liost of it. The holidays this year do not promise to carry the hum of a year ago when the creditable Exhibition here was in progress, hut local folk are not likely to stint themselves. The year lias been one of steady work and it is not unlikely that with the fame of the Coast now abroad that a notable string of visitors will he attracted this way. The Coast lias proved itself always self-contained, and this Christmas is not likely to lie any exception to those which have gone liefore in tlie ready manner in which the people as a whole have gone about their pleasure and recreation.