LIGHT AND SHADE

Hokitika Guardian, 13 May 1925, Page 4

LIGHT AND SHADE

(By a Free Lalice). “Homo sum: httinaiii nihil tv me alienum puto.’’—(T am :t man ; ,1 consider nothing of huintin interest as beiim* apart from nty own). It is the feeling, so concisely expressed in those words which brings- the unwilling pen to the present task of examining briefly the strangely contrasting scene of modern life so distinctly depicted in nit ordinary everyday newspaper. A recent copy of a northern contemporary lies before me, and it is the chance sight of it which provokes these remarks.

To an\' unbiassed observer the narrow. printed columns lay hare all the vagaries of live present world—all its Slope and earnest endeavour and all its despair and sad tragedy. All the sin and failure and carelessness there exposed, cast a, gloomy shade which not even the sun and light ot love, or success or honour can quite dispel. Rehind the corpulent, healthy appearance of prosperity, the smug selfsatisfaction and the trivial hypocrisy, stands the grim, putrid, skeleton ul criminal selfishness—insincere _ professions and hitter hatred. It is. not » ,vt! *cl ion on our much-prized civilisation that one cannot pick up a daily pi,per now-n-dnys, hut that one’s eyes encounter the detailed description of sonic Vevol.l ing crime; some beastly murder or some other more degraded and fearful happening--the reading which makes the heart turn sick with shame at the thought, of so much human misery With what eagerness and delight do the ardent minds of our youths absorb the sordid story: with what cold-hearted complacency do they discuss with their comrades the mt-ci-ultlf details; and by wlmt impcive,liable degrees do the poison seeds breed and sprout in their souls. [„ there no reason in the wonts. “Whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovelv. whatsoever things are nl I-I’"'' 1 ’"'' report ; if there he any virtue, and .1 there he any praise, think on these things.’’ Or do the editors submit and pander to the perverted desire for sensation which has so grown upon the , people during the hist few yeats. Put 1 turn front the contemplation of what some may call a necessary and mint nidable evil of modern journalism. to glance at the century old misconceptions with which a, minority of extremists would seek to halite the Ample understanding of honest men. The official report of the recent Alliance of Labour Conference at Wellington asserts that it was representative'' of <>5.0011 workers: and yet such is the Tv runny of Labour—which sails under ll.e false Hag of Lil>crly-—that j thousands of workers besides ntysell can prove that we are not in any way consulted, nor are our opinions asked I,v these extremists wlm claim to ha <m.r representatives. And wet. they have the audacity and infernal impudence to recommend that “every elioit he. made to educate the workers on the necessity of taking a live interest m the formation of one national industrial organisation, in order to compel the employers of labour In concede a Wage that will maintain the workers and their dependants in deecm-v and comfort." And they seek to pass themselves oil before us. as our champions. hy declaring “a basic wage of '£o necessary to enable us lo live with anv decree of decency or comfort.." i wonder if they ever heard of Louis |ilane. the French Socialist and Revolutionist . who, in UMS planned an Organisation ot Labour on simli.u

lines. 11 is motto was that men were put in he paid according to their work, hut each man was to receive wages according to his neede. and Humid he expected to work according 1,, his eapai it i's. This sounds at first V erv jiis I. hut lilane had loigoticu Ipe.i very many men would tube the advantage of it to idl" aa much as ,I'iey pleased. F.ven a> his lot ' ■•rlirim"

came to not hilig he. au-e of the si'Ltsh laziness of the dishonest worl. r. so

w ill the b'ilium fall out of this “Basic Wage" ideal. Any honest working man will admit that the employer hit' a grave difficulty already in d aline, with limn who dii not do a laii dav Work for the money they are paid.

The improvident* worker's real enemy is not till' Capitalist or th, employer; lull himself. In tin’ ei'ii: iiiomy 111 the boo-lii\e. th. drones who grow I'al on the earnings ol lhe workers, are driven from the hive lo live or perish according as I-".' work. We have the example, hut will,,.,Rate to net. 'I he majority of wm kers ill New Zealand are earning wages far larger limn Hm-e oi many prolcssiniial men. and yet the latter, b\ a little care and economy succeed in living eomfortuhiy ami in raising laniil- |, „. No litt .ie wage scheme will ''tet alter the hitter logic of facts.

As for Hie demand' for the removal ~|' t |,e ,| udge ol the A rhitrai i«m ( mtrl. | would ask our "representatives to explain mi what authority they base the stai einenl:: - “The removal ol th*' Judge will he insisted upon by all the workers." K j.; only by deliberate, hood-wink-ing mid consistent misrepresentation that the Alliance of Labour, and the various Enioiis under it. maintain the workers in a state of misunderstanding, and meek, nay servile acquiescence in such proposals a.s they deem lit |o put fort’ll from time to time. Rut there is more than this in the paper. We can pass hy with a smile the puerile, egoistic sentiments of a certain meeting of Councillors on the occasion of a Mayoral installation which sounded more like a Alutual Admiration Society s gatluuing. We are not surprised to hear iroili a„ eve-witness that the “orthodox manlier" in which a certain sports’ gathering of farewell to the member ol a Club. Voided, was hy a wholesale submission at the shrine of Bacchus. The antics of a. man who prides himself on being “a sort of hybird half person and half politician” evokes a I feeling of pity for the great cits ot which he has been elected Mayor, a city whose founders’ hopeful faith and foresight are thus early betrayed by their successors. it is with relict that I turn to the Report of ike Committee of Enquiry appointed hy the Minister of Health to investigate and report on the necessity for special care and treatment of mental perverts and sexual offenders in New Zealand. lhe findings are of intense interest, and it is with gratitude that I realise the sense of duty and high endeavour ot those who have attempted in so practical a way to relieve the Dominions of some part of its future burden of crime and unhappiness.

Tn another column 1 see noted the anonymous donation of £250 towards improvements to a Children's Dark in the North Island, and I count those evidences ot light as ol more talue than all the powers of darkness elsewhere revealed.