PUBLIC OPINION.

Hokitika Guardian, 18 May 1927, Page 3

PUBLIC OPINION.

OBSTINACY NO PROOF. “ 1 am all for making peace by getting at the facts. It is of no use to insist violently one way or the other, whether you are a man of science, a miner, or a coal-owner. Anything like obstinacy and not letting yourself understand your competitor’s point ol view does not prove your case; it leads to obscurity. For that reason in itself I should welcome a system in which the professors and lecturers were brought together in a common system to enable them to move about in the security that their pension rights would not be injured.”—From the Third Congress of the Universities of the Empire, 1926: Report of Proceedings.

RELIGION AND THEOLOGY. “Theology may lie regarded as the intellectual statement of our Faith, tiie reasoned endeavour to set lorth tlie verities of Religion. Let it be remembered that Theology, while indispensable to Religion is not itself Religion. For, one the one hand. Religion is experience. and Theology is the endeavour to think coherently about experience. Yet, on the other hand, Religion never exists in isolation from thought; in every experience there is an intellectual element. Resiles which, man’s persistent effort is to co-ordinate his experiences into an intellectually-satisfy-ing whole. As long as man is religious he will require a theology.”—The IDv. C. J. Wright. H.D., of Penzance, writing in the “ Expository 'l imes.”

AY HAT OF GENERAL SMUTS. “ There are no signs as yet that General Smuts is recovering his hold on his own people. After fourteen years of office in either the first or second place, he is still definitely out of popular favour. Of the various reasons for this by no means unprecedented development one undoubtedly was that, like Louis Philippe, he had wearied the country hv filling the scene for so long. A month or two ago it was commonly said that General Hortzog’s speeches after the Imperial Conference left no obstacle between General Smuts and himself, and closed the main question over which the Nationalist Party had come into , existence. But in fact South Africa is politically a very small eorintry. Personal antagonisms are exceedingly important. General Smuts is too big a national figure to make a comfortable subordinate in the Hertzog Cabinet, even if he should be willing to enter it. And the difficulty which the leaders would find in working together extends equally to their followers. Only an overwhelming necessity would bring about fusion, and it is more than doubtful whether it would be of advantage to the political life of South Africa.”—“June” (London).