PUBLIC OPINION

Hokitika Guardian, 17 April 1929, Page 2

PUBLIC OPINION

SAFEGCARDING BENEFITS.

STRUGGLE

THE RIGHT WORD.

“Everyone will recall the amusing scene in the ‘Pickwick Papers’ where Sam Weller reads over to his father the valentine that he lias laboriously composed, and discusses with him the mlative merits Pi two impressive words. ‘No, it ain’t that,’ said Sam, ‘circumscribed—that’s it.’ ‘That ain’t as good a word as circumwented. Sammy,’ said Mr Weller, gravely. ‘Think not?’ said Sam. ‘Nothing like it.’ replied his father. ‘Rut don’t you think it means more.?’ inquired Sam. ‘Veil, p’raps it is a more tenderer word,’ said Air Weller, after a few moments’ reflection. ‘Go on, Sammy.’ Now, the elder Mr. Weller, in. those profound remarks, managed to summarise almost the whole philosophy of style. He. had discovered the important principle that one word is not as good as another word. Almost all that can be said about style is involved in that.’’—Rev. Heiiry Rett, M.A., of Handsworth College, Birmingham.

A UJNQUE ADVERTISEMENT,

Over one hundred firms paid for the following advertisement in the “Birmingham Post” of Alabama (U.S.A.) .

“ To Thine Own Self Be True.”

“Do you ever take yourself out to some quiet spot and look yourself over ?

“Introspection,' practiced in moderation, is a potent force in the up l building of individual character and worth. The principle of rigid inspection, on which all successful industries must depend, can be applied with the same results to the daily life of each of us. “Inspect yourself. Are you going to do duty toward your family? Toward your employer? Toward your community Toward the Church and other institutions oil which social progress is founded?

“Have you proper appreciation of your job? Of your schools? Of the work done by your churches, hospitals and welfare agencies? “In all endeavours, family life, busi ness life, and community life, results are exactly measured by what effort is put forth. You cannot get value out of life unless you put value in it. “Millie a careful, thorough check on yourself. And face the facts honestly as you find them. “If you are true to your own self. You ean be false to no other.”

One of the greatest advantages of the safeguarding duties is that in every case the principle of Imperial preference has been adopted, and J am receiving constant information from Canada that tho preference on motor-cars and photograhpic apparatus h;is proved of enormous benefit to Canada, and has resulted in American capital going into that country and employing Canadian labour, in order to .secure the preferential market in Britain. Any extension to Canada of preferential treatment under safeguarding duties must have similar beneficial effects, and, once safeguarding duties are established, there is no reason why they should not be regarded as a first step towards our ultimate object, which must be freer trade within the Empire and security against foreign competitors.—Sir Henry Page Croft in “The Times.”

All through the ages there has been an elimination of those with tho unlit lamp or the ungirt loin. Nature’s

first voice is—Struggle, Endeavour, Struggle. A lion’s skin is never cheap. What is worth gaining and what is worth keeping must he fought lor. One of the obvious lessons of organic evolution is the danger of having tilings made too easy. What would our

hereditary character have been without Nature’s millennial sifting out of the sluggish, the dull, the feckless, the unbalanced, the unhealthy? What would our hereditary character have been without Nature’s millennial approbation of the insurgent, the adventurous, the controlled, the far-sighted the strenuous—meaning by approbation the award of survival and success.—Prof. ,J. Arthur Thomson in the “Glasgow Herald.”

THE WILD MEN ANI) THE RADIO

In the early days of the 8.8. C. I was keenly on the look out for hidden political propaganda. On the whole, and apart from the fact that all the opinion that comes through is of the established order df convention and though, the wireless managers do not shock us much. 1 suppose we are hound to put up with such Imperialistic stock-in-trade as the bulletins of the Empire Marketing Hoard. I am not sure that the time has not come for a new treatment of controversial problems. Instead of playing for safety, as in the past, I wish the Board would let loose a few wild men, as it were, of the Bernard Slmw, Dean Inge, Mr A. J. Cook, and Mr Bertrand Russell type, and give them an hour or half an hour at least in which to say free what is in their minds in their own way. So long as these were labelled Free Talks, they would do no more damage than a political leading article in a partisan newspaper. Listeners would he oil their guard } and they could always write indignant letters to the speakers, or to 21.0! —Mr J. B. flohnmii in “ The Northern Echo.”