PRAISE OF YOUTH

Hokitika Guardian, 11 December 1933, Page 8

PRAISE OF YOUTH

AN ARCHBISHOP’S VIEWS LONDON, December 5. Addressing church workers among young people, the Archbishop of Canterbury said fthat it was no use going to the young folk in an attitude, of superiority or patronage. They, must be at the side of the young people and sue life as they saw it. He believed that the youth of the present generation was a finer material than the youth of any other generation of'which he had any knowledge in the history of his country. There was their frankness, sincerity, and '■ straightforwardness; so little of pretence and the playing of a part. They were extraordinarily hopeful and courageous 4n their {outlook upon life.

I Many of them were, to a degree he thought hitherto unknown, extraordinarily'open in'mind and full of keen interest'in all that concerned, no? themselves only, but their country and the world. He knew full well their obvious faults; their lack of self-control, their excessive self-confidence, their be. I lief that they, had a divine right to live ; their own.life in their own way,.what' ever it might be. He knew there were allurements and ensnaring enticements which beset them. They could not forget that youth was confused and perplexed by the shaking of many of the standards of right and wrong which used to be regarded as fixed and steady.

Extraordinary freedom was now allowed to both sexes. He knew full well its dangers; it was inconceivable they should not cause many a shipwreck of that which ought to be the most precious possession of any young man and woman. But what was far more amazing to him was that, with all that-.free-dom, > there should be so much astonishing, self-restraint and so many evidences, where perhaps they might least expect it, that deep down there was some standard to which they resolved to be loyal, .