SINCE THE WAR.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4787, 10 December 1924, Page 4

SINCE THE WAR.

CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA,. ALLEGED LOWER MORAL TONE. A stirring addrests cm the lessons o£ Armistice Day was delivered in Sydney on November 11 by BrigadierGeneral S. C. Herring. In the course of his remarks he urged that a better conception of commercial morality was one of the outstanding needs of Australia at the present time. “Now.” the speaker concluded, “are we satisfied with the condition of tilings in Australia since the Armistice ? Candidly, I am mot satisfied. We don’t seem to be getting back io normal as quickly as we should. It seems to me that things are not right in the public and commercial, life of the community ; that, if I may be pardoned for using the expression, commercial honesty is no twhat it was before the war. Things don't seem to be just where they were before the A.I.F. went away to fight for Australia. There seems to be a deterioration in the national character, a demoralisation which we have evidence of in the constant assertions and allegations of bribery and corruption in the public and commercial life of the community. "We did not hear so much about these things before we went away, and we cannot altogether understand the reason for them now. Some time

I ago ti e firm with which I am eom- [ mercially associated wanted to purchase certain materials, and one of the men of the 46th Battalion, who served under me, came to me with the message : “If you pass on a couple of pounds to the foreman he will see that your tender is accepted.’ Now, there may be some temptation to a man who is on the bread line to stoop to that sort of thing to make a few pounds, but there is no reason why men holding responsible positions should do so. Yet everywhere there are these allegations and assertions, and they are accepted so generally as being ‘the proper thing’ that it seems to me the moral fibre of the public conscience has weakened. “It seemis to me that the great danger lies in the fact that too many people are ‘making money their god.’ They want to make money, and they want to make it quickly, and are not too thoughtful as to the means of making it. That seems to be lhe reason I why tlie people are going in so madly for pony-racing and gambling. | “What I want to emphasise is that ; tliL- is not what the men of tlie A.I.F. ! fought and died for. Those of us who returned and tlie rest of the citi1 zens ewe it to tlie men wiio died io ■ make this a better country. It is the i most splendid country in tlie world. I. j don’t care where you go, but it is not I being made tlie mast oft 'f we take j as bur motto, ‘My duty to God and my I neighbour’ we will not go very far i wrong.” (Applause;).