NEW ZEALAND MORALS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5294, 2 July 1928, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND MORALS.

EXPLANATION BY ARCHBISHOP.

WARNING AGAINST COMPLACENCY

“My object was not; to decry, the state of the country ; all I did was to draw attention to certain facts, to warn people against self-complacency, and to urge them to send to Parliament and into public life generally persons who were worthy .and who took a real interest in social and moral questions,” said Archbishop Averill when he was invited to comment on the criticism which remarks of his last week had drawn from Dr. T. G. Gray, inspector-general of mental hospitals. ’

Comparisons with other countries apart, said the Archbishop, he felt sure that no one who had read the reports of official inquiries into venereal disease and the treatment of degenerates and mental defectives in recent years could honestly say that all was well.

“I think the public knows me well enough to believe that. 1 would not try to blacken the good name of New Zealand,” His Grace continued. “We are all proud of otir country, but our pride in it should not. deter us from looking on. the darker side of New Zealand life. Rather, jt should encourage us to do all we can to make New Zealand in reality what people like to call it—‘God’s own country.’ ”