FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1903. YOUNG NEW ZEALAND.

Rodney and Otamatea Times, Waitemata and Kaipara Gazette, 18 September 1903, Page 2

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1903. YOUNG NEW ZEALAND.

Recently the early days of this colony have been brought before us very strikingly., Sir John Campbell standing on the very spot Avhere fi|ty years, ago he viewed the present site of the city of Auckland and the Waitemata, was a typical figure of the days that are no more; of ideals some which have evaporated and some been realised, and uK men and manners that have passed away. We are inclined to think that our colonial youth are occasionally criticised somewhat harshly ; we are prone to both " bless and ban " with too little discrimination. Tho new generation are declared to be irreverent, ill-man-nered, neglectful of the observances of religion, devoted to field sports at the expense of mental training, and wanting in that plodding perseverance so remarkable in the old pionuers. Retaliation has not been lacking; the old identities are frequently contemptously blamed for their narrow ways of thought and action.

It seems to be forgotten by those who shake their heads over the new generation of both- sexes, that certain factors existed to brace the temperament, of the early pioneer- settlers that must of necessity be wanting to'piV duce the same results in the young colonists of to-day.

First of all *ov men and women to leave tho "v- '^rtand forty or fifty years ago, u> undertake a voyage' which was seldom under four months and often five, to a country of which even the official information was, to put it mildly, vague, argues that these same persons were possessed of certain qualities above the average of the population. The trials that beset them on landing, the hardships that their every day life consisted of, endued them with certain attributes that are probably lacking in the youth of this: colony because the discipline has not been experienced. To-day the paths of life are smoothed; schooling is made easy, churches are comparatively plentiful, and certainly not crowded, locomotion, even in the " ultima Thule " of the colony North Auckland not impossible, and elsewhere rapidly becoming easy. It is a question now gravely debated whether or not the state should make life more easy by mining for us, carrying us by steamer as well as by railwa)', managing our | stores, and in a word sinking our individuality as citizens. Under such a system we fail to see the incentive to perseverance.

The charge of irreverence is not so easily disposed of: the early emancipation from parental control is observable, and the flippant assurance of young colonials, more noticeable, perhaps in girls even than boys, is amusing. Still we believe that a good deal of this is more superficial than real. There is one deplorable feature however, and that is the readiness with which sons and daughters take advantage of the Old Age Pension Act to rid themselves of filial responsibility. For this national sin there can be no glossing. But the. early ago nt which children in the culuiiy become part <>f the working establishment of the farm, store, hotel or other place of busing, puts them on a nearer position of i equality to tin.- parents and this conjoined to the high animal spirits of most colonial children, may give an appearance of want of respect that can easily be exaggerated.

With religion, the case is explainable, the State has separated religion from education, the rising generation have made it a divorce "from table and bed." The charge of neglecting tin-mind at the i-xjiuiiso uf The body*. or more dangerous by far, the actual intense interest given to sport, and the great indifference 'Shown to voluntary

mental culture, can not be lightly passed over; we see it and deplore it, and we regret that it is pandered to by public functionaries in a way that we believe to be harmful: a successful "three-quarter" in a football team meets with a reception while a youth who has carried off in the old country academic honours is scarcely mentioned and in a day or two .even in his native town is forgotten.

The "new girl" is a fruitful source of discussion: that she is as useful as her mother speaking generally we deny, and it is to this fact be it noted that we attribute the-reluctance of our young men.to marry. The emancipation is more marked iv.our girls than in our boys, because of more recent date; the many avenues of employment thrown open to the female sex have no doubt accelerated the movement. The sexes have been placed on a different footing, and the influence of women has we are convinced been weakened by the change.

As to the charge^ of want, of good manners, it seems^to us that the rapid action of to-day in every sphere of life has tended to make William (if Wykham's motto forgotten viz., "Manners maketh the man," and, may we add, the woman.

Our New Zealand youth probably will not suffer by comparison with the present generation in other parts of the Empire, and an exaggeration of defects is a bad basis from which to start an agitation for reform.