IDEALS OF CITIZENSHIP

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 328, 13 April 1928, Page 4

IDEALS OF CITIZENSHIP

STATE AND INDIVIDUAL LYCEUM CLUB ADDRESS “Constructive Citizenship,” was the subject of an address at the Lyceum Club given yesterday by Rev. Lawson Marsh. The president, Mrs. W. H. Papkes, occupied the chair and introduced the speaker to his audience. Citizenship must be distinguished from interest in public affairs, said Mr. Lawson Marsh. It was a defect in the realisation of citizenship that some of the best citizens despised public adfairs. In war the State demanded service, toil and sacrifice for reasons that were apparent, but in normal time the State needed these virtues in a like manner. There were people who asked: “What has my country done for me? I have fulfilled my obligations. What more is there?” The answer to this question, said the speaker, was “What had the State not done for the individual?” The real purpose of the State was to act for the greatest good of its individual members. It had given each a language, intelligence, opportunity for work, orgdnisation, protection and many other things. The natural basis of the relation of the individual to the State was an indebtedness beyond the power of anyone to repay in lull. Concluding his address, Mr, Lawson Marsh quoted from “Constructive Citizenship,” by Principal Jacks: “I would urge you to interpret the duties of your citizenship, primarily and essentially, as the duties of men and women who arc called upon to make a valiant contribution to the work of their generation by taking their share in the dangers and suffering of the common enterprise as well as in the fruits and profits of it.” “Be prepared, I would say, for high demands on your courage, your resolution and your skill. Except as the valiant spirit inspires it, constructive citizenship is nothing at all.”