“INFANT PEACE PACT”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 449, 3 September 1928, Page 14

“INFANT PEACE PACT”

PREACHER APPEALS FOR PUBLIC SUPPORT SERMON BY ARCHBISHOP “Do w© leave infants to fend for themselves, and leave them severely alone while we stand by and watch to see if they will grow up? “All of us would have died in infancy were it not for loving care, and even sacrifice. “To-night I ask you to give the infant peace pact your material support and enthusiasm/' The speaker was Archbishop Averill, who preached an interesting sermon on the Kellogg Peace Pact at St. Mary’s Cathedral last evening. In opening he said that some people might contend that it was difficult to be enthusiastic about the new move of the nations, becauseit was yet in its infancy, and there was no indication chat it would be supported by the United States Congress. The indifference and apathy in the . rank and file of the League of Nations had been the stumbling block to the tremendous possibilities of the League. The League had rendered great service to mankind, but what might it have done had it been enthusiastically backed up? Of course, there were difficulties ahead of the peace pact, but were the cynics, the armchair critics and the profiteers who delighted in the prospect of war to have the last word in connection with this splendid move toward the elimination of the dread of war from human consciousness? “Why should the world continually groan under the possibilities of another war? he continued. Why should men regard war as inevitable, and imagine that the future is bound to be the same as the past, and that the world cairtiot catch a new vision. There was a time when men said it was impossible to stamp out slavery or secure the quality of the sexes, but the impossible happened. There is no doubt that the outlawry of war is as possible as the outlawry of slavery. “Surely we cannot say God is on our side or that we are on His if we are not prepared to back up such a splendid attempt to outlaw war as is contained in the present pact. We spoke of the Great War as Hell, but surely another war would be Hell intensified. There was no hope of outlawing war unless greater goodwill was secured among the masses of the nations, he added. Greater goodwill was needed in international, industrial, domestic and religious affairs, and it was the duty of the Church to work for unity and concord. Those who gave their lives in the Great War had not died in vain if those who remained carried on the great work in bringing everlasting peace for the world. THE MODERN BOY “NO SUCH THING,” SAYS EDUCATIONIST BIBLE CLASS BANQUET “There ia no such thing as the modern boy—the species boy has been the same all down the ages. Such was the assertion of Mr. F. A. Garry, headmaster of the Mount Roskill School, at the annual banquet and fathers' night of the Mount Eden Presbyterian Young Men’s Bible Class on Saturday evening last. The banquet was presided over by the minister of the church, the Rev. Leonard H. Hunt, who apologised for the absence of the leader of the class, Mr. W. J. Munro. Mr. J. W. Shaw, M.A., a former minister of the Mount Eden Church, was the guest of honOU Speaking on the subject of "The Modern Boy,” Mr. Garry continuing, said that each generation of boys was similar to the one that went before it. It passed through the same experiences as its fathers, and like them possessed the same possibilities for both good and evil, each in its time thinking that it could do no wrong. Boys hadever entered life with the same view of the world, and the worlds to be conquered. Supporting his assertion that hoys had always been the same, Mr. Garry quoted the example of the prodigal son, and the more recent example in Shakespeare of the advice of Polonius to his son. There was the same old story of the good boy and the bad boy, he said, the same old story of the boy coming back to his father. Polonius gave to his son the advice we would give to our sons, the advice of a thousand years. Every boy had three selves, firstly, his ordinary common kitchen-garden variety of self, secondly, his lower self, and thirdly his ideal or higher self. What is different in these days is not the boy, but the times and the understanding of the boy. This was the age of the boy—the age of youth. The past was the age of the old folk, when boys were meant to be seen and not heard. To-day the position was reversed, said the speaker, and the problem was to get boys to be heard rather than seen. The old proverb had become, "Use the rod and spoil the child.” This was the age of opportunity for young people. With opportunity came the age of responsibility, and youth could not accept opportunity unles it was willing to shoulder responsibility. Opportunity and responsibility brought a great chance of developing character, which after all was the only thing that counted in life, and led to a growing to something that was higher, something that was greater. MAN’S MESS OF WORLD Mr. J. W. Shaw. M.A., lecturer in English at the Auckland Training College, supported Mr. Garry’s statement that boys were the same to-day as they always were. He said that boy had a purpose in the world—to keep it from getting old. "Ten years ago I was an old man. Now, through associating with young people, I am growing younger every day,” Mr. Shaw declared. The lack of reverence of the boy nowadays was really a good thing—not that he meant that irreverence should be encouraged, but it was a sign and a good sign that boys were beginning to question institutions and things. The speaker also liked the impatience of the modern boy. This was the age of impatience and it was good that it was so. The thought that under modern youth the world was heading to destruction existed only in imagination. "From the stories we hear of the modern girl in the papers we are led to believe that 95 per cent, of them are cocktail drinkers, joyriders, etc., and that only 5 per cent, could compare with the older generation. Yet the truth is that 95 per cent, are probably as stately as any woman that ever walked.” In these days it was difficult to give much advice. Boys were not as willL

ing to accept advice as they, were in the old days. The speaker did not agree with the croakers, who prophesied disaster for the world—the older people could rest assured that the keeping of the world was safe in the hands of those knocking at the door of life. “In fact,” concluded Mr. Shaw, “I do not know that we older people can take much pride in the mess we have made of the world. We should say to our sons, ‘Get up and be doing, and see if you cannot make a better job of the world than your fathers did/” Mr. J. A. Mars, superintendent of the Presbyterian Social Service Associations’ orphanages, also spoke on the same subject. He said that in these days when the girl was aping the man it was good to see that the boy had not lost his manhood. As a father of in the vicinity of 150 boys at the present time, he had ample time to study the boy, and he had found that the boy was a very complex animal—hard to understand. Educationally he had a greater opportunity than his fathers had had. The toast “Our Fathers” was proposed by Mr. A. G. Sherriff, and replied to by Mr. A. J. Gaily. Hr. A. Henderson proposed the toast of “Our Sons,” E. Taylor responding. “The Modern Father” was the subject discussed by three class members, J. A. Oliver, H. Hodge and K. Rudall. Mr. E. M. Edgar, Mr. Alan McElwain, A. W. H. Gaily and Burnand’s Orchestra supplied the musical portion of the programme and four pupils of the Mount Albert Grammar School, A. Mars, <F. Robertson, Ness and Mills presented a farce, “In a Dentist’s Hen.”