WHAT IS GREATNESS?

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 987, 2 June 1930, Page 6

WHAT IS GREATNESS?

DR. J. P. HASTINGS’S ADDRESS

EDUCATIONAL CRAMMING “Don't try and follow the crowd. Trust yourselves, think for yourselves and cast away prejudices, said Dr, J. P. Hastings, in an address on “What is Greatness" given, at the Britannia Theatre last evening in conjunction with a performance given by the Ponsonby Boys' Brass Band. The function was in aid of funds for the band. One definition of greatness, he said, ■was the quality given to man which made him best able to serve the great social needs of his time. True greatness could only be built upon by strength of character, and one of the fundamentals was a love of truth.. Nineteen hundred years ago Pilate, the Roman Governor and a cultured Homan gentleman, asked the question, “What is Truth?" Christ thought so much of truth, said the speaker, that he actually sacrificed his life rather than yield to the orthodox church of the time, and deny what he knew to be true. New Zealand had been blessed with many great men. If greatness was tested by the measure of service to the community the late Governor-General, Sir Charles Fergusson, and also Lady Alice Fergusson, had set a splendid example to the community. The present Governor-General, Lord Bledisioe, and Lady Bledisloe, were also giving a striking example of putting service before self. Ur. Hastings also mentioned the unsung heroes of life, the people who, following the ordinary occupations of life, strove to do their work to the best of their ability and by striving to keep a happy home together could rightly be called great men and women. Let the common man be. true to the highest in him, let him inspire in his children the Jove of truth and adherence to principles, then, as far as the future of the race was concerned lie had done his part magnificently. Among the young people present might be someone who would bring m eat benefit to the world. One of the greatest things to be done was to bring about the abolition of poverty. Until that was done the world would always be threatened with war. The real

salvation of tlie modern world, he thought, lay in the hands of the engineers and chemists. They would harness nature to serve mankind more and more and wrest from her not always willing bosom a.n abundance of things for all. He thought that the one thing that prevented the development of greatness in New Zealand was its present educational system. This, he said, should, bo called not an educational system, but a cramming system. Ho stated that almost invariably a student who went through the complete educational machine went :in fit one end tilled with curiosity and eagerness ilnd came out at the other sated with a crammed form of knowledge and a disinclination for further study independently. He suffered from mental indigestion and detested the idea of further progress for the love