The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE SATURDAY, MARCH 22nd, 1919. PEACE CELEBRATIONS

Taihape Daily Times, 22 March 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

SATURDAY, MARCH 22nd, 1919. PEACE CELEBRATIONS

( u 'ith wtneh is incorporated The TaJ* hape Peat tnd WalEJartao News).

When the Mayor invited, by public nctific.ii.oi., the whole community to meet him in the Town Hall supperroom for the purpose of deciding how the declaration of peace should tie celebrated in Taihape, we thought he had for once entirely misunderstood the public sentiment. It seemed to us that here was an opportunity for demonstrating in some way a deep-

seated thankfulness and gratitude, or, at least, a delirious jov in what the I armies of the British Empire had ' nobly, bravely, heroically achieved in saving New Zealand, as well as tno rest of the world, from slavery to German militarism, and the meeting should surely take place in the Town Hall;, but the gathering of about forty citizens in response to the invitation showed that the Mayor had correctly gauged the interest Taihapc residents were going to evince in the •M-outest r-'.v'u'i tlit' British Empire, and i even the whole world, has any know- , ledge, or conception, of. Surely we have lost all sense of proportion when only some forty people appear to have gauged the greatness of the occasion. If the small meeting held last nignt represents the sum total of gratitucrc for the lives, and limbs, and healm our soldier sons have sacrificed for us, then we, as British people, must forever cease to accuse any other nation of being minus the faculty or gratitude. Perhaps, this public meeting was regarded by the majority of townsmen as a sort of preliminary arfair, and that they could fall into line when a formal decision to celebrate had been agreed upon, if so we would urge upon all of them the importance of immediate attention, because the day of peace is very near at hand. They missed having a voice in setting up committees, and in deciding the nature of the thanksgivings and jubilations, but there is no reason whatever why they should not hurry to link themselves up with the various committees and exert their efforts towards evolving something lughof, ' more impressive, more permanent, more ennobling, and more satisfying ! than a display of mere childish glee. \ The Government has requested that the people should celebrate so as to I leave a lasting impression upon children; do something that will cause them to remember the defeat or c bloodthirsty militarism to which the peoples of the world were so nearly falling victims, and also 4 leave indelf- ' bly on their minds the causes which brought into existence an era of peace that may yet banish widespread human destruction from the usages and practice of mankind for ever. Let us not under-rate the occasion; we So not desire to demean intelligence ol the coming generation by appealing to anything less than the highest an|d noblest sentiments the Empire, of which they arc units, is renowned for, and has bred into them. What we impress them with will be narrated to their children in vots to eerie, and if

we, Rip Vatt Winkle like, should chjance to hear those narrations, we shall wish now that they may be something -we may not be ashamed of. When they reach manhood, will our Taihape children say that we in this day only knew how to demonstrate our joy as our forefathers did a thousand years > ago., and not nearly so intellectually as our fathers of half a century ago did? New Zealand is no longer an infant among nations; it is young, truly, but I it has protested a manhood of i which it has proved itself undeniably worthy; it has played 1 the part of a nation among the nations | or the world; it is no longer in leadi ing strings to a motherland, and we must realise that the people of this I Dominion are making history every day of their present existence. We are to do our part in saving civilisation. What arc we doing ,if we are doing anything? Ear be it from us I to find fault with what the sparsclyj attended meeting did last night, I dancing, fireworks, sports, and gorgeI ous displays will all impress the youthful mind evanesccntly only; they are ! not impressions we should feel any particular pride in if we heard them being unfolded to our children's child- \ ren in years to come, .land they will not figure much in the history we are ; making. We are an educated people, and we think the soul of educated man should expand to the unprecedented time and to the unparalleled , occasion, anil endeavour to leave im- ; pressions upon our children that will help to lift them beyond the danger j of falling or drifting into Bolshevism, i or into any of the other curses with which mankind is at this moment threatened. We are faced with evidence of the modern inclination to unlduly' worship physical pleasure and pastimes, and that the shrine of intellect is being dangerously neglected. As the pen is mightier than the sword, so will iutellect ever continue '• to triumph in the world. Wc have J arrived at a stage when brute force I has ignobly failed, and when the colI lec-tive intellectuality of the world has hald to be summoned to rescue it from the brink of the abyss of darkness to which brute force has brought it. It has in all history been the mission of intellect, to snatch: back civilisation from the destruction with which the greed, and lust of brute force has menaced it. Let us ' realise' that' intellectual impressions, such as Chancellor Biadford gave our children in the Chautauqua tent, will live longer than | al! the physical displays wc can give I thorn, antl will cause the children to j whom these impressions arc related in the future to feel; thankful that they j sprang from such an honourable and noble stock. Music is an expression ! of intellect, but our children must 'be

taught to shun that of the Syjren character and cultivate that chosen by Orpheus. In addition to ia passingpeace celebration, we are of opinion that some lasting memorial might be set up that would serve the dual purpose of impressing present and future generations with the signing of peace aijd the establishment of a League of Nations, a "Parliament of Man," for the purpose of rendering resort to wajr as remote a thing - as it is possible to make it. Five hundred pounds wclild put the nucleus of a large pipe organ in our Town Hail that would provide infinite intellectual pleasure for years to come. In future celebrations that wore likely to leave their mark on his tqry our children could meet and lift, a mighty song of Thankfulness such as we are powerless to render. Let us not forgot the nature of the events that we ar." combining to celebrate, and above all let us impress our children with all the noble sentiments we are capable of. for we must commit to them, in only a few years, all the responsibility of keeping the Empire with its glorious traditions free from the hands of all who would destroy it.