SIR ROBERT STOUT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 102, 16 September 1912, Page 6

SIR ROBERT STOUT.

IXTERESTIXq ADDRESS AT BROTHERHOOD, prt th A WAIIMXO FIXGER. ' -It. PI The Brotherhi id was fortunate yi- R< terday in liiiviuir Sir Robert Stout n- .1 speaker. His subject was the '"Aim of Brotherhood," and lie spoke to a crowded audience. Mr. .1. li. Roy presided, and bvielly introduced Sir Robert, who at the out-'-' asked members of the Brotherhood if they knew where they were going, and what their aim was. _ Had they thought about it? Was it hj) merely for the purpd.se of having a pleasant Siind iv .ifleruoon, because the pieture show- were shut up on the Sabbath V Tiiey must have some goal-some I objective in view. Continuing-. Sir Robert j paid the organisation had taken a very I'' appropriate name. The word '■brotherhood" appealed to anyone, to everyone right t hroiighout the world. They should not let race, or creed, or color interfere with brotherhood. Charity. howeuT, should begin at 'home. If a „ man did not love his brother, he was not going to have much charity for those he did not know. Care for others as well as ourselves was the basis of brotherhood . Firstly, we must do everything .that tended to preserve our race, remembering always that the reformer m -'st be first reformed. Secondly, we - si ould do everything in the direction of t making ourselves greater and better than in the past. If that was not the 1 aim of members, then better that they had no Brotherhood at all. ' RACIAL DECAY. In touching on the danger of racial 1 decay, the speaker asked where were; Babylon, Egypt and Rome of old, and I all their strength, culture and intellect. ' Englishmen must bear in mind that there were other races in the inarch of pro- 1 gress as well as the British. The British race was now to the forefront, but who S knew how long it would remain so? There was fierce competition in the' J 1 world, and we had to fit ourselves for . the struggle. It was for the Brother- 1 hood to make the pace. The race would not be made better by mere talking. j Three things were necessary for our existence: First, physical strength; second, . 'mental ability; third, moral habits. I Without these thii.gs the race would I decline, decay and become decadent. , (Were we all careful, he asked, to make ourselves physically stron'g? Personally, he doubted it, and proceeding he inI stanced the permitting of the sale of f intoxicating liquors, Many men did not < 1 drink to excess, but it could not be ccm- ' doued on this account. They should re--1 member that they were their brothers' j II keepers. The temptation should be rej moved. The race would not be made i physically strong if so many people wero j allowed to fall every year through alcoholic liquors, which, to a healthy person, an eminent physician had described,! iare rank poison. "Go to your hospitals j and slums',' lie remarked, "and you will j find the race decadent. You Britishers are not the only race. There are other 1 races looking a"fter their health. You 1 cannot defy nature. You cannot go on 3 weakening your physical fitness, and exr 1 pect your ' race to be always in the 1 lead." r CIGARETTES AND READING. I Sir Robert then went on to severely j condemn the cigarette habit, which he 't described as totally unnecessary and '" I spoiling the energy, vitality and mental " powers of the men, especially the youth, r of New Zealand. Touching reading, he j said: "You have to attend to your men- J > tal ability, and you get that by train-1 11 ' ing. • How many young men in New t Zealand, between fifteen and thirty, are 1 reading really serious books?. ... Do 1.-- you think you are going to get mental e ability by attending picture ©hows and y by smoking cigarettes?" Continuing, he pointed to the remarkable cheapness of good literature, and urged bow neces'l sary it was for men to improve themselves and keep apace with events and I the progress of other nations by reading. Read, he exclaimed, five minutes there, ten minutes here. Get a book! In urging men to remember that they lived in society, he asked what was tbe meaning of morality, and, answering his own question, he described it as brotherhood.: They had got to help people who had failed in life—help a prisoner coming out of gaol. The speaker then urged his audience not to try and force their opinions on men, and used this as a peg on which to hang a warning against State religion, a-s manifest in the agitation for State religion in our public schools. The principle of State religion did not make for brotherhood; far from it. If we were to have a, race of men high in character, strong in physical strength, and with great mental powers, we must apply ourselves to the problems he had mentioned, and carry out the true ideal* of brotherhood. A PLEA FOR THRIFT. Most interesting was the speaker's dissertation on thrift. "How many people in New Zealand," he asked, "are thrifty? I sometimes think it would be a good tiling if we in this colony were made poor, so as to learn what thrift means. You have to live in a poor country to learn what thrift is. What a different country New Zealand would be if we were all'thrifty, if we lived our lives simply, were .simple in our food, our clothes, our pleasures, and if we did not run after amusement as if the one aim in life was to be amused. The savings bank account is the passport j for young men in New Zealand." Sir Robert then appealed to his bearers not to merely live for themselves, and to think of their own brothers, but to love every other nation and become efficient. If the Brotherhood was to do any good it would have to impress upon men that they had a duty—a business—in life, and that nothing was possible without labor. During the afternoon a quartette was rendered by Messrs. Milburn, Mclsaac. > Reid and Veale. Mr. W. M. Perry led tbe audience in song, and Mr. A. V. Carbines accompanied on the piano.