LIBERTY AND TOLERATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 May 1921, Page 11

LIBERTY AND TOLERATION.

STAR OF THE SOUTH.

CHIEF RABBI’S REMARKS.

An eloquent speech was delivered at Wellington on Tuesday, by the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Empire, Dr. J. H. Hertz, in replying to the civic welcome extended to him on behalf of the citizens by the Mayor and Mayor-elect.

In the course of his remarks Dr. Hertz said he had observed in this newest and most virile of British possessions, as he had noted nowhere else in the world to such a great extent, that liberty and toleration were reigning factors in the life of the people. Dean Swift had said that most people had just enough religion in them to hate one another; but not enough to like one another. He was glad to observe, however, the cordial relationship of the Australians and their New Zealand neighbors. The welcome given to him was proof of the absolute tolerance and liberty that existed in the Dominion. This was specially welcome to him when he realised what a wave of intolerance was sweeping across so many Western countries.

Massacre and ghastly persecution were going on in Eastern and Central Europe, and sincq the. Armistice, in the Ukraine alone, 150,000 Jewish men women and children had been massacred with the most fiendish cruelties. This slaughter could be compared only with the massacre of the Armenians by the Turks.

NEW ZEALAND’S PROGRESS.

He was alsb impressed with the progress that was ibeing madte ‘in this young country. New Zealand, with its wonderful scenery and suitable situation, had probably the most beautiful climate in the world. It had also the healthiest intellectual climate for progressive ideals of any country. It was the experimental laboratory for the intellectual ideas of civilisation. The people of New Zealand had not realised that. There was a finer response to social duty here than in any other country, and some of the greatest humanitarian advances in social legislation had originated here. For instance, there were the introduction of compulsory arbitration, the reformative treatment of criminals, State insurance, employment bureaux, and other State institutions. Someone had said that England was a country in which wealth accumulated, but advancement was deterred. In New Zealand wealth was also accumulating, but the country was advancing. It was a great thing to belong to a country that realised that the clock of progress sometimes needed winding, and at the same time realised that constant or violent winding would cause the clock to stop altogether. The powerful sanity which the people of the Dominion inherited from their British ancestors would never leave them and would always prevail for the government of the country by common sense. It was a privilege to visit such a far-flung Dominion and meet its men and women and inspect its institutions.

THE STAR OF THE SOUTH.

The traveller from the Northern hemisphere was always struck with the fact that the stars of the south shone clearer and brighter and appeared nearer than in the north. Similarly tolerance and liberty, which appeared dim and distant in the North shone clearly and brightly in the newer democracies of the Southern hemisphere. The ideal seemed to be nearer realisation; in fact, he was not sure it had not already been realised.

Again expressing thanks for the welcome extended to him, Dr. Hertz-said in conclusion that he hoped and trusted New Zealand would continue to advance on the road she had so nobly trodden in the past.