TOPICS OF THE DAY

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20743, 1 March 1939, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY

Rights and Duties “If,” remarked a contemporary writer, “you were brought up in a wilderness where nothing was done for you, where you must din- a well for water, grow everything for your meals, you would learn to rely on your own skill and industry; you would not expect to o-et anything without working for it. In a country like ours, where water and warmth and light come to us through pipes, where life j s made inclined to think we have a right to an easy life; we are apt to forget that every privilege carries with it a duty. Thus we talk about the right to vote for .Parliament and other public bodies, but how many realise that there is an obligation on them to make themselves tit for so great an honour ? \\ hy should anyone who is ignorant through laziness, or a drunkard, or a thief, have a right to take part in the government of the country ! There may come a time when that right will be granted only to those who have passed some test of fitnoss, wlio show that they take their right seriously. It would be difficult, no doubt, to agree what form such a test should take, but that difficulty could he got over. In the meantime, we must get rid of the idea that any of' us has a right to anything without doing anything for it.”