The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1909 SOCIAL EVILS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2606, 14 September 1909, Page 4

The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1909 SOCIAL EVILS.

The Rev. W. Lamb has become alarmed at the godlcssnese of Gisborne folk, the grow’th of illegitimate births, the increase in 'divorces, and the great freedom allowed to the younger generation. He tells us that though London is a wicked city, Gisborne is just as bad, the only difference being one of population. Such a comparison seems difficult to make, but, if made, would possibly prove to be approximately correct. Human nature is much the same the world over and in Gisborne as in London men and women are animated with the same sentiments of love and hatred, ambition, indolence, greed, generosity, and all the other conflicting phases of temperament which go to make up that complex proposition, man. Mr Lamb is undoubtedly correct in emphasising the necessity of fostering a high moral tone in the community; for at the last the strength of any nation must bo measured by the capacity of its individual units to express in their lives the eternal laws of Nature. In the social world probably nothing is more potent than the attitude of a community towards the marriage tie, for, upon this the whole foundation of the social structure is necessarily built. The sacredness of home life should, at all hazards, be preserved as the chief bulwark of national safety, and this can only be secured by happy marriages. Unfortunately human experience is full of illassorted which inevitably spell a life-long tragedy for the unlucky ones, anything but a square deal for the progeny, and all-round loss to the State. It is easy to deplore, as Mr Lamb does, the great increase in the number of divorces registered in recent .years, but these, though, exceedingly regrettable in themselves, may simply represent an outward indication of a festering sore that has long existed. With the march of education the old fetish, which virtually compelled a man and woman to Jive together as husband and wife even though the conditions of their union were horrible and repugnant to themselves and disastrous to the community as a whole, has been destroyed. A mistake in judgment- on the part of a young man or young woman. may easily lead, to an absolutely unholy union and, in the results of an unhappy marriage, it is the offspring and the State which suffer. Greater stringency in the divorce laws is not the remedy for social disorders, but it is likewise true that undue laxity would certainly invite new abuses of the social system. Happy and successful marriages can only be looked for when the parties to the nuptial compact have been educated and trained in a high mental and moral atmosphere. When all that can be said has been said we inevitably com© back to the matter of parental control which has far more to do with the future of the nation than all the schools or all the laws that were ever made or ever could be made. The State cannot teach morals excepting by the indirect’ method of punishment meted to those who infringe its arbitrary rulings, and here the results are ol so negative a nature ‘as to Suggest that our legislators and administrators have not succeeded to any marked extent in improving the morals of the community. If a murderer :is hanged the law is justified and some criminals are intimidated, but it would bo difficult to prove that the State had thereby increased the sum of human goodness. In our public schools the State can and does include moral teachings in itp syllabus, but it is nevertheless an undeniable fact that in the endeavor to prepare children for the material issues in the battle of life the sentimental aspect is largely neglected. It is the business of the instructor that the child shall develop whatever cleverness he may possess; his goodness is loft chiefly to, the Sunday School 1 teacher. It is true that some teachers are gravely concerned ini the moral welfare of their charges, and do invaluable work in implanting such. se6d that the outcome of their labors wili be good women and men vho place integrity above all oth?r business attributes, but the stress of a crowded syllabus leaves little scope for such work. In any case the fact that a teacher has to supervise classes of forty and fifty pupils renders it quite impossible for them to make more than a most cursory study of the characters of the children placed under their care. Sunday schoo's are hampered by the fact that pupds are not compelled to .attend and I but the teaching only takes place on one day in the week. The onus and privilege, therefore, of building an upright nation on the only foundations that can endure come back immediately upon the parents, who alone have a real opportunity to markedly impress the temperament of the rising generation. It is the weakness in this de-

partment which is responsible for illegitimate births, and the unhappy marthat sometimes end in the Divorce Court, but more often are represented in a bitter life-long tragedy for both parties to the union. Under the mistaken notion that ignorance is a synonym for purity, children are brought up entirely unaware of the main facts of their physical existence, and are permitted to pick up from older boy s and girls in the playground or at street corners what should be heard only from the lips of their parents in their owA homes. Just at a time when the exuberance of youthful spirits needs some reasonable check they are allowed to run wild, quickly becoming a law unto themselves, whilst still much too immature to appreciate the importance of their, actions. The subject is one which it is difficult to discuss within the scope of a newspaper article, but it is .one, nevertheless, which cannot be too closely considered by those who have any thought for the welfare of the community.