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Peace and Goodwill.

The desire of every decent person is that 1937 may be a year of peace and goodwill. If we could have twelve months under these conditions, the increase in human happiness would be so great that no one would care to disturb that state of bliss in the after years.

But there are too many warring elements in the lives, conditions, temperaments, and mentalities of the peoples of the world for a desire such as this to be realised in the brief span of a year. The most that each individual can do is to live as peacefully and act with as much goodwill towards others as conditions will permit, and to encourage others to be of a like frame of mind.

Comparatively speaking, New Zealand might be described at present as a place of peace in a world of turmoil. In fact much of the tendency of world travellers to visit New Zealand and Australia is derived from the knowledge of unsettled and uncertain conditions elsewhere.

But before peace and goodwill can come completely into their own there must be, the world over, greatly increased opportunities for all to share more fully in the joys of life.

Here are just a few of the things that are desirable, and doubtless obtainable for all, in the years to come:—A plentitude of pictures and other art objects, to give in small space the aesthetic pleasures of colour and form; books, to set thoughts in motion; some adequate share of sunshine and seashore; plentiful parks with trees and lakes, rivers and flowers; gymnasia and other helpful inducements to exercise; abundance of food and drink of the right sort properly and pleasingly prepared and served; adequate opportunities for social intercourse under agreeable conditions; travel of all kinds to places of educational interest and attractive pleasure resorts; genuine endeavour to reach points of agreement regarding principles of behaviour and outlook upon life to avoid the distress of disagreements; intellectual activity and technical craftsmanship along the lines of personal aptitude or predilection; and friendly opportunities for showmanship of some sort—to strut for admiration, to gesticulate or talk or sing or orate either as a competitive exercise or for the pure pleasure of the effort—to relate facts and invent fictions—to have something to laugh about or to cause friendly laughter amongst others—to be kind and helpful, and to create and accept happiness as the chance comes along. These may not be great and gorgeous aims and objects, instinct with the rarified spirit of a lofty nobility, but they are at least among the things that are possible to all, if the right spirit exists along with a willingness to work cheerfully in any way possible that peace and good-will may reign in the affairs of men.