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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 14, No. 10. August 9, 1951

Puritan

Puritan

The average New Zealander is a puritan by origin, upbringing and instinct. Mentally, he remains in the suburbs of a provincial town in Victorian England. This puritanism, unlike that of America, is negative, for if there are two things most of us shun like the plague, they are enthusiasm and general principles. They terrify us.

We are glum and apathetic in our pleasures, amusements and vices alike—in the last category gambling comes far ahead of the rest of the field. We are determinedly serious, and distrust gaiety as a sign of instability and even effeminacy. Spontaneous public singing is an objectionable foreign habit, and there is some pride that the New Zealanders in the First World War were known as the "Silent Division."

In practice the material is valued far above the spiritual. Religion means churchgoing and a mild benevolent humanitarianism. Ethics are of habit only, their unique sanction the opinion of our fellows. Theology is an even greater loss than philosophy. Anything bordering on mysticism is upsetting and slightly disgusting, although potty fashions like spiritualism are socially popular among women. But mysticism proper is one of the many things that are "UnBritish," and being alien must necessarily be inferior and a legitimate subject for sneers or the pity that surpaaseth misunderstanding. Discussion of the fundamentals of reality, although occasionally indulged in by less responsible sections of the younger generation, is taboo except in moments of deep crisis, when a few solemn parrotted cliches are permissible.