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Free Discussions Club

The year's activities began with a meeting held on Tuesday, March 31st, when the officers and Committee members for 1931 were duly elected. Our opening address was given us by Dr. Henning on the subject of "What a Frenchman Would Think of New Zealand." We have had much pleasure in welcoming Dr. Henning as a new member, although the first thing he set about doing was to destroy our illusion that New Zealand is "God's Own Country." We now know that we have no culture, that our aesthetic sense is crude and naive, our women ill-dressed, clumsy, inelegant and unimaginative, and that our towns are dull, hideous and ill-planned.

In our next meeting Dr. Sutherland spoke of the spirit and mood of Russian enterprise, as embodied in the Five-Year Plan and the collectivisation of agriculture. Since the Revolution Russian affairs have been marked by a change in the idea of property (destruction of private property), and a new economic policy, whose aim has been the industrialisation of a predominating agricultural land of peasants. In 1928 there was formed the "Five-Year Plan" of national development, to provide for the needs of 160 millions of people. Although December, 1932, is the date set for the completion of the plan, no date can see the simultaneous completion of all these activities. Russia's success is indicated by the change in the tone of the propaganda against her. The earlier type of propaganda predicts Russia's breakdown, and the anti-religious propaganda, have changed with the recognition of the enemy's efficiency and the menace of her success for the rest of the world. There is now a suggestive international boycott of Russian goods. Since more than one State, however, needs these Russian goods, the condition of affairs is somewhat complicated. This very interesting discourse was closed by a display of Soviet posters.

"The Deplorable State of the Law" was dealt with at some length in a paper by Mr. I. D. Campbell. The speaker suggested that our legal institutions required a rather more critical scrutiny than they commonly received from the legal profession; and he proceeded to review each branch of the law, levelling the criticisms of both the layman and the lawyer. It was suggested that the whole morality of the law called for reconsideration, and strong comment was made regarding the rules as to inheritance and the inadequate provisions for pauper procedure.

Rev. H. Newell treated of "The Problem of Evil" from the standpoint of the Christian faith. Mr. Newell insisted that the problem could only satisfactorily be approached from this standpoint: without some belief in a God of Prefect Love it was hard to see how the problem could ever arise. That evil existed, evil in nature and evil in the heart of man, only rhapsodising pantheists could deny. But the speaker argued that evil must somehow be reconciled with a theistic interpretation of the universe, for the alternative could only be a philosophy of life which could never satisfy the deeper impulses of man's nature.

In our next meeting we were glad to welcome back to the Club Dr. R. M. Campbell, who had just returned to New Zealand after four years abroad. Dr. Campbell spoke of his impressions in Europe and America. He contrasted the postwar philosophy of defeatism so prevalent in Europe with the optimistic faith of the American in his ability to understand and to control events.

Mr. Scotter spoke of "The Necessity for Puritanism." Those who had come to the meeting ready to defend such things as ale, dancing, football and horse-racing were visibly perturbed when the speaker explained that the Puritan was not necessarily prejudiced against these amenities. A Puritan, it appeared, was a person animated by a conscious purpose, one who was seeking ultimate reality, and one who was capable of with-standing the pressure of herd opinion and herd morality; moreover, he regarded himself as the instrument of the Life Force. Mr. Scotter quoted freely from Bernard Shaw's "Man and Superman," which, he said, was the best statement of the position of the modern Puritan. He referred also to Ibsen and D. H. Laurence.

In a highly provocative paper, entitled "The Future of Morals," Miss D. Spence-Sales drew an arresting picture of the doubts and difficulties of modern man. The religious synthesis, which once had given order and unity to his life, had disintegrated; but the needs that religion fulfilled remained unsatisfied. Science had proved a false Messiah; it had given man an immensely greater control over nature, but had left him neither happier nor wiser.

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