Christmas 1914.

(By Sir Robert Stout, K.C.M.G, C.J.)

"King out the thousand years of old, Ring in the thousand years of peace."

For thousands of years the "Return of the Sun" as it has been called, has been a joyous season. As Washington Irving said: "It is a great thing to have one day in the year at least, when you are sure of being welcome wherever you go, and of having as it were, the world all thrown open to you." We have followed the customs of our ancestors of the northern hemisphere and we celebrate the shortening and not the lengthening of the day. It is not, however, necessary to enquire into the origin of Christmas. We have followed ancient customs and wo have given many explanations of their origins. The ten volumes of Frazer's "Golden Bough" afford us much information about the beginnings of many of our practices and customs. Ancient customs still surround us. I thought of this when I was sitting in Newton Park the other day watching the farewelling of our Third Expeditionary Force, Behind the crowd in the east of the Park there are swings erected and youths were using them. Swinging was once a religious ceremony. Could an ancient of three thousand years have been present, the swinging at the starting forth of an army would not have been considered a peculiar proceeding. Swinging, as Frazer says, was a magic rite, or, as we would say, a religious ceremony.

Christmas, whatever its origin, has become associated as the one day of kindly feeling, of joy, of love, of brotherhood. It has come to us in 1914 when many nations are plunged in grief. Never in history has there been such a war, as is afflicting the human race at the present time. We speak of past buttles, but they pale into significance before this horrid war. The loss of life has been immense. At Trafalgar our loss of men did not reach 2,000. And England in the Crimea War—it lasted about two rears—had, according to Mulhall's statistics, only 98,100 men at the war altogether. We sent only 20,000 at first—about half what the Australasian Colonies have sent to the present war, and our losses in two years of killed and of those who died from wounds and of sickness were only 22,182. Our losses in the first five months of this war exceed this number. Then the numbers engaged in this war far exceed the numbers that have ever been engaged in any war.

Whilst our young people are enjoying themselves in this festive season and all of us are recalling the past and remembering our friends, may we not spend some little time in meditation on the present state of the world? How comes it that Peace bus made such slow progress We have had all kinds of organisations to promote peace and goodwill to all, and yet to-day we have the most stupendous war that ever disgraced humanity. Our civilisation has broken down. The nation that claims to be the most cultured is the one that has violated its pledged word and has treated its enemies with the utmost cruelty. It not only says it is the most cultured but it can claim that it has paid more attention to religious instruction than any other nation in the world. Religious instruction is compulsory in all the primary schools of Germany. Its claim to culture is well founded if culture means merely acquirement of knowledge, but something more is required than knowledge. There must he character or what the Greeks call "Ethos" from which our word "Ethics" is derived. The events of the last few days show the need our enemies have of that finer feeling that should inspire humanity. Here is a Christian taught nation, the home of State compulsory religious instruction, attacking unfortified towns and unarmed people, killing non-combatants, even children, while the Japanese would not even attack a fortified town—Kiaacuau—till it gave warning to the inhabitants so that they might go to [unclear: ettee]r. What a contrast? And the Jap[unclear: anes]se have a religion we call pag[unclear: aniu]m. Neither culture nor the Christian[unclear: cr]eligion has helped the Germans to act as righteous men. Here is something for us to consider. If we are to assess the value of German educational systems by their fruits, what will we say?

How then are we to help to inaugurate peace? It was long ago said by a philosopher that the way to promote peace was for everyone to be peaceable. Was not that a just observation? We can see where in the Germans have gone wrong. They have acted on the assumption that "might" is "right." They have striven and are striving for "Weet macht"—"World power." They do not desire to see humanity injured. On the con[unclear: trr]y, thev have, convinced themselves that if the civilisation of the, world is left to their control the world will be ben[unclear: efi]ed. It is not to destroy the human race, but it is to improve it that they have set out in their effort to rule the [unclear: ni]verse. What matters to them the opinions or feelings of the people of the nations they want to rule over! Is it not for their good theyhave created vast armies and navies nd great industries? Human rights, human consciences, what are they [unclear: clm]pared to the realisation oi' their ideal? This is their attitude, and the end will be woe and an injury to Europe that it will take a century to retrieve. Now, do any of us ever manifest this same attitude of mind? Does the "drum ecclesiastic" ever beat to arms and call for volunteers to do as the "Overseers advise? Are there found amongst us people who think a majority may [unclear: even] in the realm of religion do what it likes and that to ride rough-shod ever the feelings of a minority is praise—worthy, not blame-worthy? If there is a community anywhere that upholds the idea that a majority has the right to dictate to a minority in belief, there is no brotherhood there, and there will be no civil peace there. Our ideal should be the perfect state of which Robert Buchanan sang, and it will not be perfect till we get also the [unclear: perfect] citizen. There can be such [unclear: perfec]tion without freedom—equal [unclear: report to] all. If we penalise any class or [unclear: any] individual because the opinion of the class or person is not that of the mass liberty has vanished. There must of course in every society be restrictions. There must be order, else we can get no progress. No State can permit evil to exist. Many things must be prohibited, and that in the interests of true liberty. But on matters of opinion, or of conscience, it must be recognised that there will be different views in every community, and that the winority may even be right. History [unclear: tells] us that the minority has been as often right as the majority has been. Let us get in our minds and hearts the feeling of brot herhood, and then we will not fail to emphasise the need of freedom and the rights of minorities. And if brotherhood gets Strong, peace will come, and it will spread throughout the world.

When one meditates on the evils of the world, the misery in many countries, the ugliness apparent in our surroundings, on the slow progress the race has made, the hundreds of thousands of years it has taken to reach our present position, and how many things we lack, we are apt to be discouraged. But the light is breaking, brotherhood is growing, and the evils of the past are slowly being lessened. Just this week I was reading of a movement in that great Sociological Laboratory of the nations—the United States of America. It was about what had happened in the town of Davenport in the State of Iowa. It is a town that has got rid of both slums and back-yards as we know them. We have not many slums in New Zealand, though in our larger towns there are unlovely places, but all our towns have back-yards. Why, it was asked, in Davenport should a back yard be more unlovely than the front of the house? And no answer could be found. So the people of Davenport—and it has about 70,000 inhabitants—resolved to make all their sections uniformly beautiful. They could have flower and vegetable gardens however small their size. They started a "Beauty Contest." Prizes were given for the most lovely back yards, and soon there entered some two thousand competitors and thousands more determined to make attractive these unsightly precincts, though they did not enter for the prizes. And lo[unclear: t] the back yards of Davenport are wreathed in flowers, sweet-peas, roses, golden rod, morning glories, etc., etc., and useful vegetables are there too. The State Agricultural College helped. The college sent lecturers and experts and plenty of stereopticon slides to show how flowers should look. And the contest came off, and Davenport was made a flower garden, and the theatre was packed when the prizes were given, and films shown of Davenport before and after this "Beauty Contest," But, above all, this made for a higher civic life and for brotherhood. In Haveloek North, in Hawke's Bay, we have a Haveloek North Society which is doing a great work with its beautifully got up paper "The Forerunnel'," and its literary and musical and other entertainments. And people have caught the Haveloek Society's spirit and the town has become one of the most desirable places of residence in New Zealand. Why cannot other towns emulate its example? Brotherhood and peace have been promoted. And it has been asked, is it not better to go crazy about beautiful back yards than to run after horse races, or long for alcohol, or even to waste all our spare time at the picture shows?

The point, however, I wish to emphasise is that such societies and such a civic life make for brotherhood and, home and peace. And may we not start such societies in all our towns to beautify our dwelling places, to give civic life higher ideals, and above all to promote peace, and goodwill amongst men? The great movements of the world have begun in small ways. They have grown. Suppose every city or town had a Hague tribunal for the universe? Let us show that civic peace is possible and then we may expect international peace some day. Give our people beautiful surroundings and healthy pleasures, and peace will be promoted and we will live on a higher ethical plane. In fact, it will be a mode of moral culture that will transcend the teaching of ethics out of books. Some people seem to think that you cannot live a good life unless you examine the origin of morals, or the sanction of morals. Training is better than teaching, living the life is better than talking about goodness. Where you have slums and unlovely surroundings you have unlovely practices. Get a clean, beautiful, town where temptation to do wrong is reduced to a minimum and crime and misconduct will be rare.

Would it, then, be wrong to say that if a man made a garden in his backyard he would be doing more for peace than joining a society that caused bitterness and ill-feeling between neighbors by insisting that everyone shall have the same view of the universe.

Beauty, Truth and Love should be our motto for the coming year.