THE BEST LIFE.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 40, 16 February 1929, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE BEST LIFE.

"TOWN OR COUNTRY."

CHARM OF THE OPEN SPACES.

(By BARBARA KERR.)

"Oh, isn't it wonderful out here! I could live in the country for ever," cried the entranced town visitor, giving a sigh of sheer delight.

"The view is beautiful from here, but wait until the last day of your holidays and then tell me which you prefer— town or country life," I answered scepticallv.

I We stood on a hillside faintly touched | with the sunset glow, watching the [cows slowly passing to their night padjdoek after the evening milking. Nearby ion the topmost twig of a lofty pine, a I thrush sang his melodious farewell to Jay, his whole heart poured forth in his song. Below us a winding creek flowed smoothly along with here and there deep ' pools where dreaming shadows brooded. Only one homestead was in sight, and that a quarter of a mile across the valley. Peace and quietness reigned o'er the scene, and to my friend, a young business woman fresh from the sights ami sounds and smells of the Queen City, it all seemed so calm and tranquil that (but temporarily, I guessed) ■~he desired to live always amongst the peaocfulness. Three weeks later, on the eve of her return to town, we were having our last confidential chat on that same hillside, secure from interruption. The conversation had flagged for a moment when my friend said with a half-laugh, "I've enjoyed my holiday immensely, but—do you know, you were right when you inferred that I wouldn't like to live in the country permanently." "Then tell me why you prefer town life," I asked, wondering if I'd hear any new argument for or against town life, such an old, old controversy. The City Point of View. "Well, for one thing, I'd soon tire of your rough clay roads. Bumped this way and that, up one moment and down the next—dusty, rutty tracks! What they're like in winter I daren't imagine, though I must say your old Ford is a wonder, the way it goes along. "Then cooking big meals on a range that constantly needs stoking with teatree —such a sweltering job in this hot weather, doesn't appeal to me at all. O.ve me the el.-ctric stove and lighting, and all the handy little electrical gadgets that you have to do wtihojt. Imagine the mail only twice a week and even then having to go five miles for it—our mail comes to the door twice a day! "If you had some sociable, congenial neighbours it wouldn't be so bad. I'd miss my tennis and the club, I'm afraid," she said apologetically.

"Any other disadvantages?" I murmured. "Oh, yes. I should think one of the most important is the want of educational facilities. So many parents live where it is impossible, owing to distance or expense, for their children to attend secondary schools, and consequently many clever boys and girls are deprived of the advantages that are obtained by secondary education." "Even in town the majority of boys and girls who pass the proficiency exam, do not go to secondary schools—and scholarships are open to country children as well as to those who live in towns," I said defensively. "The teachers in country schools are, on the whole, m ire efficient than they were twenty years ago. Our children learn more of the wonders of Nature, and are necessarily much more observant than their city counsina. Let me remind you that several of our brilliant Rhodes scholars received the grounding of their education in email sole-charge schools. Our* children live free and natural lives - Vhey don't have narrow, hot streets, dangerous on account of motor traffic, as their playgrounds. Instead they have the cool, silent bush where tuis love to dwell and friendly little fantails corne to meet one, flirting and tumbling to attract attention; they have the creek in which to dip when the heat unbearable; the ponies to ride and the dogs to play with—oh, there's plenty of fun and entertainment for country children! Beauty of Morning.

"Have you never seen the sun, rising early on a midsummer's morning, herald his awakening by flecking each tiny cloudlet with delicate opal shades of rose and gold? Or heard the lark trilling his joyons, carefree song while rising higher and higher to welcome the sun? Nothing T-ould be more exhilarating than a canter into the sunset in the teeth of the wind, along the ridge of a range of hills, with hair flying and cheeks windwhipped. It would make the most jaded l«ir of city eyes sparkle with joie de vivre. And to sinse the clean, damp smell of the earth after a summer shower; the tantalising scent of pennyroyal and wild mint when crushed by your footsteps; the sweet smell of hay newly mown; all these are ours, who live on farms.

"Although I certainly envy your compact, convenient city homes, we have the advantage of you where food is concerned. Most country folk grow their own vegetables and fruit, make their own butter and bread, etc., all being much fresher and more wholesome tha.n foodstuffs bought in shops. For little more than the price of the sugar we can make preserves, jams, ,jellies,°pickles and so on, thus saving our money for such items as town people do not need to worry about—farm implements, manures, seeds, etc.

i '"We country people are optimistic rewarding the roads, always hoping that 'some day' we'll have good metalled mads to town, in place of the clay tracks as you called them. Even the clay roads are passable, and we can at least get.to town once in a while. The library keeps us supplied with good books, the wireless supplies good music, the news and interesting lectures, so that we feel we are kept in touch with t lie world outside.

"Of course, everybody has to judge by his own personal taste whether town o'r country left is the life for him. You, a town-born and town-loving person, would not be happy if compelled to live in the country far from the excitement and noise that your town soul craves. I, town-born but country-loving and a country woman by adoption, could not he bappy if exiled from the great wide -paces, the wind-swept hills, to the noise and bustle, roar and rush of our modern cities, the noise and bustle of com-' inercialism. j ! "It all depends on one's point of] view." '