THE HOLIDAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 46, 23 February 1929, Page 8

THE HOLIDAY.

There is no doubt that a change of climate and general climatic environments can bring about a great improvement in health. This is to be observed chiefly in those whose home and occupation are in a locality unsuited to them and who escape from both for a time during convalescence after illness or during a ''holiday." Man is intended to move from place to place, as we agree from the construction of his body, but his natural limits of travel are those which his legs alone will reach and his natural speed in journeying limits also the rapidity with which a change of climate is accomplished. A change of employment has also been proved to have a good effect upon health, acting partly through the mind and partly in some cases by giving exercise to muscles seldom used to the full extent. I have always felt a doubt, however, about the supposed invariable benefit acquired by the combination of change of climate and cessation of work, known to most of us as the annual "holiday."

If the climate in which you live and work suits you, journeying to another may be rather harmful than beneficial, and although a sudden change of temperature from warm to cold acts as a tonic, to abandon warmth for cold and remain cold is to lose the tonic effect, hence a rapid journey from warm to cold and residence in the cold may send a man on holiday homewards and workwards little better for the change. The real value of a holiday lies in its gift of rest, release from the urgent calls of business, from the questions others shower upon us, from the numberless responsibilities which crowd our working hours and keep us in a state of nervous or bodily strain from day to day and week to week. It must be remembered that the mind "carries on" after working hours, planning, judging, adjusting, reaching forward to to-morrow; even in sleep is some measure of work permitted to intrude. Unless the holiday provides a diversion from this the mind is wearied and the change of little good. It is possible for a holiday to make so many demands upon mind and body that only its name distinguishes it from work. The "simple life" of the camper is not simple; it is exceedingly complicated and very inconvenient and is a tax upon the nervous energy of even the most experienced. A long journey to a distant place selected for change and rest (somebody said the journey took the change and the boardinghouse all the rest) is only advisable when health is not in question and something is known of the place selected, or the mistake may be made of going to a locality which saps your energy or disorders Your system.

The holiday which fills both body and mind ■with something they lacked, which, so to speak, charges them afresh and sends the worker back to business more eager than ever to do his full duty, is exceptional, and more frequently by far does the tired holiday maker return unwillingly to the daily toil towards which his absence has not made his heart grow fonder. There are many steady old men of solid common sense who '•'dodge" each holiday as it comes round, or, like old Scrooge, spend the time in a survey of the past year's accounts. For these men, their work and the climato in which it is done have proved appropriate and pleasant, and the thought of change, of any break in routine, is to them objectionable. The restlessness which draws men away from their chosen occupation shows it to have been ill-chosen, for the work you love is the work which holds your interest and forces you to consider any break in continuity of labour a disadvantage. llueh of the discontent amongst emigrants is due to changes of climate, habits and work, all produced in six or seven weeks, night having becomo day and day night, and bodily organs too hastily called upon to "arrange themselves."

The puzzle which confronts the resident in the best and healthiest part of a town when he needs a walk and must, if ho leaves home, go to a less pleasant neighbourhood, is also that of the man whose work and climate "agree" with him. For him there is no place like home, and a holiday away from it no refreshment. Travelling (except in the greatest luxury) is not necessarily healthful, and at sea it is the enforced rest which does most good. In effect, therefore. I advise a restful holiday, the dolce far niente of a climate which is in harmony with your feelings and temperament, and, above all, an avoidance of routine and an entire disregard of the clock. —H.A.Y.