REDISCOVERING ENGLAND

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 136, 10 June 1932, Page 6

REDISCOVERING ENGLAND

We hear a great deal about the ruination of England; and those who commit patricide and matricide —that is, crimes against their fatherland and alma mater —are many; and their activities various (says Sir William Beach Thomas in the "Spectator"). They litter the commons and village street; they build all sorts of "concrete mendacities" in the wrong places; they dig up plants by the roots; they shoot rare and splendid birds: but there is. another story to be told. The zeal for seeing, for savouring the true country, was never wider. Though the motors have, loft a trail as little lovely as the slime behind the passage of a snail (if one may compare such different speeds), ease of transport has opened the country to an immense urban population; and the nature of their enjoyment may be inferred from the multitude of those who both cycle and walk. You see larger and larger companies each holiday in the country villages. An immense proportion both get good and impart it. They take healthy exercise, they buy country food, the} , encourage country crafts, they respect conrttty jayej^ties.