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Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22082, 3 May 1937, Page 8

A revival of the custom of the ’nineties, when dances were held in barns, has been conceived by some young Aucklanders as a novel entertainment. The invitation, which has a distinct Bohemian flavour, prescribes that dress may be bam clothes, or garments suitable for farming, evening dress, or dresses of any description that will gain admission to cowbails. The problem of nourishment is to be solved by the guests. Gentlemen may contribute to the cost of liquid refreshment provided in casks, and though other contributions may be frowned on they will probably be accepted. Women are asked to provide nourishment in the nature of savouries and greens, to their discretion. A form of replying to the invitation provides for acceptance or rejection on novel lines, and a final reminder to all who accept that there is an obligation on them all, is the admonition: “This is y(pur party; the only thing that has been done is to borrow the barn.” Regret that the Government took such a large proportion of the revenue from opossums and left so little for the acclimatisation societies was voiced by the president, Mr JT. E. McKenzie, at the annual meeting of the Auckland Acclimatisation Society. Before 1930, said Mr McKenzie, £3500 of a total revenue of £7OOO from opossums was allocated to the societies, but the whole amount now went to the Consolidated Fund, a grant of £ISOO, of which the Auckland Society’s share last year was £139, being made to the societies. Mr McKenzie said opossums were introduced and protected by acclimatisation societies, which were responsible for the establishment of the fur industry. The much-criticised policy of retiring public servants at an'earlier age was upheld by the Rev. D, J. Davies, of Kilbirnie, in speaking to the Palmerston North Citizens’ Luncheon Club on the problem* of leisure. He saw in the policy a sign of better things to come for those affected, said Mr Davies. If there was a timefor a man to take up work there must also be a time for him to lay down his tools. Every man should have a space to ponder on greater meaning of human life, since man was made for contemplation just as he was made for activity. The speaker also saw hope in the increased activities of cultural societies, which were making up for the deficit in the educational system. There was tragedy, he thought, in the trend of education, for just as the country was about to create, not a leisured class, but a leisured people, the high ideal of a liberal education was giving place to a system of training youth just to work. Cultural education was looked upon as. suitable only for people who would never face the obligation of earning a living,