THE NEW LEISURE

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 72, 18 December 1937, Page 8

THE NEW LEISURE

To many people the introduction of the forty-hour week with its extended week-end of leisure has not proved altogether an unmixed blessing. The change has now been long enough established to enable its reactions upon our social life to be studied. Many of those who benefited from it were very much in the same case as young children in some parts of the world who are thrown into the water to learn to swim. Socially speaking, it was a case of sink or swim. There may be a good many drownings before it is realised that idle hours are dangerous waters. Already it has been charged that there is more drinking on Saturdays than there was before the new leisure arrived. Among Maoris, it has been stated, the forty-hour week has led to increased intemperance. Housewives have been heard to declare that they would be better satisfied to have their men at work than to be idling about at a loose end. This new leisure is a social change of considerable magnitude, calling for corresponding readjustments of individual mentalities and habits. This no doubt will take time. With those who have cherished hobbies and recreations there is no difficulty. The extra time for indulging in these will no doubt be valued and used accordingly. But there is a considerable number inclined to drift aimlessly about doing nothing, and with more time to do it in are in danger of becoming a nuisance to themselves as well as to others. It may not be possible to do anything for this section of the present adult generation. Their habits have been formed and their inclinations set. But the younger generation should be prepared. for the responsibilities of leisure as well as for the more serious business of earning their living. It is by no means rare to hear of people retired on pension after years of active routine in employment simply killing themselves with idleness. Having no private hobbies or other activities to keep their interests alive, they die of sheer inactivity and boredom. Unprofitable week-ends spent in shiftless idleness may depreciate the efficiency of the human machinery in the same way. The less work individuals of an easy-going temperament are asked to do the less they want to do. There is an increasing disinclination to get into the collar and pull the full weight. This is bad enough for the individual, but if it is multiplied to any extent it may have an enervating effect on the community as a whole. The new leisure must be treated as a social problem, and the treatment commenced with the younger generation. Children should be encouraged in every way to cultivate hobbies and recreations suited to their temperaments and inclinations, so that when they have leisure at hand they may have a purpose in view. The great attraction of leisure is the opportunity it affords of doing something of one's own free will, like “knocking off work to carry bricks.”