COUNTRY LIFE IS NOT DULL.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3145, 27 November 1922, Page 2

COUNTRY LIFE IS NOT DULL.

(By Marjorie Bowen). We read daily of tho desirability, nay,' the necessity, of at least a large minority of the people remaining "on Iho land;" everyone tells us that in that way only salvation lies; "man cannot live by bread alone," and neither can a. nation live on factories and the indoor industries of huge cities; the vast bulk of the material needed for commerce, the very root of the Empire's wealth, must come in the first instance from the earth, vast numbers, somewhere, must labor in the old, primitive way with the products and forces of Nature. She is also the eternal, source of what is more than riches, health; the towns must be perpetually recruited from the country, or they cannot survive, the city dweller must continually renew himself from the rural districts, or he becomes extinct. Without health the fabric of the grandest civilisation falls to pieces, and. tho one pure, immortal spring of health is the uncontaminated country. Yet we continually hear of the dislike, the refusal of people, especially the young, to live in the country ; even in Canada and Australia the tendency is to crowd into the towns. Country villages, even country towns, are generally admitted to he "dull." The insinuation is deadly—who, in this age of fear and fret, of prodigal amusements, of quick excitements, will submit to being dull? Yet, one ventures to think, English rural life has been rather unjustly condemned; it is only dull, even now. when shorn of so much of its ancient interest, compared to an exaggerated and false standard. Apart from the delights of peace and) composure, quiet and space, there are many joys in the village; the atmosphere is that of "home;" everyone is familiar one to the other, 'a pleasant familiarity, a kindly tolerance knit all together; one is surrounded by real human beings, all individual, not' by struggling names and blurred hoards. One is noi jaded, fatigued, bewildered, by overpowering palatial establishments, so the village shops have a personal 1 and piquant interest, the occasional jaunt to the neighboring town becomes an adventure in an Aladdin'cave at the end. Then there is the happiness of a gardten. dear to most Englishmen. However poor you are, you can plant some bright flowers to adorn your house and supply yourself with some fruits and vegetables for literally next to nothing. And the changing seasons are never dull---any more than a sunset is. or a stretch of ocean waves; the planting, mowing, reaping, the immortal struggle of man with the elements, the passing of the great rains, the shearing and marking of the sheep, the planting of new trees, the felling of old, a.II these have a direct human interest as vital as any those, the city can offer. Leisure. is. one of your advantages, too; you have really "time" 'for things; for reading, for your hobby, for thought. For amusement*.', there are really plenty, cheap l and genuine; your nearest little town, will supply you sufficiently, in one form or another, with your diversions. And if you find tho steam-roller an excitement, a new postman an event, the failure of the apples a disaster, the success of the celery, a triumph, it doesn't mean that you are dull or .sim-ple-minded, Jburt that you have got life in true proportions—you are healthy, peaceful, normal —and so the village gives you all you need.

.The'.bod.ire of millions of prehistoric iiif-ci.t.s of ft "kind, which became extinct thousands of years n.go have bocn found hy Government scientists frozen into an ancient glacier high in the mountains ol Yellowstone Park, an area of 3,3-18 square miles in Wyoming (U.S.A.), set aside as a national park in 1870. Tho insects are perfectly preserved, and it is possible to study every detail of their anatomy. Except lor the finding of mastodons in the Ice Cape, Northern Siberia', this is the only known case of the actual flesh of prehistoric creatures being preserved. One hundred tobacco users in Creditiou, in the County of Devon, bii.ro gone on strike and have sworn temporarily to refrain from .smoking as a protest against the high prices of tobacco. They hopei that their strike will be widely followed in the British Isles, thus helping to bring down prices. There its a strong feeling against what w regarded as the exploitation of the working classes by the trusts.