HEARTH AND HOME

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 6, 7 July 1938, Page 8

HEARTH AND HOME

It is rather unfortunate that many of the visitors to New Zealand from the Northern Hemisphe^ seem to arrive here in the depth of our winter and profess to feel the cold here, at least in our houses and often our hotels, more than they do in their own country- American visitors are particularly insistent on the point that our houses are too cold and make unfavourable comparisons with their own central-heating and airconditioning which keep their dwellings and hotels at an even, pleasant temperature.' There is no doubt that in spells of sharp southerly weather the New Zealander himself, acclimatised though he may be, is apt to feel the shortcomings of the primitive method of warming a room by an open fire. In the old days the pioneer settler's log fire had, no doubt, its compensations in the cheery blaze, and it is a fact that the sailors of the American Fleet on its last visit to New Zealand in a cold snap during August appreciated nothing so much as the warm hearth of a good open fire. Yet as the price of fuel goes up, the same open fire becomes a rather expensive luxury, and at the best warms only one room, and that partially, while the rest of the house remains cold. It is one of the problems of a climate of great variety, whether houses should be designed to meet such ! conditions as the present or whether people are not the better for a spell of Spartan endurance. It is probably because the New Zealander lives so much in the open air that he has paid so little attention to the comfort of his house in winter.