NO HOME LIFE.

Northern Advocate, 12 June 1926, Page 10

NO HOME LIFE.

NEW ZEALAND AN EXCEPTION. “New Zealand is one of Hie few countries in tlic world when.) homo life still persists," writes “L. 8.” in ‘ ‘ The Dominion. ” So s;iid several of the members of the Empire Press Delegation that, visited New Zealand towards the end of last year, and so, too, did many of the officers of the American Fleet who wore our guests last winter. It was one, of the impressions they received about us that seemed to have made its mark. “Your homo life is delightful," they said, “and so too, are your homes." It will bo a pity if New Zealand goes the way of all flesh in this respect. There arc preliminary symptoms, certainly, but, it. will take us a long time to reach the stage that some of The other countries have reached —England, America, and Australia, to quote a few instances. Wo have not yet got the hundred and one distractions that these older and bigger countries have. Wo are still more a country of many towns rather than of cities, and our pleasures are therefore not quite so sophisticated as arc those of a many-eitied country.

As a people, the instinct of hospitality is strong within us, whether wo are city dwellers or whether we are blossoming unseen, unheard, unsung in way-back country distrets If we live in the city we certainly do not despise the pleasures of the theatre, the cabaret: or pictures, but we also supplement them with the hospitality of our own homes. Bridge, billiards, impromptu jazzing, sometimes music, sometimes just an evening spent in desultory talk amongst a few friends arc amongst the pleasures that arc offered, and they would still seem to be appreciated. It was just those things, with the atmosphere that a homo provides, that were so appreciated by our overseas guests. It is of course possible to spend every night in the week outside the home, but ns already remarked, the instinct of hospitality is strong in the Now' Zealander, and what is his is vours when ho comes to entertain.

As might ho expected, however, it is in the country that the real home life of the people is to bo seen, and until he has mot with it and experienced it, no outsider coming to Now Zealand can say ho or she knows this country, knows the life of the people or knows the people themselves. After the day’s toil what so pleasant as those spacious leisured evenings when friends foregather with the family, and the hours are spent sometimes in bridge, sometimes in music, sometimes in sewing, while someone reads aloud, and sometimes in talk and discussion that ,4s amazing in its range and depth of thought. Sometimes the ear will take everybody to another country home for a bridge or a dance, and sometimes —into the nearest town for a night out. They are by no means hermits, these country dwcllrs.

There is no menace to home life in the country. But there is in the cities and particularly in such, cities as Wellington, where rents are high and salaries are low, and houses are as hard to get at reasonable figures as is the proverbial needle in a haystack. Where families are huddled together in two or throe rooms, where one room has to serve many purposes, and where nobody can get away from anybody else ! There is the menace to home life! And home life they tell us is the salvation of a nation.