EXEMPLARY HOLIDAY = MAKERS. New Zealanders as Patterns.

Free Lance, Volume III, Issue 131, 3 January 1903, Page 8

EXEMPLARY HOLIDAY = MAKERS. New Zealanders as Patterns.

IF the vuihty of a comniunit; is to be gauged bv its ebullitions of animal spirits, its departure from the obseivance of law and order, and its good conduct. New Zealand is surely early settling down into an effete old age 1 If you care to study the papers of the colony issued during the hohdcA season, you will find that net many people, including yourself, have been mentioned in conneotioai with bi caches of law , induced by holiday laches, and a desire to have what many people elsewhere' deem a "real good time." The New Zealaoder is volatile enough He does not lequire to thaw his hea.it with too much w hisky at this season of the year in order to raise spirit enough to be happy. It is a cause for regret that we must pander to the vaailtv of the New ZeaJander by admitting that he is a better-behaved man than almost aaiy hodiday-maker ti c knon . The New Zealander is being told a good clea] what a smart chap he is, and that

kind of thing, and it is just possible he i- trying to live up to his reputation. * • • Did you ever make holiday where a London crowd was gathered, and did you observe that with sections of it the correct. way to enjoy yourself was to be as noisy, as selfish, as badly-behaved as possible? Hrve. you ever been to a carnival in Francei, after the mid-day "aJbsmtiheurs" have duly liquored? Or. to a, German picnic, with the beer gardens in full swing? No? Then, don't go. We wonder why New Zealanders do not enjoy themselves in this violent way, and worry the magistrates with a long day's sitting after the holidays? We really believe that fresh air and health, added to some commonsense, has a vast deal to do with New Zealand orderliness. * * # There is less "hanging about" in New Zealand towns at holiday time than elsewhere. Despite unpropitious weather, our young men and maidens, having resolved to enjoy their holidays, do so. It they get wet they do not die of pneumonia, because they havei been wet before, and are used to it. The average New Zealander has found that there is more fun to be had far from the "madding orov.d" than in it. But, even in Ins holiday crowd, the New Zealander, ais a rule, is a decorous citizen, w ho makes the policeman's life more like a bed of roses than it otherwise would be ♦ » • Did you see any drunken men about Wellington stieets on Christmas Day or Boxing Day 9 Yes? Were they Welhngtonians, or were they strangers, perhaps from over the sea, without knowledge of the fun that could be had without recourse to the bar? Of course, many prohibitionists will tell you that drunkenness is on the increase. We w r ent into elaborate calculations on the subject some time ago. The New Zealander drinks a thimbleful per man more than he did six years ago. It may have been this extra thimbleful that caused the hilarity in the cases that came under your notice during the Christmas festivities. ♦ ♦ « Because the holiday crowds in New Zealand enjoy themselves without creating disorder, it does not, follow in the least that their instincts under other conditions would not lead them to emulate the people of other lands. We are not cramped in New Zealand. We are not poor. There is not the temptation to err against law and order that there i» in many other countries. As we grow, maybe our sins will grow with us. We do not want them to grow, and it is to be hoped 1 that the New Zealander of ten yeais hence, when "off the chain," will follow in the footsteps of the New Zealanders of to-day, and possess the good sense that impels him to behave himself like a gentleman.