RETROSPECT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20762, 3 January 1931, Page 1 (Supplement)

RETROSPECT.

THE HUMAN SIDE OF 1930-

BY ANON.

It was almost midnight and the air was clear and very still. The man and woman sat upon their doorstep watching the stars and thinking of other New "Years' Eves, not passed like this amidst the solitude of the bush. To-night the world was utterly still. Close to the shadow of tho little house fell the darker shadow of the bush, and from its profound silence came insistently the desolate, oft-repeated cry of the night ruru. Presently the man spoke and his voice had not lost that quiet tone that yet speaks so clearly of Eton and Cambridge. " It's going fast, poor old 1930. Oil, well, it's been a hard year; I'll not pretend to be sorry to see the last of it." But the woman's voice was thoughtful. "A bad year? Yes, I suppose so; the worst materially that we have ever known. And yet, I'm n&t sure—there are other things " It was the voice of a dreamer, a triflo astray in this world of harsh fact, but the man understood and his answer was not so irrelevant as it sounded. "It was rather wonderful the way the fellows rallied round to-day, just when they were all in the middle of their busiest time."

" Yes—they would come whatever else they loft. Was tho poor woman very tragic ?" " Wonderfully brave; but it's a desperate prospect for her. They say he'll be three months in the hospital, even if the leg sets properly, and then there is always the fear that he may have to lose it." " To meet with accident when things were so hopeless already! Did you get his stack finished?" " Yes, he's all right for winter's feed —and the children for some weeks' rations, I should say, judging by the amount of stuff I saw smuggled in. You would have laughed at old Bill. I caught him trying to sneak half a sheep into the safe —not much of a diplomat! You could have heard him swearing twenty chain off when he let tho flies in." " Good old Bill! You're all going again to morrow to get in a supply of firewood ?" "Yes; then she'll be all right except for an occasional day that we can easily arrange among us." Half to herself the woman murmured: "And yet you're so angry with 1930—" Ringing the Old Year Out. There was a long silence and then he said: "I supposo the bells are ringing in town by now. Arc you very home-sick to-night 1" " Oh, I should liko to bo there for an hour or two, to see the lights and all the faces, to smell the old, stuffy smells, and hear all the ear-splitting noises. But. in the backblocks one feels the love and kindliness and cheery self-sacrifice. Oh, 1 know that human nature's the same everywhere, but there's something in tho remoteness and the hardships that brings it out. Perhaps it's that barrier of mud between us and the world for eight months of the year! And then, we know so well how it foels." There was another pause, broken only by that wailing, abandoned cry, as a great soft bird wheeled suddenly out from the shadow and swooped back /into the depth. " Birds of ill-omen !" he commented thoughtfully. " There are enough of thorn here. How the Maoris hate them! This evening, when old Ruiha came for that bundle of cjpthes, I found her running round that big rimu liko a rabbit." " Whatever for?" " She said that the ruru had flown out of that tree and that you must run round it to break the evil spell." The woman laughed quietly. VV hat a mass of bad spells must be upon me! I never go out at night without a crowd of those night-raiders about me." " There goes that huge fellow again! Let's hope he's carrying away the bad luck of 1930. A Hard Year, But a Peacemaker.

" Don't condemn 1930; it has been a hard year, but just look around you at the good work it's done! In these hard times we all pull together and forget all our little quarrels and grievances." "There's that, certainly; you remember tho terrible row between Johnson and Brewer about their wool values two years ago ? To-day they were hob-nobbing most sympathetically over their fourpence." " Yes, and then think of all the work you've done together; the school grounds cleared at last, and all the water-tables cleaned and the culverts mended on the bush road. And then, the way everybody turned out and shore each other s sheep and carted each other's wool! Oh, it's been a great peacemaker, this old year." . " Yes, but the hardships. Did you ride across to I'entons' to-day " Yes—it 's a dear little baby." " But, my dear, the seventh, and butter-fat at tenpence and Eenton mortgaged above the eyes!" " Poor things! Mrs. Smith was there doing a day's cooking for them. I don't know where she found the ingredients. for everything was empty when L went to put away the cakes and scones I brought." " Smith's pretty hard hit himself." " I know, but all tho same I suspect all the flour and butter and sugar came out of the back ofthat old car. She was enjoying herself." "I thought she disliked the Fentons ? " She used to, but to-day she said to me, ' These days we don't criticise, we just set to.' A fine epitaph for 1930, 'We just set to.' Tho baby has lots of clothes." Only People Matter. " I'm not complaining, but I suspect that's where my tennis flannels went." " Well, dear, when shall we play tennis a train '! They made the nicest little petticoats." "And your evening shawl? " Oh, well, there are never any dances," said the woman defensively, " and she just loved it." Then she laughed suddenly. "f do hope Mr. Reed won't mind when ho misses his best silk shirt, but Mrs. Reed had embroidered the sweetest forget-me-nots on the front of the frocks." The man joined-in tho laugh. At least he won't experience the shock I had when 1 saw my cherished college blazer upon that gaunt old Maori." " But, dear, ho had such a cough, and only the thinnest rags. We mustn't be sentimental about things. Only peoplo matter today, and here nt. least we can afford to be' primitive and see only essentials." "There'll soon be little else to see. Will you miss the old car much?" " It's shaken me to bits lately," she said at once, "and twenty pounds is twenty pounds," but she knew that the thirty miles might as well be three hundred now. "And that water-colour? It will bring more than the car in town. Will you mind V " Why should I mind when the bush and the hills nre so beautiful?" she lied staunchly. The man sighed as he struck a match and pulled out his watch; if things went on like this, it must go next. An heirloom, but, as she said, this was the day of essentials and ho had promised to pay that doctor's bill for Fenton's superfluous babv.

"Twelve o'clock, my dear, and n happy New Year," he said. Can you hear the bells at Home? ' Ring out the old—' " "Ah, but not all of,it " —she replied quickly,