AN INDICTMENT OF EXTRAVAGANCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21363, 17 June 1931, Page 10

AN INDICTMENT OF EXTRAVAGANCE

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —At any time the ease, sloth, extravagance, and luxury-living of the town man as against the farmer and country man is noticeable to all who have eyes to see, but at this time of financial stress the continued extravagance of the city dweller is glaring indeed, and points to a very one-sided arrangement of society in this respect. If there is anything more notorious than the easy life of the townsman it is his insistent complaint regarding his manner of living, but apart from the comparatively small percentage, who really are “up against it,” the bulk of the town people are very well placed indeed. The outstanding fact of town extravagance is, of Course, seen in the innumerable motor cars everywhere., Daily every parking place in the city is filled almost completely with the expensive motor cars, and at any holiday further contingents of cars emerge from their garages and convey the poor, over-worked city man and his family out of town. Now, apart from the commercial trucks and some ordinary motors which have a commercial use, these motor cars owned by the townsman are a luxury pure and simple, unlike the same conveyance when owned by the farmer who finds it a necessity and ofttimes productive of a great saving in time. Should anyone be optimistic enough to think he can find a parking place for his car in the city on Friday and Saturday nights about 8 o’clock, when the poor city dwellers are pouring into the many and various places of amusement, he will have his optimism dampened quickly. Along with the motor car we have the almost as numerous motor cycles, which all maitner of young city men sdem able to afford. Another fact which gives the lie direct to all talk of hard tunes-on the part of the city people is the extravagant use of our tramcans. Except for those who deliberately walk a section each morning, the way in which the townspeople crowd the traracars daily, and several times daily) spell both laziness and money to waste.

Next come amusements of various sorts, but more particularly the many i picture theatres. The prices may be high, but that does not stop the city dweller from filling the higher priced seats with often a stop at a supper restuarant and a taxi home afterwards. The skating rinks and the numerous dances about the city all help to swell the staggering total spent by the city dweller on luxury. In these allegedly “hard times” 3000 people spend their money to see (in high-priced reserved seats, too) two men punch one another into insensibility if they can. The lately concluded “ record ”, reason of the “ Country Girl ” proves that the people had plenty of money to spend on other than luxuries (although both here and at the Winter Show it must be admitted that a small proportion would be country folk on their yearly jaunt). Every few weeks, it seems, races are run which attract thousands of people and more thousands , of pounds, s the bulk of which is certainly town money. Lollie shops abound doing a Steady business, while the prevalence of the tobacco habit, and especially the smoking of vast quantities of the expensive “ tailor-made ” kind of cigarettes show that the city man not only has money to spare, but also some for extra expensive habits or/ extra expensive manners of indulgence.,’ The fur coat worn by the female portion of the city s population threatens to become universal, and the jewellery shops vie with clothing emporiums in supplying other than necessities. I hesitate to include in the general extravagance books and magazines since they are in the writer’s opinion necessities when quality is not absent, but truth compels the admission that shops for the sale of the poorest of fiction and the most trashy of magazines are numerous, and manage to do a steady business with the help of toys anti such things- Of course, tea rooms (at other than regular meal hours) are well patronised morning, afternoon, and evening, and help to prove the existence of spare money to spend and waste. The drink waste is notorious and indisputable. There are other forms of extravagance, but the foregoing are the main features. I do not want anyone to charge me with wishing to deny the city man any pleasures of luxuries, etc. That is not my purpose at all, but I desire to show bow ill-founded and absolutely contrary to,fact is the statement or' inference that the city dweller is “ hard up.” Compared—and here is the vital fact in the opinion of the writer —with the class that is absolutely indespensable to the country’s prosperity or continuance, namely, the primary producer, the farmer and his helper, (he urban manner of living is glaring waste in many respects, and even in regard to necessities the town dw.eller is all too favourably placed. This state of things under which the parasitic and very second-, ary .class of people enjoy a higher and better standard of living and vastly better homes pnd facilities, possess much more money and wallow —no other term adequately describes it —in luxuries and wastes Innumerable is unjust and unfair and gives the lie direct, as already said, to all talk of financial stress on the part of townspeople as a whole. Obviously those who complain loudest are the least affected, and it matters not if it can be shown that the expenditure in this extravagant waste is not what it was formerly. With the country “on the rocks financially, the glaring waste in the cities is a reflection upon the social order which makes such things possible or defensible. There certainly must be some truth in the statement that the rural man is dull in perception or( else he would demand that things be ordered differently and more fairly.— l am, etc.. Townsman. [Our correspondent does not belong to the school of economists which holds that, .in a time of. depression, people who are so fortunate as to have the means to spend should spend “as usual ” in order that employment may be preserved for wageearners. — Ed., O.D.T.]