COSY CORNER CLUB.

Otago Witness, Issue 3313, 12 September 1917, Page 50

COSY CORNER CLUB.

FIFTH MEETING. Fifth meeting, September 12. Papers to be in by September 1. HOW TO SPEND £2-10 A YEAii. As a basis for this little problem in practical economics, I have taken the theory of some economists that if all the wealth of England were divided up it would average about £240 per annum per family. There ia no need for this meeting, however, to keep to the family idea. If you like to spend the £240 on yourself you may do so, or you may give the budget of an actual or imaginary family of any size. This seems to be a yeax of records for the C.C.C. The meeting on "The Sea" was a record on* for size, and this month's is a record for smallness* Lex and Val being the only contributors. Val, indeed, very rarely fails us, and Lex has not missed a single meeting since I have known him. I feel that I should like to institute a new order—orders and decorations are flying about these days the Order of the Cosy Corner Club, *vnd make him, a Knight Grand Commander of the First Class in return for his unfailing support. Do you not think he deserves it? I was not at all sure that the subject would appeal to very many members, but I certainly thought that more would have been interested in it than appears to be the case, and I must say I- am disappointed at the result. The business of living is such an all-important one to everybody that I had hoped for some valuable suggestions as to how best to do it. Two hundred and forty pounds a year, though it would .seem very little to a great many people, should be enough to allow a family of four or five, as Lex says, to live very comfortably and happily in normal times, so long as they are content with simple things; but it would have to be well laid out to get the best results. I am afraid Lex's division, would be a little'difficult to keep to, and the £6O that ho sets aside for things that are generally included under the heading of "the higher life" would be encroached upon by food and other household requirements. I wonder, by the way, how many families keep a budget, with its estimate of income and expenditure for the year, and its account of how the money goes? I find that careful household accounts ore the greatest help in making the most of one's income, and cannot conceive how others can manage without doing the same; but, of course, it is a troublesome business, and one often feels, with Val, that the world would be a very pleasant place if all our wants could be supplied as a matter of course, without the bother of money matters. I am afraid, though, that, like many other pleasant things, such a state of affairs would not bo good for us

Dear Elizabeth, —The average family of four or five persons should be very happy and comfortable in normal times with an income of £240 a year. It would save many families from a good deal of worry. They would have enough to keep them very comfortable, and, with economy, have a little to spare for those less fortunate than themselves. "How a man uses money—makes it, saves it, spends it——is perhaps one of the best tests of practical wisdom. Although

money ought by no means to be regarded as a chief end of man's life, neither is it of trifling matter lo bo held in philosophic contempt, representing as it doe©, to so largo an extent, the means of physical comfort and social well-being." No man can help others that wants help himself; wo must have enough before we have to spare. Emerson, m his "Essay on Domestic Life," says: "It is a sulficicnt accusation of our ways of living, and certainly ought to open our ear to every good-minded rolonuer, that our idea of domestic well-being now needs wealth to execute it. Give me the means, says tho wife, and your home shall not annoy your taste nor waste your ti?ne. On hearing this, wo understand how these means have come to be so omnipotent on earth. And, indeed, the love of money seems to grow I chiefly out of the root of the love of the j beautiful. The desire for gold .is not for I gold; it is not the love of much wheat and | wool and household stuff: it is ihc nvana of freedom and benefit. "Wo scorn shifts: jwe desire the elegance ol mun-Ucenct, we | desire at least to put no stint or limit on | our parents, relatives, guests, or dependents; j we desire to play the benefactor and the | prince with our townsman, with the stranger | at tho gate, with tho bard or the beauty, ' with the man cr woman of worth who alights i at our door. How can we do this if the | wants of each, day imprison us in lucrative | labours, and contain us to a continual vigil- | anoe lest wo be betrayed into expense?" I | feel quite at one with Emerson in the pass- | age I have quoted from his essay; it speaks | of the use of wealth and money in a very beautiful manner. Not so much the spending on one's self, but to be able to chow hospitality and kindness to those leas favoured than yourself. I would divide the I ;G240 in four equal parts. Sixty pounds a i year should provide a very nice little home | in most parts, with enough ground to grow , flowers, vegetables, and fruit trees; the i home to be situated on a rise, with a nice outlook to the sea. Sixty pounds for the average family of four or five should provide good enough food to keep them in good health and provide each with sufficient nourishing food to assist them to enjoy life. Sixty pounds for clothing. I expect that ia a small margin oompared with the money some families spend on clothes, but I think it could be managed all right on that sum. Sixty pounds for education, books, and general culture, including a short holiday for the whole family once a year. LEX. Your quotation from Emerson is a very true one, Lex. With the great majority of people it is not money itself that is the attraction, but the desire for the power that money confers of giving good things not only to ourselves, but to others. That is by no means an unworthy motive, though, sometimes,it turns into others less unworthy. Dear Elizabeth, —Two hundred and forty pounds a year is about £5 a week, and in these times of high prices it is very easy to spend. Supposing it to be the income of a married couple with one child, 25a a week would go for rent, leaving a balance of £3 15s. The 15s would cover sundries such as tram fare 3, postage, letter-writing, news- . papers, and small donations towards philanthropic work. There is £3 left for the necessaries of life and for comforts, and also for a little to be laid aside for the proverbial rainy day. Most people like to know that they are providing in some way for the future, though there are a few blest individuals who spend) as they go, and are much happier, apparently, than the man or woman who spends anxious hours counting the halfpennies. Life holds many problems, and the getting of money and the spending of it ia a very big one. Some natures thrive in the austere atmosphere of privation, and others thrive in comfort; want and its attendant miseries cramp them body and soul. I sometimes think what a wonderful place the world would be if all our wants and necessary comforts could be supplied naturally, without the bother of money matters—just everything provided as a matter of course. I wonder if everyone would be happy. VAL. So you would turn us all into a world of lotos-eaters, Val, with the good things of life ready to hand without any effort on our part. Would we all be happier, I wonder. It is our complex civilisation, of course, with all its many artificial wants, that makes life so difficult often; and one cannot help thinking sometimes that primitive man, with his simple existence, had the best of it, though he was not by any means a lotos-eater, either. I hope the concert next month will be a success. Here is an interesting study of the character Othello from Lex's friend Greetland, which arrived too late for the last meeting. MY FAVOURITE CHARACTER IN ' SHAKESPEARE.. ' Dear Elizabeth, —In the multiplicity of characters drawn by our "master artist," all of which are good, there is a difficulty of choosing the best; but a 3 the subject is "My Favourite Character in Shakespeare," it comes within the circle of all tastes, affections, and opinions. My favourite character is Othello, the Blackamoor hero, and my reasons for the choice are his unswerving devotion to duty, his upright character, his clean, pure mind, his white soul in a black skin. Witness his blunt, straight, unvarnished defence of his courtship and marriage. That he was deceived, and through deception led to do what to-day in a great crime weighs little with me. Had he not been such a pure soul, the "dallying" of his beautiful Dcsdemona—supposing it to have been true—would have meant but little to him; certainly, had he been a worse man, he would not have slain her. It was because of his pure white soul that sin made such a tremendous effect upon him. It is because the souls of the world aro dull and feeble that sin strikes with such powerless blows. (We don't see the ugliness of sin to-day. Othello did, and thus tho deed.) To say that he ought to have known his wifo better than to believe lago is beside the mark. He himself was without deceit; the proofs of guilt were skillfully

and cunningly laid; his trustful nature was shocked, stunned, and in the reaction the awful deed was done. The guileless eoul is the one that feels wrong most heavily, and should the temperament be one of passion for righteousness nothing is too sacred to be removed oui of the way. Othello is my favourite oharacter, because if all the world wao like him then the world would be a just, straight, clean place, for it would be peopled with pushful, trustful, pure, and honest souls. GREETLAND (England). I am afraid you will not find many to agree with you entirely in your conception of Othello, Greenland. The tragedy of the last act leaves in people's mind an impression of horrox that almost blots out those finer characteristics of the "noble Moor" »hat are in evidence during the earlier part of the play. Sixth meeting.—Papers to be in by October 6. VIA PANAMA. "We will conclude our session by taking a trip abroad together, and we may as well be up-to-date, and take the newest route available to the Old World. Like good travellers, we are anxious to learn something of the countries through which we pass; and I will ask members, therefore, to contribute papers on any of the places touched at. These at the present time include, of course, Panama itself, and very often Jamaica, Newport News in Virginia, and Halifax in Canada, making a long but interesting voyage. Just now it is too exciting to be pleasant, but we will hope for quieter times when we make the trip. This should b& our last meeting; but I think Oscar's suggestion of a "discussion meeting" at the end of the session is rather a good one, and I should like to try it for this year, so that there will be an extra meeting on November 14, the papers to be in by November 3. At this meeting members are invited to write on any of papers that have helped them most, or that they particularly liked through the session.