Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, TUESDAY, DEC. 29, 1925. THE HOLIDAYS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LI, Issue 16920, 29 December 1925, Page 6

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, TUESDAY, DEC. 29, 1925. THE HOLIDAYS.

A true holiday .is :i delightful tribute m human weakness. There eomos a time in every life when to be strong is to ne weak ami to be weak is to be strong. No living filing e.iin bear a continued strain. If a holiday is made, of design, to be an alternative fixed task, it tails. The joy of a trite holiday is to have no objective, li is true Ihat, in practice, this is not in all things possible. Plans have to be made. For most of ns the length of the purse has 1o be gone over. The nuzzles of the railway lime-tables, more subtle than any crossword puzzle, have io be solved. These have the perplexing habit of disregarding continuity as the. figures meander r.owu the columns; then, half way down the. page, they lake the, most marvellous leaps, "the limited express’’ suddenly disappearing, and Hie first column becoming the'last, and the last appearing in the middle. 'Accommodation has to be bespoken, unless indeed the party decide to go out with tent and baggage, hopefully, but rather helplessly giving themselves over 1o the mosquitoes and gnats. But holiday makers on travel have to be philosophers. Travel, in a New Zealand summer, presents a choice of irritants, which have 1o be accepted as part of the cost; possibly, also part of the remedy. For a holiday is remedial. But to thoroughly benefit uy a holiday, its necessity must be forgotten. There must be some make, believe about it. T.he real need

for a holiday is involuntary stalencss. 'J lie. constant round, at. the desk or the counter; at the water-side or in the factory; in the law courts or the hospitals, although easily within the physical powers of those engaged, brings about mental depression, re-acting' upon the physical powers. The only | thing for a man to do when that happens is to throw down the tools ami get out of himself.. Unfortunately the. grip of habit to The victim, cloaks over the loss of sprjng which others, see. The hard worked man—and this is the special sin of the professions!—somehow comes to think that the world cannot get, on without him and his Work, it would be at least, useful for every such man, in anticipation of the time, when the life’s work will have to bo given up, and the final rest awaited, to realise that his particular services, however eminent, are not indispensable; that it is better to go aside and re-string the bow, than to go on working with it unprofitably, and to the detriment of others, because unstrung. We maintain that a holiday to serve its purpose must be taken without dolined plan. What would be unpardonable in the battle of life, is justified, when those engaged are taken from the front to recruit in quiet places at the rear. A holiday should not be confused with recreation. 'Recreation is of course permissible when on a holiday, if it is not, itself turned into a tm-k. Recreation, as the antithesis to daily toil, is in itself a necessity. Withontyit we should, ns human beings, become wasted and dwarfed. This is not a holiday. It is llm daily corrective to the pressure of daily work. A mail oil holiday sheds work for the time, all together, as the chrysalis sheds its shell or hardened encasement. He is on the wing for happiness. Every man needs an entire rest from his -work and its associations, just because he is a man and not, an automatic machine, to be kept going, only so long as ho is Wound np. A true holiday is permissible vagabondage, to be entered upon without care or anxiety. There is no occasion to emulate the gypsies and make a. pretence of selling tin-ware and brushes, all hanging ostensibly from the caravan, while destined for ever to move on; to live honestly, if it be possible, but iu any event to live. But. the spirit of the nomadic gypsy is in line with that of the true holiday maker—to take no thought for the future, that, is, while the holiday lasts. The severe moralist, quoting Epictetus, the stoic philosopher, or Marcus Aurelius, will, wo fear, dissent strongly from otn laxity. He will plead that precious time wasted will never return; that even if it be a holiday it should be to some good account; the holidaymaker should turn geologist Or botanist. If he cannot do this let him take a play or a poem, and study that. Such admonitions leave us quite cold. For once, idleness is justified of her children. A holiday is to be a stopping. It is to be rest, and the happiness of doing nothing, if we so will. All Restraints are to be cut through.. A man, who having toiled for a year cannot. let himself go, in undesigned’ enjoyment, lias entered upon his holiday too late. Hs is hopelessly stunted. He is a. mental dwarf, and must remain a mere spectre of utility; a human drudge; a, slave of humanity, for all the future time, within which he is to be permitted to toil. Such sacrifices ate not demanded of man for men. Work in service for others carries with it the full reward of mental and physical well being. But there is a limit. If that. limit is passed, the work is ill done’; the very windows of the soul become dimmed. The .worker becomes jaded, miserable, despondent, unhappy. He finds ■ fault, with the World and longs, for another. Ralph Waldo Trine would have men in such case “ wash their windows.” He tells them that ‘ 1 instead' of longing for some other \yofld, they might discover the wonderful beauties of this world; and if they don’t, find transcondant beauties on every hand here the chances are that ihey will never hnd them anywhere.” Th<‘ signs that indicate the need of a holiday are that the man is nervous, depressed, cross, worried about trjiics, living his business life in constant fear of impending disaster, and 100 often is a source of domestic unrest in his home. False fears are our severest tormentors. Usually they are Riianufactured upon the premises. Let such a man stop Work at once. Let him get away. Let him abandon his work, not stopping even to gather up the threads ■winch ho will only further entangle. Let. him go—making any sacrifice before it is too late to repair the mischief which already has been done. He will return with his fears dispelled and his nerves braced. The tilings or events we dread seldom happen. Adverse events which may arise in the future are better met if in the present

we keep the windows of the soul clean. By abstention from every form of work, at proper times, we can give Nature time to restore that which by personal folly has got sadly out of gear. The child accepts holidays in the true spirit. It is not. that he dislikes the modern school, in which everything is made easy. It is that, ho throyvs himself whole-heartedly with entire self-abandonment into the liberty which the holiday brings. The school honor demands a certain amount of discipline and team work. But, even from this, it is delightful to escape—to be on a par with all other young animals, happy and eare.e.is. > It may lie that older persons may do well to look back and resume the spirit of the child if they are to derive full benefit, from a holiday.