“Up North”

Southland Times, Issue 21428, 24 June 1931, Page 5

“Up North”

A PUZZLING COMPLEX. The other day I was talking with some people from the north who would insist on introducing into the conversation at every possible moment what the people were doing and wearing “up north.” This attitude irritated me almost to the point of explosion, until I steadied myself with the thought that it was after all no more than we deserved. It is the people in the south part of this island who encourage this attitude in their northern sisters. Women in the south seem to suffer quite definitely from an inferiority complex, and anybody who comes along can overwhelm them. Consequently they develop an almost slavish interest in “the north.” What “they are wearing, up north,” and how “they” are wearing it constitutes a standard rule; if a picture was a great success “up north,” then the south rushes to see it. Frankly, this attitude amazes me. Go into the average Southland home and you’ll find it is run efficiently, and smoothly—by the woman of the house; there are not many homes in this province in which the woman is not the dominant note. Yet she allows the northern women to “put it all over” her. From my own experience, I have found that the average Southlander dresses better than the average woman in any other part of New Zealand. And the reason, I have discovered, is this. The northern women are more or less slaves to fashion, and more often than not sacrifice any traces of their own individuality at the altar of “chic.” They dress in a herd, as it were; you can walk in their streets and feel you are passing the same people over and over again. But, strange as it may seem, the Southland woman has more courage—as yet—and wears the garments, the styles,' the colours, she thinks suits her own build and features. That is the difference between the two—and while our woman does not always achieve such smartness, she is nearly always better dressed. That is the average woman, of course. People with a great deal of money, and opportunity for travel, at their disposal, acquire a cosmopolitanism in dress that is no more to their credit than the foreign labels on their cabin trunks. And naturally the northern cities, with their greater populations harbour more of these.

I should like to add just one thing more. At the beginning of this year I attended a trotting meeting at the Hutt; and I do not remember having ever seen a more nondescript, badly dressed and less inspiring crowd.