HOME LIGHTING.

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 12, 5 April 1927, Page 4

HOME LIGHTING.

ATTENTION TO DETAIL. WIRING AND PLACING HINTS. A careful and adequate scheme of home lighting should always be prepared before the order for house-wiring is given to the electrican. This is one of the most important features of house equipment, and it is a great mistake to begin the work hurriedly. Correct lighting is essential, adding to the comfort and value of any home; great expense will be avoided if the work is done correctly in the first place. Artificial lighting has possibilities frequently lost through ignorance of correct application. Guite logically the time to provide without additional cost for a high standard of lighting is when the home is in process of construction. The position of the lighting outlets should first he ascertained; then ihe types of fixtures chosen, to be suited to the various rooms of the home in regard to the type of lighting, and also to be harmonious with architecture and decoration. To be a really valuable asset the lighting: of the home should first meet all practical requirements: then there is an almost unexplored field for playing with light as a home beautifier and decorator. The atmosphere of a room may be entirely changed by the lighting in it; likewise lighting may in turn create moods through reversal. Light should never he used as raw material, and all lamp bulbs, whether in fixtures or wall brackets, will be more pleasing in appearance and more satisfactory in comfort and effectiveness if they carry shades. Yet unshaded light sources are quite common. In summing up the investment cost in the home remember that one of its valuable assets, with a comparatively low initial installation cost, will be in a high standard of lighting. It will not only add to resale value but also will provide an inestimable amount of comfort and convenience. WASTEP OPPORTUNITIES Among the lamentable things of life are the wasted opportunities. This, of course, is a platitude of the worst description, but it must strike each one of us at some time or another as completely new and startling. The particular opportunities I am thinking of have nothing to do with virtuous regrets over lost chances to do good, or to improve one’s mind in the more conventional way. I am thinking rather of the rage and regret one feels at discovering that a passing acquaintance met at a dinner or reception was really someone we have long wanted to meet, whose work we admired greatly, whose views on life in general have aroused our curiosity. We realise too late that we had our chance and lost it. The ships passed in the night and did not even speak to one another in passing. Instead of a few conventional remarks while we felt our way towards the key to unlock the door we might have j plunged into a memorable conversation. HUMAN TOUCHES When it comes to little human touches there is never a day but one encounters something which seems simple and intimate even in the bustle and roar of great London. I was standing in the post office reflecting, as I watched and listened to the clerk at my particular wicket, that we put up with a good deal in the way of curtness and ill-manners from Government officials, when the object of my criticism noticed among his customers two srpall girls intent upon buying a postal order, says an English writer. His face changed like magic. *He listened to their piping voices, and handing out the paper said, “Now I’ve got a little girl of my own. She could fill that in herself. Just see if you can do it as well.” At once he appeared in a new light. I indulgently surmised that the general public was trying to overstrained nerves, and that we deserved whg,t we got in the way occasional wounds to our dignity. As to the police, no one needs to be told how human they are in the matter of old ladies, small children, and dogs; and as to babies in the Underground or in a ’bus, if they stay long enough the whole company is linked by some mysterious bond, and the women of the less formal rank in life are talking confidently about their own children or those of -heir daughters.