PREACHING FRUGALITY.

Timaru Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 1663, 17 January 1895, Page 4

PREACHING FRUGALITY.

■» " Civis" m the Otago Witness says that nothing is good or bad but thinking makes it so, says Hamlet,— a profound remark, particularly applicable to what we call "bad times." To most of our predecessors— to our own .grandfathers, probably, if any of us had grandfathers— our "bad times" would have seemed the height of opulence. lam going to retrench, and m the process make bad times good. Where I drank " fiz " I shall henceforth drink Australian claret, and where I drank Australian claret I shall drink colonial beer, or even content myself with a plain cup' of tea. The dress circle— unless I am admitted as a " dead head "—shall be exchanged for the stalls, and for toe stalls shall not seldom be substituted tho sedatcr but more enduring joys of an evening m the bosom of my family, with mayhap a friend or two asked m for a quiet rubber of whist. Yes! the age of homespun is the true golden age, if we only knew it. Let us get back as fast as may be, to the age of homespun. Why cannot we be more frugal m the matter of amusements ? We import our amusements, too dull-witted to provide them for ourselves. Reckoning everything big and little, from the Princess Theatre to ballad concerts, I should say that public amusements cost Dunedin £50 a night— say £1200 a month, or a round £15,000 a year. As my figures are only a vague guess, it is possible that the real total may be nearer £30,000. If there were any art education m the amusements we buy for this sum there would be not much the matter. But probably the proportion of genuine art to other components is the proportion of FalstafTs bread to his sack. What we look for at the theatre is a good laugh ; the best we hope for at the Garrison Hall is to moon an hour or two m sentimental idleness. These luxuries are dear at £30,000 a year, or even at half that. It is the habit of most communities to depend for amusement upon professsional mimics, but the habit is a bad one — bad for the community, bad for the mimes, since, from the political economy point of view, they might be more profitably employed. I suggest that we try to get the good laugh and the sentimental mooning on cheaper terms. Nobody has ever yet explored thoroughly the possibilities of domestic histrionics and co-operative concerts. My private impression is that more fun and more sentiment are to be got that way, gratis, than can be bought for money.

A busy doctor gives away at least a quarter of his services— often more.