GOOD OLD UNCLE. AN ASSET IN EVERY FAMILY.

Waikato Independent, Volume XXXI, Issue 2778, 21 November 1931, Page 1 (Supplement)

GOOD OLD UNCLE. AN ASSET IN EVERY FAMILY.

EVEN THOUGH HE NEEDS MUST NOW ADVISE.

An uncle is one of the finest institutions in the world. It was a happy inspiration that invented him. Unfortunately, in these days of ours, uncles are growing scarcer, like gold nuggets and saints Families are smaller, and this means fewer uncles. The supply of fathers and mothers keeps up fairly well, but uncles are a poor crop. Of course, it is to be remembered that nephews and nieces are proportionately scarcer, so the budget is balanced fairly well. The uncle par excellence, the popular and ideal uncle, is the one who persists in remaining a bachelor and making money. The rich unmarried uncle is regarded universally as a specially gracious dispensation of Providence, and never fails to be the hero of nephews and nieces. He can be relied upon to fill the role of " a bank that never closes its doors." If uncle marries and has no children, he is still a prime favourite, though auntie keeps an eye on him and shapes the whisper of the throne. There have been parents who regard uncles as too generous and too indulgent, and have entered a mild remonstrance against his excessive generosity; but they nevertheless appreciate his devotion, and do their utmost to make him conscious of their gratitude, One of the noblest uncles in history was Abraham, and one of the most thoughtless nephews was Lot. Whatever he possessed he really owed to Abraham, and at the critical moment when he should have risen to the call of gratitude and self-denial he miserably failed. When he should have said: " Uncle, it is not for me to choose, but to accept what you leave," Lot was not great enough. He had not learned to say, "Apres vous." The result was that he kept moving nearer to Sodom, and at last settled there, lost all, was taken captive, and had to be rescued by his uncle. There is no hint that this nephew ever did a noble thing in his life, and he is the prototype of all self-pleasing nephews, while Abraham stands forth for all time as the model of the openhanded uncle.

time in his life he is", compelled to economise. His benefactions must be cut down, and at this point the nephews and nieces come into the picture. He explains to them that things have changed, and he will not be able to do for them what he has been doing. He feels in his heart he must go even further than that. He gives them a homely lecture on the need for a simpler life and being content with plain living and high thinking. He may even drop into poetry and speak about—

Fell luxury! More perilous to youth Than storms or quicksands, poverty or chains.

At this stage the more explosive of the nephews will be tempted to exclaim with Hamlet when the ghost startled him with the information, " 0. my prophetic soul! My uncle ! " With keen enjoyment of the interruption the uncle will genially but firmly insist that " new occasions teach new duties," that the belt must be drawn several holes tighter, and hard work, courage, and self-reliance become the order of the day. If we have acquired tastes we can no longer gratify, we have now to discard our former habtas and practise self-adaptation. We have had a good innings and contracted a liking for costly pleasures. We must now shed these as a snake sloughs i*s skin, and if w e are wise we shall do it with a smile and without apology. Like Burps, we must dare to be poiur. It takes courage, and a kind of courage more' difficult to exhibit than is generally believed. Uncle feels all thisi and feels it his duty to point the moral. We once thought, like Job, that we would die in our; nest, thai the good times would last our day; and now our dreams have been rudely shattered. If uncle contributed to our luxuries, he now contributes to our store of practical wisdom and bids us greet the lean years with a smile. No enemy can defeat the soul which accepts the inevitable and cheerijty faces the future with a courage that refuses to be daunted.

New eras, new men ! There is now a new uncle for the very good reason that we have reared a race of new nephews and nieces. Inheriting the post-war complex, they have developed highly-extravagant habits and attained an ideal of life which, to say the least, gives the uncle occasion to think furiously. The younger nephews are not now content with a shilling toy, or the nieces happy with an eightpenny doll. The machine age has created a machine rage for costly joys. What the Germans call schablonisierung the mechanisation and standardisation of all things _ from motor cars to feelings and opinions—has hit the new uncle rather badly. He, too, is standardised, and is expected to move round in the proper groove and at the regulation pace. The tastes of the new generation have become expensive beyond all previous experience. Luxury has increased, ideals of comfort have risen immeasurably, and the man who knows it is uncle. For years the nation borrowed like a reckless spendthrift, and money was plentiful. The children motored to school and college, and there was uncle to come to the rescue when bankruptcy threatened or some expensive plaything was fancied. His tips were lavish, and he was always on tap. There are children who die of having a granny, and there are nephews and nieces who are spoiled through having an uncle. Things are changing now. A new world has been born. We are all poorer, and likely to be so for some time to come. If there is not " the devil to pay " there is an equally inexorable but altogether honourable creditor who expects us to stand up to our engagements. So we will, but it hurts, and the pinch is felt by us all. What, in the circumstances, is the special problem df the new uncle in the new world ? His own income is greatly restricted, and for the first