The Waikato Times With which is Incorporated The Waikato Argus THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1929. ABOUT HOLIDAYS.

Waikato Times, Volume 106, Issue 17898, 19 December 1929, Page 4

The Waikato Times With which is Incorporated The Waikato Argus THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1929. ABOUT HOLIDAYS.

At this season of the year the holiday spirit takes hold of the whole community. Everyone craves for a break from the monotony of routine and the discipline of managing a home or of earning a living. The modest day at the seaside, the brief visit to some secluded spot at riverside or in country quiet, the more pretentious week or two in an acknowledged holiday resort, and the elaborate itinerary covering an extensive tour, are striking evidence of the desire for change that comes to all sections of the community. There arc no fixed rules for holiday-making except the fundamental one of change, for the health of the mind is stimulated by change of scene in the same way that change of air and change of food are tonics for the body. National health is attracting ever-incrcasing attention, and to the many improved methods that have been instituted might be added, it has been said, expert advice in the choice and arrangements for holiday-making. Undoubtedly it would be attractive to formulate the most suitable form of holidiy that each profession or vocation should indulge in, but until that Utopian standard is reached it is probably wise to be content with the conclusion that it should .so differ from ordinary life that the individual forgeLs the ordinary daily round and its disciplinary duties. A holiday is not a holiday unless it produces this result. It needs more than ordinary temerity to say that in order to secure complete change of mental atmosphere there is mucli to be said for a holiday apart from the family or usual associates. Family life is the basis of a nation’s welfare, and, deservedly, an institution that should be cherished to the full, and it has been wisely said that the best way to take care of it is to break it up occasionally. Directly opposed to this view is the plan of translating the family with all its habits and associations to some holiday resort, an elaborate contrivance, in many instances, of staying at home. Such proceeding is a violation of the fundamental law of change in holiday-making. But the success of a holiday is, perhaps, largely a matter of temperament. Some people can get happiness out of the simplest of holidays, for they have the good fortune to be happy anywhere, others nowhereIt sounds very much like heresy to say that there is much virtue in plain, unadulterated loafing at times, and a holiday ought to include some allowance for this salutary indulgence. Every moment not taken up with doing something exacting or exciting is not necessarily lost. The factor of rest and repair Ls part of the rhythm of life, and the recuperative factor in a holiday nearly always concerns mental rather than physical activity; in fact, increased exercise is usually recognised as an essential feature of a holiday.' But, as a commonsense counsel of health, it is unwise to attempt to cure mental overstrain by physical overstrain, and it is no uncommon experience to find after a holiday full of unwonted exertion, without any preliminary preparation, a feeling of_slackness and fatigue that takes some time to wear off. Fortunately for the standard of health in the Dominion, our people are lovers of the out-of-doors. With a climate that, in ordinary circumstances, encourages this trait, and with improved means of travelling far afield, more and more of the people make holiday by camping in some of the beauty spots with which this country is so abundantly blessed. Those who find enjoyment in this form of holiday are not looking for the simple life so much as the free life. The irksome restraints of civilisation are for a time cast aside, and they come back to the ordinary routine of life feeling and looking aggressively happy and insolently healthy. Others respond to the “call of the open road” by Iramping, probably the most subtle and satisfying way of assimilating the beauty and charm of our country, and apart from the mere sensuous delight of the thing, there is no surer road to health of body or of mind. In nothing do 'people differ more than in that which gives them pleasure, but the holidays they enjoy at least demand a sense of freedom, a liberty from the claims which usually controi their actions and shape their lives. And there are few national habits that are more worthy of cultivation than the holiday habit of occasionally forsaking the upholster}' of civilised life and enjoying life in the open amid the real and enduring beauties of a truly beautiful country.