‘N.Z. People Endure Winter Stoically'

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31097, 28 June 1966, Page 2

‘N.Z. People Endure Winter Stoically '

Whatever his faults, the Canadian is no stoic. He is sybaritic, writes Mr K. Malcom Searle, a former Christchurch man now living in Ontario, Canada.

Mr Searle challenges an article by Mrs Moyra Bigelow, published in “The Press” on May 25, entitled "Canada’s Cold Winters.” Mrs Bigelow presents a preposterous premise which the faintest adversary is moved to challenge, says Mr Searle.

Briefly, Mrs Bigelow contrasts antipodean winters with the Canadian variety. The nub of her brief is that, because the former are milder, winter living is more voluptuous in New Zealand. She offers a remarkable compendium of winter woes in Canada and marvels at the "courage and stoicism” with which they are annually battled to submission. Winters are probably not much more severe in Toronto than in Christchurch, the two cities being equidistant from the Equator. What distinguishes the northern citizen is his restless search for finer amenities. This year a feasibility study will be concluded in Toronto weighing the convenience against cost of constructing a dome to permananently cover a city of one end a half million. It is just such a measure of cultural progress that makes for more civilised living and justifies my mother’s candid comment, says Mr Searle. After living in Toronto for a year she returned to Christchurch to say that she preferred two Canadian winters to one in New Zealand. Returned to Canada

1 personally know only one Canadian who emigrated to New Zealand with his family. After three years in Christchurch he returned to settle in Canada. One reason given for returning was the inhospitable winters. But he gave others, more cogent, and one was economic. Formerly a bookkeeper tn Toronto, he was hired as the manager of the Christchurch office of a transport company. In spite of the salary he found the cost of living too high and the standard too low.

“New Zealanders,” he told me, “are healthy, friendly and happy. They think they are living in the lap of luxury and I hadn’t the heart to tell them anything different.” A primitive by-law was enforced in Christchurch at one time and, perhaps, still is. It

I required that bathrooms be constructed with fixed openings in an outside wall. Since sealing the opening infringed the statute, constructive thinking between April and August was relished only by the very hardy. Surely such circumstances inspired the familiar lines that so illuminate the national psychology: Whether the weather be hot. Or whether the weather be cold; Whatever the weather Well weather the weather, Whether we like it or not. The Canadian refuses to submit to the vagaries of nature and has consequently developed an allergy to discomforts of any strain. The New Zealander misinterprets the condition as a sign of decadance. To him endurance is the supreme virtue. Two-day Shirt

The New Zealand citizen is the stoic. He tolerates woollen underwear without apparent discomfort and can wear the same shirt for two successive days. Regretably, his insensitivity is more than skin deep. He cheerfully leads a regimented life. Can it be that the passive spirit is numbed to the point of indifference

toward legislation impinging on personal liberty? So the nation’s pride has been injured and Mrs Bigelow prescribes a strong sedative. It is a disservice to her readers. To expose the horrible contingency of a national temperament, uncouth and anachronous, is the salutary tonic. This is certainly an uncomfortable tenet, but the New Zealander knows that discomfort and virtue are concomitant, says Mr Searle.