CHANGES IN ENGLISH LIFE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2652, 24 December 1915, Page 13

CHANGES IN ENGLISH LIFE

i ♦ — l One of the cliangcs we notice, as be- J coming marked is seen, in the way we 1 are all settling down to take the war as I a, serious business and providing for its j 1 continuance, somewhat as a matter of ■ course (states a writer in "The Queen"). Households are being striol- < ly regulated, dress is losing its vanity and becoming simple and useful; social < customs that have only artificial reasons for being arc dropped by common con- e senE; no one cares to be out very late • now that lights are reduced ' to the 1 minimum, therefore tho healthy habit _ of going early to bed is growing in fav- ' our. "Wo are economising on extravagances that used to seem necessaries, , but moro than that we are economising some of our economies. Nowadays no ( ono talfcs affront if not asked' to take refreshments when a visit is paid. It I is considered better taste to assume i that each one pays his own expenses i when friends go out together, and, so < on. . • 1 But when all is said and done it is astonishing to find how little real deprivation wo are sufforiiig in spito of the conditions imposed by-war and in spito of the enormous cost of the war. Food v prices are high, but quality and quan- •' tity remain -unimpaired, 'IVopay more, j but we waste less, so that it costs us J little, if any, more to live than it did before, if- we are careful and scrupulous J in attending to details. AYe buy better 1 clothes, but fewer of them, and look s twice at trifling additions. Wages are J good, so there is less, far less, _ abject } poverty, and what poverfy there is does 1 not go unholped. Moreover, there is a senso of groat, relief in being able to t livo as we like, and not as social custom bade us livo. So that, taking it alto- *! gether, wo are settling down very stead- C ily to the business of seeing tho thing - through. To use a favourite expression, a the nation is getting into its stride. « w : ' I Mr. H. E. Holland will 6peak' at the n People's picture l'alace on Sunday even- . ing. His' subject will be "The New Re- ? cmiting Scheme: What it Means." Mr. K. Seniple will take the chair at 8 p.m. Particulars of a lOOacre dairy farm for k sale may be had from Post Office. 31 Hatamntu, Waikato, ei