HOW TO SPEND A HOLIDAY

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 79, 28 December 1920, Page 5

HOW TO SPEND A HOLIDAY

With the holiday season here the question 'of how to spend it becomes one. only of paramount importance to all, but of curious difficulty and anxiety to those whose only hope of enjoyment seems to be in a ccaseless whirl of amuse-, ment and excitement, states a writer in the Auckland "Herald." and hurry of life nowadays, the keen competition, above all, the mental strain and wearing activity'during the years of war, havo combined to produce in us a condition of alarming restlessness. We realise vaguely that wo are irritable and out of sorts, so with the best intention in tho world we hasten to expend a vast amount of money and nervous energy on a strenuous round of sight-seeing, and are. then puzzled and annoyed because wo return from'our holidays worse than when we started. The key to the whole trouble lies in the fact that many of us have completely forgotten how to rest.

t'or the simple truth is that an exhaustive survey of Rotorua, or a t«jur of Hnw Zealand is for people in good health, or for folks whose daily life is dull and monotonous, and who need mental stimulus not for tho multitude of city workers, whose" jaded nerves and tired eyes and brains need only rest. For them tho best cure is the country—anywhere at all in the country whero life is serene, whero tilings move slowly and there is time to think and enjoy. Such a place is like a quieE backwash, undisturbed by the turbulent current of city life, which rushes on, too far off to be heed-, ed, or even observed at all. The pro-, cess of vegetating may be almost unbearably dull at first—it becomes wonderfully strengthening and refreshing before long. There is nothing on earth quite so restful as a sunny orchard, kneo deep in grass and buttercups, and drowsy with the murmur of insect wings; nothing more soothing than tho deep cool quiet of an old garden, fragrant with lavender and roses and mignonette. It is peace just to look at paddocks whero cattle graze in sleepy content, and the wtuid of running water fills the ajr with whispering music, or to mako a leisurely progress along a country road in a wagon piled with new-mown hay that breathes of sunshine and sweetness. A. month spent in more existence amid tho suothing Influences of tho country is a mouth devoted to the thorough strengthening and Rejuvenating of the exhausted powers of mind and body.