Week-end Chat

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 31, 20 February 1937, Page 11

Week-end Chat

E. M.

LGVELL-SMITH.

"UNBIASSED."

"HTJSH

GEOKGE.'*

^ MIRANDA. "

BETSY.

COUSIN

KOSE.

COUNTRY AND - TOWN.

Saturday, Feb. 20. Dear Everyone, — I have several letters from Napier and Hastings this week from both women and men. You can read them and form your own Ideas about wlietber they are right or wrong. In any case, it is always interesting to hear the otber person'B point of view, and in this column is given an opportunity to ex- . press our particular opinions whick may give new ideas to others. Any one may . send in letters to this column addressed to Cousin Rose, and new correspondents are always welcome. Names ar© not divulged. ■ This week I was thinking over a retnark a well-read Havelock person made "when someone told her that a girl was .hoping to take up journalism as a career, or profession. It 6urprised me to hear her say that she was sorry, as "journalism did not lead to anything of real interest.". Witliout gping into dotails of the lives' oi the successiul journalists I will qiioto what a reco g- • nised clever English writer, St. Joiiri Ervine, .says in an article *in "Goo.d Housekeeping ' '■ about H. V. Morton, who wrote "In Search of England" and. the other kindred books. . He says: "H. ,V. Morton is the Jinest reporter in Fieet' Street. A good reporter is a man with a qfiiek eye for an interesting i'act, . buc he is much more tnan that. He is alsoi a man who can take a fact whi,ch-is known to everybody, so familiar indeed, that it has ceascd to be noticed, and' can present it' to the gaze in such a way'that it. seems an entirely new fact. Ahyone can feport sensational news, but it takes a man of something approaching genius to report the exiatence of everyday things. Anyone can make • a scoop when exclusive information .is handed to him on a plate, but orily a superb reporter can take infdrmation that is available to everyone and turn it into a story that no one else can write. That is what H. V. Morton does.'' Hoes this extraet give a little insight into the po&sibilities and pleasures of the journalistic professionS ■ # * * Here are soice very yaried letters from correspon.dents: — Dear Cousin Kose, — Women in Hawke 's Bay* are ieeling very gratified that honour should have been paid to Miss Jerome iSpencer for her work in organising Women 's Institutes, but very little 'seems to have been said about it. Eew people reaiise how: widesprcad are .Miss iSpencer 's sympathies and how much sho has achieved in - her life. When quite young and teaching at the Napier Girls' High Schooi she was an extra-xhural student of Canterbury College and attained her M.A. degree. Later she "was day prineipal of the school, at which ehe had Feen pupil and teache.d, and now she is a member of that school 's board of governors, During the war she went Home and further broadened her knowledge of human 'nature by acting as a police woman in London. She has represented {he women of New Zealana at women 's conferences, both national and international, and is weU known to many of the leading women of the world. They have watched the progress of the Women 's Institute in New Zealand with great interest and many more are enthueiastic over the institution of Townswomen's Guilds — town organisations on similar lines to institutes which aspire to' awaken progressivo thoughts in women — and for which Miss Speneer is directly reeponsible. Alive to every question' of ihe day, sympathetic and gentle in her demeanour, yet po&sessed of courage and determination beyond the lot of many, Miss Jeromo Speneer has proved the friend of woman in all. parts of New Zealand and all would wish her well and pray that she may livc long to aid, by her knowledge and experience, the causo she ha* done so much for.— Yours, etc..

Napier, Feb. 16. Dear Cousin Eose, — I was interested to read a leply to my letter in which I advoeated that Hastmge should become the shopping centre oi' Hawke 's Bay. Your correspondent says mine is the selfish point of view. I must diiier. Both towns are different, and both have attractions in their own way. I think co-operation . between the two towns is far better — and less selfish — tlian bickering. 1 do not see why Hastings should not be recognised as the shopping centre for Hawke 's Bay in the same way that Christchurch is in Canterbury. I would like to see good old Hastings as the shopping resort, and good old Napier as the tourist resort. There is not room in our pretty town of Napier for many shops, but it can bo made more and more beautiful, and people will enjoy to come here. 1 think that in narrow controversies lie the germ of war, for it is of no use talking of peace if we cannot have a broad, wide outlook. — Yours, etc.,

Dear Cousin llpse, — "Mere Man's" remarks on women 7s mascu- | line attire is quite interesting, and the result of what might happen if men appeared in the streets ifi women 's dress is almost worth the experiment. I quite agree with ' ' Mere • Man" that the female figuure is not attractive in man's clothes. It is too bottle-'shaped, and when decked in the Tegular pants of a man is a | grotesque sight. But I think tho mosfc unbecoining outfit is the riding I pants — ^loggings ri g that women I wear. However conVention condonss

itf and we are more or less xesigned. About beaeh slacks, X must confess that as long as they aro slacks, and bright, I lixe to eee them, as the slackness does not show up the bottla shape. Nature has given to the male animai and bird .the most attractivo form and dress. It is the same with the genus homo. .The male has tho most symmetrical and attractivo figure. The female, to combat her misiortune, U3es her acute' natural wits to .deck her body, partly to attract man, but mostly for the other woman to see. — Yours, etc..

Dear Cousin Kose, — I wonder if any contributor can tell me how the old-fashioned game of "Floral Lotto" was played? It dates from sonjewhere about the sixties when "tho gentlemen" always changed thoir dmner coats lest they should be tainted with smoke and put on smoking jackets, smart and braided, and a smoking cap, also embroidered, for fear "the ladies" should detect the smell of smoke so abhorred by them. Floral Lotto was played by botb. gentlemen and ladies. Whist was considered unsociable and too difficult for women 'a brains to grapple with. Women in those days wero liable to trump or not trump cards in quite the wrong way. — Yours, etc.,

# • • Dear Cousin Kpse, — Your "'Weekend Chat," on so many different subjects, is always to me most interesting. In your letter of last week y.ou mentioned varied experiences which many people meet, so I now am going to teli you of a nnique one that happened to- myself very many years ago. I was spending a hoiiday at Queenstown, Lake YVakatipu, and while there an annual picnic was arranged to take place across the lake. The lady in whose home I was staying was particularly good at cakeinaking and, as usual, promised to donate a liberal supply. On the morning previous to • tlie picnic 1 amu'sed myself by watching my "friend busily engaged in cake prepa- , rations. Suddenly, as ehe was beating some of her ingredients in a basin, a small fly quickly whizzed before us and disappeared, as we thought, into the partly filled bowL Every effort was made to find it, but no fly could be seen anywhere, so we came to the conclusion that we had made a mistake and that it had flown elsewhere. Between one and two hundred, people attended the picnic, and all eatables were handed in to those in charge, to be cut up and paseed round later. It will be easy for you to imagine that the platefuls of goods were both varied and numerous, and also that the many picniekers wore somewhat widely scattered over tho shores of the lake. Never.theless, when a plate filled with a -variety of cakes was passed to me I at once recognised on it a piece from some •of my friend 'e baking, and chose it in preferenco to any other. But, ,to my hurprise and horror I discovercd, when on slightly breaking it, that there, firmly imbedded in tho centre, was the lost fly. Was it not 'a strange coincidence that out of nll the number of people there and tho large quantity of eatables that I Bhould have been the one person to receive that particular piece of cakc? Hoping soine of your matiy teaders may also, in "Week-end Chat*," relate any of thcir odd expcricncos. — Yours, etc..

• • Thrifty women who have a limitod eum to spend on their housekeeping jjxe feeling the loss caused by the frost which killed nearly all the Hawke 's Bay fruit, and there ia another draw-ba-ck in the cold summer because tho Jack of sun means that tomatoes and the lisual garden produce is not ripen,ing. Apart from the orchardists who make their living from fruit, the ordinary householder has often a good old peach tree, a vine over a shed, or a f ew apple trees which they depend on for the family jams, sauces, an3 pies- But there is no fruit this year. It is tho noble duty of luCky folk who still have fruit, to pass on to neighbours what they cannot use. It would be a sad xefiection on good sense if this year (moro than any year) produce was allowed to waste, Speaking of sharing onea worldly goods, it will be interesting to see if the wonderful prices gained by wool will be passed on in some way for the good of the dis'trict. Do country people acquire the habit of thinking that a town is only a useful place ior shopping and theatres? And do they eome* times forget to think that the wealth of the country might help the towns i Hastings and Napier have a large country district behind them. Yet how often do we hear of a civic gift? Hastings has ' no art gallery, f ew endowments for schools, and most of Napier 's beautifying is through the enterprise of citizens. Townspeople are not, as a rule, wealthy, yet on them devolves much of the public work which benefits the whole community. Even the town churches in which so many country people get married, buried, and baptised, aro supported almost entirely by the town residents with small incomes. If readers disagree with these views Cousin Bose will be pleasod to print letters on the subjoet, and will be interested to hear the opposite points of opinion. Hoping that those who are interested will join in the discussions in this column nest week. — Your friend.