Week-end Chat

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 43, 6 March 1937, Page 13

Week-end Chat

C0UNTRY AND . TOWN. *

March 6, 1987. Dear Everyonc,— A writer to this column speaks of " controversy. " I would like that writer to see that this is a discussion column, so that those with difterent views may say what they think, without any thought of "arousing annoyance in others. Through expressing an idea by writing it, and then reading the diiferent ideas of others who have thought of the same subject, oar views may be widened, and a fresit outlook gained in a friendly way. This letter arrived too late for last week. Letters mu-st be -to hand by Thursday afternoon each week. As the oftrepeated rule is that letters must be short (please), this letter has 'had to be shortened. Any writer who has ha.d something eut out which they desire to say, may write again. It is better to send two short letters for ' following weeks, than ono very long one which takes more than its share of space. This letter rather missed the point oi the query that inspired it, which was: Will the high price of wool have any definite benefit on the civic needs of the Hawke's Bay towns, — apart froin trade?

Dear Cousin Rose, — -How can the wealth of a farming community fail to benefit a town sueh as Hastings or Napier? Surely Hawke's Bay has no cause to bemoan the lack of generosity shown by its farmers. Napier Hospital wards bear some of the names Anonymous gifts are frequent too. While we have need of good cheer depots, Red Crosa riistribution of warm clothes. and sustenance allowances, does not an art gailery, seem out of placo? Wnon you mentiohed bequests l'or schools. I had visions of the hundreds of country children denied the benofita of secondary education because their parents cannot alford to board them in town. They graduated from primary schools to the farm. Farmers would rather iniprove facilities for country children than those which so excellently assist the town child. The idea of supplying a beautiful town church for the casual use of cou'ntry brides is a strange one. For every country ceremony the minister iu those districts must marry, bury, christen hundreds of towrispeoplo who are complete strangers. Those who love their church attend and support it. Whis applies to tn» country. People travel miles to slt in a small school desk for divine service, and perhaps the minister has tiavelled 40 miles to that little church in his care. It is natural ta support that church which takes you under its wing whether you belong there or npt* And if sometimes country people visit a city church to taste the joy of the great sweet stillness that is there, they should qp welcomed, and on no account be allowed to feel they are enjoying something they have not paid for. We should join hands, town and country, for the common weal. — Yours, etc., "LILY-POND." • • * Dear Cousin Rose, — I should like to make an appeal through your eolumns for the mission hospitals of Melanesia, and also for the lepers of Makogai Ipland. They are badly in need of bandages and any old sheets would be most acceptacle. These must be well boiled. Also any odd acraps of bright-coloured wools or linen thread for fancy work, as the lepers are expert needlewomen, and spend much of their time sewing. Also any toys for the children. The nursing sisters state that the lepers are to be seen wandering on the beach looking out to sea, and when asked, "What are you looking for?" they Have replied, " We are looking to see if there is any steamcr coming from New Zealand. We hope that they have not forgotten us." Any gifts left at Hall's Book Shop, Heretaunga street, Hastings, will be . duly acknowledged. — Yours, etc., "BANDAGES."

* * « Dear Cousin Rose, — This long abstention from the pictures, has-it had some advantages? Have our children learnt a little of how to interest themselves in real life instead of life as it isn't or shouldn't be? Or has the weekly habit of "Hurrayl It's Saturday. Pictures to-day," been too deeply ingrained, and taken away all initiative? One of the greatest educationalists of the day said: "There is no bettei: school for materialism than the cinema. What they see there does not make its way into the ordinary faculty of perception; it enters a deeper, more material stratum than we usually employ for our perception." That makes oue think, doesn't it? li it alfeets a grown mind in that way, how much would it harden and mateiialise the tender, plastic mind of a little child? Is this generation to allow ltsolf to be caught up in a senseless whirl of machinery and speed, radio and pictures, till all persona] effort, mitiative and thought has disappenred} and we become meclianical monsters onrselves? Or is there something more worth while? "Is there not a wind on the heath, brother?" Are the clouds and the sea and the stars and the flowers of no interest? Is man and the work•ngs of the tfniverse of no interest? Li tbere nothin^g to study and think

of there? Are we grasping the shadow i'or the substance, and shail we sink into tEe earth at last as nien without hope. Or is there something we must stiii sfcruggle for that as yet we do not fully see .... — Yours, etc., "WONDERING." # • * Dear Cousin Rose, — I am glad that when the Herald and Tribune were amalgamated your c'olunm was one of the features of the Herald to be retained in the merged paper. May I speak of a lack in an"6ttl§r* wise splendid paper? Hawke's Bay is prcbably the only province in New Zealand whose leading paper does not cater in some way for the children of its subscribers. I do not mean by sily foreign comics, but by competitious and criticism to train and foster the talent of the writers and poets of to-morrow. I can name about half-a-dozen of New Zealand 'sinost proimsiug young writers who can rise and call down blessings o.n the children 's page of the Hawke's Bay Tribune of about twelve years ago. Hoping that some day that much regrotted page may be revived, and with congratulations in the meantime for the good reading provideH. — Yours, etc., £'MATER." # • w Dear Cousin Rose> — Is there any law prohibiting the practice of catching in Tat-traps our beautiful birds, particularly Ihe tHrushes? Tt breakis my heart to see them caught thus. — Yours, etc., "BIRD-LOVER." •Will some reader who can give this "Bird-Lover" an answer, please send it before next Thursday? * * * Thanking you all for your letters and siacerely hoping those who can answer the appeals and questions will do «o. — Your Friend, COUSIN ROSE.