Week-end Chat COUNTRY AND TOWN.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 107, 22 May 1937, Page 12

Week-end Chat COUNTRY AND TOWN.

* 4 THOTJGHTWAVE. ' '

May 22, 1937. Dear Everyone, —Those of you who have read the papers lately will have noticed that during the celebrations of the Hastings Jubilee many most interesting faets have come to the light of day, and past and present women and men leaders out of their expenience have given us all much to thinU about. But oue remark that we should all keep before us ae our wide objective was that uttered by the Mayor of Hastings, Mr George Maddison. He urged us all to airn at "a greater Hawke's Bay. Not only for the welfare of Hastings, Napier, or Havelock North, but to realise that in Hastings we have the Jat town, in Havelock North the ideal resiidential district, 'and of course Napier gives us town, sun and sea, and is a very picturesque part of ' ' greater Hawke's Bay." It does seem absurd to have petty jealousies when, in a ear, one can travel, almost in a, few cimutes from one part to the other. Mr Maddison is right. It is as a whole we must visuahse Hawke's Bay, and all work for the growtff of the distmct so that it ie utilised in the most healthy-and economic way. Mr Maddison will have achieved a great ideal if he can bring everyone into his objective of visualising in the future t4a greater Haivke's Bay." * # * Some people think that the youngcr men and womdn in New Zealand have no manners. An Englishman recently said that he was very struck with the iack of ordiuary good manners in our young men. Apropos of his remark it was interesting to be lenfc a letter from a well-known and much-travelled resident of Hawke's Bay, written en route to England, to his son;— "We have on board a foreigner, who seems very poor, but his manners are so exquisite that no oue minds. My word, what great linguists these foreigners are. All with at least twb languages at their fingertips, and many with more. It would do many New Zealand girls and boys good to see the manners of the young foreigners. After all, speech and manners are the only pas'sport among one's fellow-passengers. There are some Aussies, and, alasl a family of New Zealanders, who show up very badly. The Americans are not so bad though they do bore a bit wiith their unending flow of information. ' • # • Letters from New Zealanders i,n other countries give .us new ideas and let us know that our ways, and food, and speech, are not the only ways. Here is a glimpse into a letter from a New Zealand trio living now in New York, telling amusingly of their little four-year-old girl's new habits. They write; — "Pat sings little songs at her school, and I do wish you could hear her American accent. One song goes, 'Two little dicky birrds eitting on a warl, one named Peterr — one named Parl.' She complained about a boy hitting her at school, but dt turned out that this was the result of her knocking his blocks down. At this we were very surpriaad and sorry and asked her why she had done such a vile act. 'Because I wanted to stand just where he'd built the house' seemed to her a quite reaeonable exeuse." This same letter tells of a certain aunual meeting in New York — raKher d'ifferent from a New Zealand fxmetion. We were not a little surprised to find 7000 people there from about a 200-mile radius. . . Afterwards they fed us all freel It took two hours. Each of us filed past, seized a tray, napkin, cutlery, etc., a cardboard plate, aud were 'given a brown -bread and cottagecheese sandwich, hamburger (these are bun-shaped loaves jvith a slice of hani and pickle in the middle — very popular here), a large slice of cucumber pickle, and a ' hot dog,' then a plate of fruit jelly and cream, a chocolate-coated iceeream -brick, a cup of .coffee, half-pint philled milk aud a- etraw. . Plenty more eoffee and hamburgers for the asking. Later we jjoined in with singing 'My Country /Tis of Thee, Sweet Land of Liberty,' which .is, Of Gourse, sung to 'God Save the King.' As a matter of fact we hear this .familiar tune, sung to the. Yankee version, just as much as ever we do in New Zealand. Most Americans are genuinely surprised when we crack jokes about it. They 'are, iii nearly every thing, extra.ordinarily ignorant of any thing outside their own country." ' • * # The f ollowing letter sent in by a man toiiches on the subjeet of religiono -thought. This-. interests -vast numbers of people in our much-maligned world: * Deay Cousin Rose — * *• It is amazing how religious thought - -is permeating through every grade of society in their desperation of the ' existing affairs. I have been reading • ;a booklet edited by Mary Pickford ; with the title "Why not try God." In it she says, "Recently being very unhappy and greatly troubled I found out how I could call upon a power that, if I used the right key, would always give me every thing I needed, I found out the power of right thinking. And my discovery has brought ' me so much joy and given me eo ; much spiritual light that I want to share is with all who care to try it. All the gopd that there is can he ours right now if we but tune in with ' ' God. And the only instrument with ' which -we can tune in is our own , ? tkinking. " Af very wise man onee said, "We see only our own thoughtts and in some way ©r other they become exrernalised as our environment and experienpe, and so the world we seem to be experieneing witliout, is reallv the world we are seeing within. How can we possiblv think oue way aud have experiences in the opposite direction. " Tlie life of each one of us is a continual process of thought. That's all there is to us anyway. WLen we think we experience; when we lon't think we just ain't. All the good and evil in the world the result of right or wrong thinking, and each of us is contributing something to Ihe "sum total. — Yours,

ote*

COUSIN EOS&