Week-end Chat

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 190, 28 August 1937, Page 8

Week-end Chat

HOUSEWIFE."

"SPONGED UPON."

"LACHEN."

COUSIN EOSE.

C0UNTRY ANDd TOWN. ^

Bear Everyone, — I hope readers will take note of some of .the letters-this week, for there is much thought behind the ideas expressed, It is to be hoped, also, that secretaries and presidents of the different womens organisations and institutes in Hawlces Bay will draw. their members' attention to the * f ollowing letter. In Australia the women have ■ found out that if they unite and refuse to pay excessive prices, and also if they insist on pure • foods, the sellers must alter their ways. Women are said' to comprise 75 per cent. of the • buyers of ordinary • goods, but in' New" Zealand they under-estimate their influenee. Dear' Cousin Bose, — The rise in cost of living is causing trouble to people with sm all fixed salaries and ineomes. It is no use complaining, but T would suggest that the - women 's societies and clubs in Hastings set up a small eommittee to study the cost of household supplies and the values of foods. The ordin-. ary. housewife has neither tinie nor ' the knowledge needed. I heard that soya beans were a good substitute for meat, but found the Hastings grocers did not ' stock them. This eommittee might also interview the bakers to see if a better wholemeal loaf copld be produced. It would also assist the housewife if this eommittee would publish how ' "to eook vegetables to retain their value. " ' Also a list of foods that take no • cooking and yet are wholesome. I do hope . the eommittee awill get to YT7 ATL* V nm>o nf n

. Dear Cousin Eose, — Are baehelors selfish? is a query in your column. Well, it depends on the age as a rule. Elderly baehelors with a good income are often very self-ifidulgent, and elderly baehelors with small means are often self-absorbed. As a rule the bach6lor does not figure very largely in public life. A notable exception is our present- Prime Minister. As a ratepayer I am often rather indignant to hear of unmarried men who earn large wages and who take no pride in their town, nor do they contribute to the many welfare organisations. As a rule the Plunket Society, children's homes and Eed Cross are supported by married people with calls on their purse in every direction. Why is it that the bachelor girl and bachelor man think they have no responsibility. I ara quite willing to hear the other side of the question, but my experience has been that the unmarried man takes freely from his married friends and seldom tries to recipro- • cate; lie is benefited when a babe by the Plunket Society but does not contribute; he lives in a town, but is serdom noticed for his real citizenship. Are .there any champions for his cause? — Yours, etc.,

i LAUGH CTJBE. f cFun is better than physie and more pleasant to take." Dear Cousin Bose, — I have been reading an old hook named "Fun Doctor," and indulging in a good laugh over the subjects it deals with. There are two things people should indulge in more — namely, . laughter and drinking aqna pura. Of this

latter at least two quarts daily should he taken for ' health 's salce. The physician tells us of the physical benefits of laughing. There is not the remotest corner or little inlet of the miaute blood v„ssels of the human body that does not feel some wavelet from the convulsion oceasioned by good hearty laughter. The life principle, or the central man, is shaken to the innermost depths, sending new aides of life and strength to the surface, thus materially tending to insure good health to the persons who indulge therein. The blood moves more rapidly, and conveys a different impression to all the organs of the body, as it visits them on that particular mystic journey when the man is laughing, from what it does at other times. For this reason every good hearty' laugh in which a person indulges, lengthens his life, eonveying, as it does, a new an3 distinet stimulus to the vital forces.— Yours, etc.,

Maybe some . kindly • readers will respond to this appealing letter sent from an unknown person who is obviously a patient at a mental institution. In tliis restricted life boolts or papers would evidently be a god-send. She writes: — "This is a hospital where books and papers would be appreciated by the patients, and I thought if you asked Hastings people they might he pleased to send some on to us; There is not a library here as in Porirua, and they always get a good supply of books sent on there to them by the Wellington residents. The weather here is excellent .. ." Those who wish to send on papers maybe do not know that all 'papers and niagazines can be sent free to Government hospitals if they are tied up — each one singly — and addressed to the institution, not tb a person in it. If addressed to a person, postage must be paid. The address given by the writer who sends her appeal is "Tokanui Hospital, Te Awamutu." Please do your best to help them. On a brief visit to Auckland last week ifc was interesting to note how different are many fashions in houses, dress and flowers from those of our somewhat conservative Hawke's Bay. Many houses were built of vellowy brick which, with green shutters, were very pleasing in effect. Gardens seemed on the whole very conventional, lachenalias flower everywhere now, and hundreds of cinerarias are planted out ready for brilliant bloom later. Large trees are left untrimmed in front of even small houses — obviously the shade is appreciated in summer — and the puriri tree is greatly used in reserves and in private ga»Jens. Everywhere one is struck by the predominance of naturally growing, untrimmed trees. In the domain, numbers of small totaras are being planted near old, uneut totaras, and rimu tr.ee s are being nsed for other plantations. It appears that Auckland favours tli^ New Zealand native trees. Dress is different, too. Slrirts are knee length for the younger generation, and all stockings gleam ont in the bright shades of a new copper penny. There is excessive malce-up on many girls and women, rouge being heavily used, lip-sticlc thickly and blantantIy, while bats and hair look trim and smart. Black and navy blue seem the favourite colonrs there for spring, and burnished gold Jewellery imitating oldfashioned designs in wide bracelets, huge' brooches and heavy chain necklets. Auckland is certainly a beautiful city with its surrounding harbour and islands, and one wishes travel was not so expensive so that New Zealanders might move about more freely and see how "the other half of the New Zealand world" livfis.