Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1920 THE OLD ORDER.

Hokitika Guardian, 5 February 1920, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1920 THE OLD ORDER.

It is the custom to aver that the old order changeth, and since the war, many folk assert how different things are, how changed the people and the old times can never come again. But human nature is very much the same the world over and at heart the people have not changed. There was a stringency and a time of anxiety during the war. The stress and strain, the uncertainty, and the boding future had their disturbing effect, but the experiences through which the people passed do not appear to have changed actually the people themselves. Their likes and dislikes are as of yore. They

take their pleasures as gaily as ever —perhaps more so, jf we but realise how all places of amusement are thronged these days. Perhaps if there be a change, it is in the direction of recklessness, a spirit of live to-day, and let the morrow take care of itself. There is, if there is a, change at all, less individuality in our wav of life. The recklessness just referred to amounts fo selfishness, for without a genuine thought for the -days to come, wo display a selfish spirit. And we want more personality put into our live.s. It has become jfche custom' to look to and expect everything to come from Government action. Jf the Government fail: they are railed against and blamed for everything that happens which upsets our own mode of living. The members of the Government

j are human like ourselves and living in these reek/ess times, they too may have' caught the spirit of selfishness and recklessness which seems to mark the people as a whole. It is the custom to storm against the high cost of living, but some blame must be allocated to ourselves for the serious situation into which living conditions are) drifting. Thus is the spending age. Money appears to he plentiful, and there is no thought of saving for the rainy day which is sure ,to come. Then indeed will come the real pinch, when there will be some personal suffering attached to the high c°st of living) hut till that day of trial conics the country will trip along light heartedly, complaining in general terms, but not trying to mend the position in any specific manner. In matters of art there can of course He no change.

The old masters were a race to themselves, who never can be excelled though they may be emulated. The painters of old, the composers, the writers and historians—are great artists in their respective spheres, stand to-day pre-eminent as wlien the glory of. their works was first discovered. And neither tin there any change in the devotion paid to art. It stirs and ennobles as of yore. A, great picture of the p;ist excites to-day the samp admiration as whpn the groat scene was first appreciated by fctop worjd. The melodies, and harmonies of the musicians have the same enkindling effect «s when the transcendent efforts were first produced. So d/o the inspiring works of the writers enkindle again the enthusiasm apd inspiration of the past. What then j.s wrong with those times? Are the times, changed apd not

the people? Perhaps it Is all a reaction, and that human nature is just suffering a recovery—a. relaxation from tile stress and strain of the past years, and that when tiie npecssary period has passed, there will be a return to more settled and normal conditions, and that more individuality will come into our lives, and we will act sanely after the riot and revelry which, the after war conditions brought within its train.