DIARIES’ END

Hokitika Guardian, 22 February 1933, Page 8

DIARIES’ END

FIVE -MILLION SOLD

WHAT HAPPENS TO THEM

Hundreds -of thousands, of people throughout the country start .keeping diaries on every New Year’s Day. And a week later, probably, hundreds of thousands have grown tired of the task and will forget all about it. Five million diaries 1 were sold in "England during the last few months of 1932. Who uses them?

A diary manufacturer was able to solve the problem. “Nobody , really uses- a- diary‘for the purpose for which it was originally intended,” he said,in an interview-. “They are .mostly used nowadays as hooks of reference and engagement calendars. ‘(.Boy Scout*, strangely enough, are the most prolific users of diaries. From us alone they buy 200,090 a year. Business men come next, but they favour the specialised - type">of -diary—the type that troutains, information applicable to' their particular trade. I doubt- if there are- jamy modern Pe-p-ys to-day who portray so carefully the ;i-ii.(-i]lents ,of everyday life. People are too lWsy to do that sort of thing. “T believe Mr Winston Churchill keeps a-." Private d'iarv, which may some day see daylight, and the same applies to a lew famous people. But tlve habit is dying,; it is a- pity. Some djairi‘33, avlulh )ha,vei -been properly kept, are invaluable as historicael records, a-s for instance, the -diaries of Irving Stone, Queen Victoria, and Arnold Bennett.”