PEOPLE WITH TWO HOMES

Opotiki News, Volume I, Issue 33, 13 May 1938, Page 4

PEOPLE WITH TWO HOMES

SCANDINAVIAN CUSTOM

FRIENDLY NATIONALITIES

ADDRESS TO ROTARY CLUB

Impressions of Scandinavian people were given to Gisborne Rotary Club members at to-day’s luncheop by -Mr. Eustace King, Wellington, in an address on “Friendly Nationalities.”

Friendly nationalities were, people whose outlook oil, life was die same as that of the visitor,"who "cOuid feel at home. Norway was one of those places. On a tour, Mr. King found in Norway a great resemblance to the rough West Coast of the South Island. The people were thrifty and vigorous, much like Scotsmen in this respect ,-and many of the words were similar to those of British lands. Tliei Oslo Harbour was like the. Bay of Islands, and everyone Who could afford it had a yacht, neatly varnished and polished, and also a shack down the harbour in addition to their usual home. It appeared to be an ancient custom among Norwegians- to have two homes, and in a park where samples of the homes of, -their forefathers were preserved the two homes were featured, one being for the winter and the other for the summer, the. winter, home having a big log fire in tile middle of the- only room. The Norwegian people were fond of tartans. Their tartans were not in wool, but mainly in silks and eottons, and the Norwegian women were the smartest and best dressed he saw on his travels. No Ragged Children. Swedish land was like that in Otago. Tli© adults and the children were well dressed, and even in the working class areas lie failed to see a dirty or ragged child. There was a very high standard of social service and hygiene. Even the railway carriages were as clean as the.rooms of their homes. Sweden was a land of lakes, and Stockholm was a charming city, often called the “Venice of the north.” Blocks of flats in Stockholm were neatly designed. The .flats were sold, not let, and the working class flats were models of what homes should, be. There were also homes for old people ; these were not charity places, but were

like palatial hotels where old people jj! could ln r e in retirement, alter' making | provision for it earlier in their lives. |j

“This, is a. land of Mr | King continued. “They caiS P of working to a 40-hour' they - | must work ' while, there is time.to j wprk, for the climate is against- them \ there:”* * y .f In Denmark, he found, j the chief i f ambition, of the people was to express(£ I themselves in art. The statues aha v! pictures stood out among those he saw || oil his tour. Ik