Mundane Musings

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 262, 26 January 1928, Page 4

Mundane Musings

A Hungry Tyrant There is a tyrant in my house. Under the guise of a benevolent friend it presented itself first to my debt-haunted mind. Confronted each quarter with a bill w.th. set me writing masterpn ces with a wet cloth round the head and one eye magnetised to the clock. I recalled the happy first dat-s of housekeeping in a ! small flat. On the wall in that inaccessible spot j near the ceiling, which is where men ‘ place all fittings unless they are j stopped in time by women, there lived a gas man’s money-box. You filled it abstemiously with shillings, and in ; return it made toast for you. boiled • water and grilled the succulent but modest little chop which fed the lamp of your genius. Every now and Then you’d have a birthday, not on the calendar, for a kind gentleman with a badge on his chest and a key in his pocket would come and unlock the money-box. And without your asking he would some- ; times hand you back a shilling, or perhaps two or three, which made you feel j like a very good girl indeed. Wonderful days, when one looks back upon them. As these days—it must not be forgotten—will seem when one is advanced far enough on the road to look back upon them. There is no time like the present when the present is old enough to be seen from the distance. Herein lies a warning. Remembering the days of my youth : a: id the immunity from fear' granted I tr.e by the benevolent slot meter, 1 sought the head and giver of all slot gas meters and presented my appeal to him. I would prefer to run no bills. Might • I have a slot meter? And with the slot I would have two gas fires for ! two bedrooms. With this change went another. With this change went b 3 cut off and turned into a separate flat. I knew that the coming tenants would be sure to prefer a slot, and I would like to please them. With perfect courtesy it was agreed to give me my heart s desire. One meter was installed in the semi-base-ment flat and another in my own maisonette.

To-day, after three weeks of action, I sit prematurely aged with a brain inflamed with feverish calculations and a heart disrupted by agonised jourlieyings up and down between the two gas meters. Not yet properly divorced from my basement but quite properly prepared for divorcement, I have the mouths of two meters to feed, for one controls a gas stove by which we all at present live, and the other the gas fires by which some of us warm ourselves on a. labour-saving system. A woman who kept Great Danes once told me what it cost her a day to feed them. Her Great Danes were goldfish to my gas meters. As I remember the story, they might have been mannequins training down, for what they demanded in the way of food compared with the passionate hunger of the slot. Every with the renewal of activities, comes the first thought, “Are there any shillings?” and the second, If there aren’t, will the balance of gas from yesterday do the breakfast, or will it die on us before the bubble 1 rises afrd the egg sets?” Cold looks meet the individual who has been careless enough to go out shopping and return without the necessary form of change . At night in the dark I lie awake and think of these two silent tigers, ravenous and waiting, that are concealed in the cockpit and the coat-room. More terrifying in their death than they are in their life. Every day, without abatement. one must hold oneself- in readiness tot- supply their needs. Only with the dark may one relax one’s efforts. And then With the coming of day always before one. * * * But—and the whole of beatitude lies in the but—if one lives one’s daily life according to the pains and penalties of the slot meter, there is no day of reckoning. For the careless bill runners, burning the linings out of their ■ saucepans, using their gas in the gas fU-e as if It were coal at the pit head, taking no heed of the number of hours that the stove is lighted, there comes a day, as to all wantons, when the bill has to be met. Useless for you then to say there must be a mistake. The moving finger, having writ, Ihughs (you will excuse this) at your feeble protest. There is no more hope of recovering on the gas said by the meter to be consumed than there is upon time which has been wasted. You, poor butterflies, have your quarter day four times a year. But I have bought my day of reckoning. On reading this over, there is something in it that seems akin to certain current forms of religious observance.

TAMAKI YACHT CLUB A BRIGHT DANCE The Tamaki Yacht Club held a, very successful dance in the Kohimarama Hall on Tuesday evening. Streamers of red, white and blue decorated the hall, and Mr. Jim Wat* ters’s band played all the latest dance numbers in gay manner. Amony those present were: Mrs. W. H. Paterson* black velvet gown and Batik crepe de chine shawl of bois de rose. Mrs. W. H. Madlll, black velvet model featuring chenille embossed front panel. Mrs. Barnes, coral pink frock of souple satih. Mrs. Grant, apricot georgette frock relieved With cream. Mrs. Marquick, model of beige georgette and lace, and white fox fur. Mrs. Bell, gown of jade green georgette exquisitely beaded. Mrs. Webster, cherry crepe de chine frock with black velvet sash. Mrs. F. Brown, gown of black crepe de chine, handsomely beaded. Mrs. Proude, navy crepe de chine frock with floral design in rose. Mrs. Morris, black satin fringed gown and flame-coloured shawl. Mrs. Watters, dainty frock of floral ninon with ecru ruchings in front. Miss O. Jackson, model of black georgette with gold lace diagonal painted hern and sash of rose velvet. Miss Proude, turquoise blue georgette with banded taffeta skirt, and inset front panel of silver lace. Miss Mavis White, sage green georgette gown with small bows of coral pink on the full skirt. Miss Jean White, gown of moonlight blue souple satin. Miss Cuthbertson, diamante bodice ar.d full skirt of peach georgette with sequlned heiu. Miss O. Cuthbertson, dainty frock of maize georgette and gold lace. Miss M. Ansenne, black satin gown. Miss Walmsley, frock of black rose crepe de chine. Miss Hancock, froek of coral pink crepe de chine. Miss Hamel, cyclamen crepe de chine with silver tissue- sash and bright shoulder posie. Miss Taylor, shaded rose georgette with rosebud trimming at the hips. Miss Watters, frock of lilac crepe de chine. Miss Kerr, bouffant gown of cyclamen brocaded taffeta. Miss L. Syms, amethyst georgette frock with transparent hem of maizecoloured ttfile. Miss Synis, cyclamen crepe de chine with very full shined skirt. Miss Phillipps, tomato georgette gown sequinned in shel) and silver. Miss Proude, boife de rose crepe de chine and sash of rose telvet. Miss Morris, gown of gros grain ; taffeta with scalloped hem appliqued j with large pink and silver medallions i Miss Evans, seagi een satin russc gown I Clarke, frock of crepe de chine and diamante. Miss Meehan. rose crepe de chini frock relieved with ivory* . . _