Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News. TUESDAY, MAY 4, 1909. THE SOUND PRINCIPLE OF ECONOMY.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4406, 4 May 1909, Page 2

Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News.

TUESDAY, MAY 4,1909. THE SOUND PRINCIPLE OF ECONOMY.

7hit above all—to thine own eel/be true, ind tt mutt follow at the night the day Thou canst not then be falte to any man Shalcetpeare.

In spite of sojne more reassuring i signs of the times, ajjel/ m tlio \

inciease in our butter and meat export, and the advance in the value of wool, we are still reminded by our financiers of the necessity for the practize of economy. If a long spell of prosperity has tendered to foster a spendthrift spirit, the touch of financial stringency will tend to correct that spirit more effectively than any amount of dogmatising without the financial pinch could possibly do. It is a thing which continually strikes those who have been nurtured under the severer c mditions of old-world life that the average Dominioner is distinctly spendthrift in his habits compared to what he would be had be been less fortunately placed. This is a sign and token of our national upbringing which is so evident that he who runs may not fail to read it We have lived in a land which for some years has enjoyed a .season of remarkable prosperity, the breezy inconsequent tendency to take things as they come has overtaken us in the sunshine of that prosperity before e'er we were aware. But a change has come over the nature of o ir dream, and however optimistic we may elect to be with re-ard t) the duration of that change, we shall not attempt, to deny that in order t> expediate a return of prosperity it will be necessary to practice the commonsense art of cutting our coat according to our cloth, by which we mean exercising our spending power according to the strict rules of thrift.

We may venture to express the hope that this practice of the rules of thrift will never find its climax in such a pathetic incident as came under our personal knowledge at the time of the last great depression in the case of a small boy belonging to a large family in straitened circumstances, who, having put his arm out, went to the family doctor and enquired what it would cost to re set it. But at the same time there are many points at which our expenditure may be checked without entailing any hurt upon us us. For tnstance, take the practices attend* ing our funeral and wedding celebrations Here friends and acquaintances are practically laid under tribute to suppiement the prospective bridegroom’s outlay on domestic furnishing with gifts which entail considerable expense. While at funerals large amounts are wasted in purcl afing costly floral emblems, which only perish with the sad ceremony. In fact there is a general danger lest the whole kindly and inspiring custom of present giving should degenerate into idle and vexatious display. There is always room for the manifestation of wholesome and generous sentiment, and a simple gift in token of sincere good-will must always carry with it a genuine inspiration ; but the tendency of recent years has been to exact ostentatious and costly presents from people associated in church membership or business connections whenever the most moderate pretext has arisen for bestowing a present. It is the feeling which counts not the money value of the gift. Another matter which requires correcting is the tendency of some members of the community to indulge in a scale of diet which is in excess of what their actual income warrants and to be too reckless in the disposal of such portions of one meal as might profitably be so treated as to be rendered fit /and wholesome for the next meal. In the matter of clothing and amuse • ments, of the purchase of unenduring personal trifles and bric-a-brac we are also greatly at fault. The writer well recollects once walking suburbwards with a friend, and remarking as two toilworn working men preceded one along the road “ How hard life seems to some people !” “Yes," was the reply, “ and to think of the fancy goods and rubbish some of their wives come in and buy !,’ It is the non capitalist or the man who has made money easily who does not seem to find out that cheap things, things which are not worth putting into one’s house are not worth purchasing, that unenduring clothing is too dear at any price. We want to remodel our estimate of things to cultivate the art of purchasing what will wear like the “ One Hoss Shay," until complete dissolution comes upon it. It is an accepted principle with your thriving, sgyjpg fnap or woman, that they Gapnot afford to buy cheap stuff. They must needs have what will last long enough to give them an interval wherein to save a little capital. Another great evil has been our tendency to run to fine houses and sffojvy functions. Not only have some aaaoßg ps hastened unduly to be rich, but there has been a general and wide-spread tendency to appear richer than we are. Jn fine the remedy of much of the present stringency is rather in the direction of a saner conception of the real values of life, the recollection tffajt our sources of happiness, even of pup plajms to social recognition are not foijndpd on furniture and style bqt on .character and enlture, At tfre game time we need Jp jrejpipd ourselves ffraf we must not only .cpt ppr coat according to our doth, but that jye nyist cut it of good cloth even if it means that wo .can only afford one coat to our neighbour’s three or; four.