NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS

Taupo Times, Volume I, Issue 51, 7 January 1953, Page 4

NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS

TT is* traditional that the beginning ' of a New Year is an appropriate time for makmg good resolutions. People, conscious of their human frailties, seern to find in the act of turning over a new leaf a kind of cleansingj of the spitrit which fortifies their j resolution to go forward into the New Year in a better frame of mind. Tennysop, in his "In Memoriam/' calls on the New Year bells, to: Ring out old shapes of foul disease,, Ring out the narrowing lust of gold; Ring out the thousand wars of old, Ring in the thousand years of peace. Most people, setting out into the New Year armed with good resoln tions, find themselves at the end of it much the same kind of human being as, in their inner selves, they were when they started. It is much easier to refine human natujre than to change it. The veneer of civilisation wears very thin, often disappears completely, in periods of acute human stress, such as in wartime. j Nevertheless, the idea of making , good resolutions is indicative of that j impulse within most of us that might! he definen as the spirit of reform j We live in an age oi reforming zea? ; that aiiTis at the abolition of war, of I poverty and disease, and so on. The' Fiirst World War was a war to end all wars. Well, it didn't, as we knowj very well. With the end of the Second World War came a revival of the reformative spirit, symbolised in the huge ornate edifice in New York I dedicated to Lhe peaceful objectives' of the United Nations. Will it succeed ? We clonT know yet. The prevailing sentiment on the question as; the New Year sp^outS its tender shoots is to "hope for the best and prepare for the woirst." The root of the problem lies in human nature itself. But that is a vast question. Let us1 tum to things much simpler and nearer home, things more within our own competence and management —

'-,o Taupo itself, in short. Whafc Tood resolutions can we make for the ^ood of our community ? We can relolve that by the end of 1953: 1. Taupo will be completely reticulated for an ample supply of electricity to all and sundry. 2. Taupo will have its hall by Christmas. 3. The Spa Road, the Rifle Range Road, Roberts Street, and Tamamutu Street will be tarsealed— and others if possible. 4. All dangerous intersections will be dealt with, and blind corners eliminated. 5. The new A.C. Baths will be an accomplislied fact. 6. There will be a deeent hotel in the Main Street. 7. {Better facilities Wfill be provided for boat owners. 8. Every persoq who has a telephone numbetr in the hook will be provided with a telephone instrument as well. 9. There will be a properly equipped mortuary. These are a few good resolutions to be going on with. Perhaps our readers will be able to think of others. We must resolve to keep moving, and if those in authority are too slow they must be pushed. Taupo is going ahe?d. Tlie jtown will acquire a new dignity when it becomes a bcirough, with a mayor and councillors. In conformity with its new status the propressive spirit must be kept alive and active.