THE SIMPLE LIFE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 230, 27 March 1912, Page 4

THE SIMPLE LIFE.

The gentleman in Sydney who was fined on Monday for his endesivor to illustrate the simple life by parading the main street clad in a bathing costume and a smile will probably be disposed now to regard his propaganda as one to catalogue with the strenuous life. He stands, of course, as the epitome of protest, and there will be plenty of people ready to assert that his arrest and punishment are a breach of that negligible quantity, "the liberty of the subject." The whole question is an extremely delicate one, and must have tried vary seriously the administrative capaaity of the presiding magistrate. Municipal by-laws are not always the concentrated essence of wisdom, but within sound of the sea they usually provide for a garment that shall reaeh from the neck to the knee. But, apparently, the costume of Manly Beach is not to be the costume of George street. Still, when doctors disagree, who shall decide? There are no doubt magistrates who would rule that the abominable hobble skirt is not a suitable costume for the street, yet it flourishes unchecked like the green bay tree, whilst its more useful next-of-kin, the harem skirt, is the object of almost universal execration. Apparently the matter is one for police discretion, and the police are superior after all to that arbitration dictator, Fashion. Of course, in this instance they have reason on their side, for they can quite legitimately argue that if an ordinary bathing dress Is a permissible costume for the crowded streets of a big city there is nothing to stop an even more ardent reformer still further abbreviating it, till, by a process of elimination, we arrive at the primeval fig-leaves of our first parents, or, even discarding them, appear in the ancient British garment of woad, the "altogether" of Trilby, or the tattooed trunks of the early Maori. We can even imagine the originator of this daring experiment forming the central figure of a fashionable heresy hunt, just as many of the churches so furiously rage together at the mere suggestion of a snowy alb, a stole or a chasuble. He lias certainly chosen no primrose path for the display of his aggressive personality in clothes. As a simple matter of fact, however, the question is purely one of good taste, and this modern Sartor Resartus is not likely to win either much sympathy or many adherents.

ST. AUBYN'S ANSWER. St. Aubyn Town District was asked yes- i terday to join the borough, and by a majority of five replied'that it preferred to go on as it had been doing. We need not say we are surprised at the answer. We are more than surprised; we are astounded. We could not conceive why the people could be so absolutely blind to their interests and the interests of the town as a whole as to "turn down" the proposal, even by the narrow majority that prevailed. There was every reason in favor of amalgamation; there was, as far as we knew, no reason why the present state of things should continue. We regret the decision of /the voters, not so much because of the merging in itself, but because it will have the affect of setting back the tramway scheme indefinitely; that is, as far as the Breakwater route is concerned. Tramways would give the town and suburbs a new lease of life and make for progress and prosperity. That it is within the ability of New Plymouth to make it a paying concern almost from the start has been demonstrated. It is now for the promoters to reconsider the situation in the light of the rebuff they have sustained and determine upon the course of future action. We feel sure that next time the proposal to amalgamate with the borough is made it will not emanate from the town; it will come from the very people who rejected it yesterday.