"LEND US A MATCH!"

Taranaki Daily News, 29 December 1915, Page 3

"LEND US A MATCH!"

PRICE OF PIPE-LIGHTS UP. The exigencies of war are surely striking at our old British institutions. Use of the grand old phrase, "Co'me and have a drink," has in some parts of the Empire actually been made a penal offence. Now, in Auckland (says the Star), there is an indication of danger to another cherished institution, the fellow with the cheerful request, "Lend us a match," but who does not look cheerful if you actually "give" 'him one match. Of course, the piirase, "Lend us a match" is merely a privileged false pretence invented for the purpose of extracting lucifers from free-handed persons, and used without any intention whatever of repaying the loan. But the progress in price of everything that goes to making the cost of living has been steadily increasing, educating New Zealanders to a thrift that is not native to them, and now we are notified of the climax of the up-creep in prices—matches have gone up. The smoker's and housewife's favorite "spunk," the wax matches in flat boxes, are no longer obtainable at a penny a box', the new price being threehalfpence. With .this fifty per cent, rise, requiring 50 per cent, more assurance on the part of the match borrower, and a proportionate less readiness to give on the part of the person who has bought the matches, the "lend us a match" hypocrisy has been wiped out—on paper.