DAYS OF RETIREMENT
‘HERE comes a tide in the affairs of men when their little ships must prepare to beach, when the long journey is ending and the time of retirement is near. And problems of old age are ageless. Did not a Roman senator say that in his retirement he was going to plant cabbages? It is only in our more highlyorganised era that the guillotine can descend at a certain hour, on a certain day, on a man’s life and cut him. off from 50% to 80% of his life. That all this must be replaced by only a man’s innate worth, his own’ unaided volition is often a serious problem. In a series of five talks, called Prepare to Beach, five retired people have given their ideas. on what they hope to get from their leisure, how they fill their days, and what is their philosophy.. Edward Hitchcock quotes one of the most profound things ever said about retirement, It runs: "Remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth, when the evil days come not nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say, ‘I have no pleasure in them.’" He concludes that you get out of retirement an awareness of basic things which you should have spent your earlier life developing. Agnes Merton, late of Christchurch Girls’ High School, has not yet found time to experience "retired leisure," which! shouid, according to Milton, be one of the pleasures of an intellectual person. There are always committees to be sat on, a little coaching, relieving teaching, housework and gardening. The only thing she regrets is that she has lost her elasticity of mind which would
enable her to take up ‘completely new things she has never had time for. Other talks in the series are given by’ Major-General G. B: Parkinson, C.B.E., D.S.O, (Ret.), who talks about retirement.as it affects the Army man; William Machin, who finds committee work agreeable and no time for gardening; and A. G. Gurnsey, who discusses, on the eve of retirement, what the ending of ‘the "long littlenessés" of a schoolmaster’s career means to him. "Prepare to Beach is now being broadcast frony 2¥C, William Machin’s talk will be heard at 10.0 p.m. on March 14 and the series wiil start this week from 1YC at 9.30 p.m. on March 16 and from 4YC at 8.3 p.m. on March 19,
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 815, 11 March 1955, Page 9
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400DAYS OF RETIREMENT New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 815, 11 March 1955, Page 9
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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