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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 10, Issue 9 (December 2, 1935)

The Month of gladness

page 9

The Month of gladness.

This is the month of the bold plum duff, the hopeful stocking and the Christmas cheer.

Now the stored dislikes in the rag-bag of the mind are discarded, scandals and illnature are forgotten, and the glad feeling of friendly kinship prevails; for now, if ever, can that genial aspiration of Robert Burns be brought about, “That man to man the world o'er shall brothers be for a’ that!”

In the same spirit, and clad in the gay habiliments of its Christmas suit, this Magazine greets its large family of readers with all good wishes for their welfare and happiness.

Kindliness and consideration for others are of the essence of that religion from which Christmas derives its meaning, and they are gaining ground in the world to-day as never before.

A survey of things as they are bears out this statment.

The welding of the League of Nations into one effective whole, in the interests of the world at large, is one great evidence of this spirit.

The changing attitude towards work is another.

The tremendous speed with which invention after invention is serving to simplify and ease the burden of all kinds of toil is an indication, not so much of an increased fertility in inventive genius, but of an increased interest in their work by those responsible for the inventions—for nearly all improvements nowadays are the result of thought applied to their employment by those directly engaged in the occupation to which the inventions apply.

Until the present century there was more evidence of a reluctance towards work. The idea of it as part of the primal curse was prevalent, and the thought of living in comfort without working appealed as a kind of terrestrial bliss.

In recent years, however, has developed the sounder belief that work can be rightly regarded as a blessing—something to provide a useful outlet for physical and mental energy, from the proper application of which much pleasure and satisfaction is to be derived, not only through the personal adeptness and skill which practice and interested application develop, but also from the knowledge that such work is for the ultimate welfare of others.

At the same time the conviction has grown that a life with “nothing to do” is the most uninteresting of all aspirations.

Certainly, in the railway world, there is plenty to do round about Christmas time. All available rolling-stock has to be prepared for traffic; passengers by the hundreds of thousands in numbers, and goods by the tens of thousands in tons, have to be carried safely and punctually for the Christmas holidays and the Christmas trade.

Special time-tables, extra expresses, rush orders, crowds of passengers, and mountains of luggage make the railwayman's lot a particularly busy one.

But use and forethought have developed, to a very high degree, the standard of efficiency with which these crowded times are met.

And the men who do the work are well pleased to assist in making the holidays of others as happy as possible, for when their own turn comes to take a vacation they will enjoy it all the more from the knowledge of good work well done while “on the job.”

So on we go, full steam ahead, running to schedule and freighted with happiness, into the bright dawn of gay December—the month of gladness.