ANDOM SHOTS

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 58, 8 March 1913, Page 18

ANDOM SHOTS

ANDOM SHOTS

Some write a neighbour s name to lasb, .-..mc orlte—vain thought—for needful cash, ' Some write to please the country clash. | And raise a din. .1 I'or mc. an aim I never fash— I write for fun. ] WW****** I You hardly pick up the paper of late ' without reading of some tradesman or i farmer placing his financially-involved 1 affairs in the hands of .the Official As- ' eignee. Here again we have a text for a sermon on the fruits of this age of c extravagance. It will be noted that in ' most of these cases a spirit ot" optimism ! prompted the contracting of liabilities I without any adequate personal capital i or backing. The cheerful outlook that • will permit of a man attempting to es- ' taiblish a business, und at the same time ' acquire a motor-car. all ontirelv without ' capital, is a form of disease "that too < many of us are suffering from, though i in most cases probably not in quite °o virulent a form, increased expenditure : on -luxuries, the depletion of reserves, ( and the mortgaging of every available ' asset, are all the children of a sham : prosperity, and their inevitable fate is ' to be deserted by a weakly mother, and ' left to put up with the" buffets of a 1 world that requires gold, and not pro- ' mises, as the price of existence. ■ 1 ±_:_:*4±±± , So thoroughly am I in accord with the ' wise ones whose voices have lately been raised in this community against personal extravagance, that I have be- ; come an apostle of economy. I shall ad- ( vocate in future in this column every < method of saving money that I think of, < or have suggested to mc, always provided, of course, that any such scheme ' does not interfere with my own pet : methods of squandering my princely journalistic income. For instance, the ' bill to be introduced into Congress by a ' !Mr Benyon, of 'Massachusetts, for the compulsory wearing of aluminium hats ■by all adult females has mv heartiest endorsement. Mr. Benyou claims that the hats could be bent into the shapes -prescribed .by the latest dictates of fashion, and would last a lifetime. The subsequent saving, he declares, would be not less than £60,000,000 a year in America alone. It is part of the scheme that the hats shall be provided by the State to every young woman "when she attains the age of military indiscretion." i£±4±i444± An estimate has been made that women spend ten times the amount on their personal adornment that men do. And I think it fair to state that this calculation is not the work of the fearless writer yho declares that modern girls of about twenty have the brains of a hen, combined with the ambition"'oF a Napoleon and the vanity of a Nero. Possibly in this enlightened country the discrepancy in man's and woman's dress bill is not so marked as in a land like the States, where the wives and daughters of the plut. class rival each other in squandering money in a way that would have staggered Solomon in his most prodigal days. Still the average woman spends much more money even here than the average man. Drapers tell mc that articles so expensive that they would never have thought of stocking them half a dozen years ago now find ready sale. Here is a running stream of extravagance that I, for one, am prepared to see dammed, and I offer the suggestion of the aluminium hat as a first contribution towards so desirable a consummation. ±_±_±±±±±& You have only to state a proposition seriously, no matter how impossible it may be in reality, for it to receive an attentive hearing. The delicious proposal for a. yacht race between. Auckland and Sydney is a concrete example. If Auckland and Sydney yatchsmen had the 'boats, if they were wealthy enough to afford it, and if they had the leisure, ipossibly the inclination for such, a Homeric contest might be nurtured. But as they have none of the three essentials named it is idle to attempt to light the beacon of enthusiasm. True, a yacht has sailed from Auckland to Sydney, bet under jury Tig, and yachts can hardly be regarded as racing under such conditions. Then the Sovereign of the Seas—cutter of notorious association —carried tme escaping Caffrey and Perm across the Tasman Sea. But these isolated instances of the safe passage of comparatively small craft are an illfoundation upon which to build. I can see in ury mind's eye the most experienced local yachtsman .watching for the breaking day, after days of fresh westerlies, nothing but heaving billows around, and not a spot of land in sight. Talk about "A Hopeless Dawn!" -T"T"T*-i--T--T"T"T"T"T* 'Harbour Boards twenty years ago were apparently equally as lavish with loan moneys as is our local Board today. "Ariel," in the "Dunedin Star," recalls a skit that was perpetrated in the height of Gilbert and Sullivan popularity on the occasion of that redoubtable , member, the late Mr Fish, introducing a loan bill in the House. In appending it, I recommend its careful consideration to open-handed Auckland members controlling harbour finance: Mr H. S. Fish: I am the member for Dunedin South. Hon. Members: And a right good member too! Mr Fish: You are very, very good, and, be it understood, I've a little Bill to do. 'Tis to bone another loan for the harbour that we own, And improve with e-con-o-anee; Many thousands have been' lent, We have all those thousands spent, Yet we never throw the money in the sea. Hon. Members What, never Mr Fish: Haa-dly ever. Hon. Members: They hardily ever throw ihe money in the 6ea! J . rThen vote this loan, this one l<sa n more, tt beio_J. mC>ms,lmay g ° Where it ' !W —^