RANDOM SHOTS

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 19, 22 January 1916, Page 17

RANDOM SHOTS

Some write a neighbour's name to lash. Some write —Tain thought—for needful cash. Some write to please the country clasS And raise a din; For m-. nn aim I never fash, I wrlie for fnn. "Are we civilised" (we, the British people, I mean)? I am aware that this is a question much easier asked than answered; quite unlike that great question of the day, to which there i 3 but one possible reply—'" Are we down-hearted? —No." A short time ago, in spite of the war, a controversy was raging in a leading London newspaper on the question — "Are we kind-hearted?" While this was

a somewhat tough nut to crack, the weight of evidence appeared to favour a negative reply. For example, a lady told of her experience in a London 'bus, when she unexpectedly found herself without twopence to pay her fare. In response to her appeal, she only evoked cold stares of suspicion from all her fellowtravellers, and the conductor incontinently dumped her down far from her destination, giving her to understand it was lucky for her there was not a policeman in sight. A recitai of her tale to an alien apple-woman at a street stall promptly brought a loan of the two necessary coppers. Xo doubt such things happen every day in the great wicked metropolis. The hardened Londoner looks with a cold, malignant eye upon anyone who happens to be in temporary want; and the more plausible the yarn that is spun, the greater is the suspicion; for the sharpened Cockney intellect is trained to see '• false pretences" in even the most genuine tale of woe. Such a state of things does not necessarily convict a whole nation of lack of kindly feeling. More serious was the statement of a wounded soldier, back from the front in Flanders, who declared that in months of helplessness and pain he met with only one kindly person, in the shape of a Scottish nurse in one of the hospitals. lam afraid there is some truth in the charge of hard-heartedness. We Britons have the habit of steelingj our3elv&j against all kinds of weakness; j we contract the habit of never seeking on expecting sympathetic treatment; by a natural process we cease to be sympathetic- ; and from this to becoming actively cruel and inhumane is but a! step. ! 4*ii*ixi±± To get back to my original query, my doubt as to the genuineness ol Bntisu , civilisation is not due to a conviction that as a people we are deficient in kindness, for we are, 1 be'.ieve, the most benevolent people on earth. Speaking comparatively, I have, no doubt that-we are far ahead of any other race or nation so far as general civilisation is concerned. But there is one aspect in which we seem to fall deplorably short —so much so that we aTe lower than the Germ-Huns, whom it is now the fashion to accuse of being sunk in barbarism. I allude to the matter of respect for law and authority. The free-born Briton rightly refuses to bo dragooned into obedience, as the victims of Prussianism are-, but why should he not develop sufficient intelligence to enable him to render cheerful compliance with laws and rcpilatione made for his good? It may he all right to cry, "Better England free and drunken than England 'ivcd and sober"; but it is palpable one may go much too far in this <-ra;:e for liberty to do as one pleases. The only true liberty is liberty to do what is right; and survly it is right to obey laws and by-laws. xiixxxxxi* One little series of incidents may serve to illustrate my meaning. The Devonport Borough Council recently devoted much brain-power to the framing of regulations ior bathing at the different beaches within the borough; further i labour and not a little expense were! then bestowed on the work of getting these painted in large letters on boards that were erected on "the beaches. The chief of these regulations dealt with the nuisance of offensive masses of j human brawn being exposed, sometimes I for long periods, on the silvery sands j by the seashore. Bathers were warned j that all sun-bathing in swimming costume must cease; they were allowed a "reasonable" time to get from bathing shed to sea and from sea to bathing shed—any loitering would be severely punished, and so forth. Are the bathers paving heed to this reasonable regulation ? Not they. They have so be-1 spattered at least one of the painted boards with mud that the regulations arc almost illegible, and brawny individuals, male and female, continue to sprawl in undignified undress on the burning sands. In effect, they say to the Mayor and councillors: "Your name is mud, and we refuse to be bound by your regulations!" And Mud their ,narae will be if they do not send an inspector along to take the names of offenders with a view to prosecution.

"Zamiel" is not a bit squeamish, be it remembered; he can endure the sight of raw brawn and not get sick; he also believes that sun-bathing should be encouraged as much as sea-bathing; but if a local body in its wisdom rules that the one practice is decent and the other iap't, it should see that the decencies are observed. But the most painful aspect of the matter is the public disregard for authority. Can it be said of people who act as described that they are truly civilised? _ "Si recte memine, quinquae sunt causae •Wbendi." Which was an ancient Roman poet's way of stating that, if hie memory did not play him (false, there were five privileged occasions for getting drunk, or at least for imbibing the accursed thing that steals away one's foraine. What these occasions were r cannot quite Tecall, but presumably any noble or ignoble Roman could rely upon the clemency of the ">beak" if he was able to chow that his 'bibulous indulgence took place under one or other of th« five different sets of circumstances when it was the correct thing, or the excusaMe thing, to partake of tie inebriating cup. An Aucklander -who was up the other day on a, charge of drunkenness had no need to plead the Roman law in extenuation, as he had thirteen other good and ■ sufficient for being overcome. These -wwe: (1) A son-in-law •killed in the war; (2) a daughter

widowed; and (3 to 13) eleven orphan grandchildren. Thirteen was a lucky number for the accused, who was discharged with a sympathetic caution, and left the Court without a stain on his character. May we all have as valid anexcuse when we are overtaken in * liquid fault. £4£££££4** "I ccc by the pa-a-pers" that theren is a worthy denizen of Hamilton who has attained the age of one hundred years, and is entitled to be called a centenarian or a centurion, or something m "cent" —thougli I feel sure it isn't "centipede." This old gentleman, it is reported, has smoked like a furnace since he was at school; he has never sworn ofT intoxicants; he has worked hard and lived on plain fare; he has fought in two wars, and I know not what else besides. By all the rules of logic, he ought to have died a dozen times; but there he is, "as hale and hearty as ever he was." What does it all mean? I decline to answer, lest I should incriminate myself; but the sagacious reader can draw the moral for himself. If he wishes to live to a hundred, he has but to "go and do likewise"—especially enlist for the war! I have heard that people rarely die in Onehunga—the reason 'being that there is so little difference between dying and living in that pleasant but rather drowsy town that most folks quite forget to die. That must be why there was such a rush of applicants for the vacant position of borough sexton, which must be something of a sinecure. Over a score of people were hungering for the honour of howking holes in which to inter or intern their fellow-beings—a queer taste surely. Not being a burgess of Onehunga, I lodge no formal protest against the appointee; but, ac a matter of public and scientific interest, I should like to know why the Council rejected that particular applicant who is a member ot •■the Royal Horticultural Society. Surely a person with experience of plants and "planting" was juet the man for the job. Perhaps they wanted to spare his feelings—so many funerale nowadays have for accompaniment the intimation. —"No flowers, by request." It puzzles most people to find a reason why trade unionists, as 6uch, should object to war or to compulsory service, since industrial war is in their programme and compulsion is the very essence of their methods. There should be no need to waste further valuable I space in discussing the matter, for a manifesto of the National Socialist Defence Committee in England pute the whole ca9e in a nutshell by the declaration: "Every fit trade unionist, not needed for war work, who refuses to enlist is a humbug and a coward." Why Socialists, as such, should be ferocious warriors is another puzzle, which must stand over for the present. 4i£i±i±i±£ Some neutral nations are suffering almost as much as if they were at war. I Norway has got a severe blow by the I great fire at Bergen, which has caused a loss of five and a-half millions sterling, while Holland has sustained eevere losses in men and money by the bursting of the Zuyder Zee dykes. Some pious people will sec in these disasters the vengeance of Heaven upon those countries for holding aloof while little Belgium, gallant Servia, and heroic Montenegro were being crushed by the Huns. Certainly, Holland and Norway (the former particularly) have nothing to pain from German friendship; for if the Kaiser wins in this war, he will seek to grab all Europe. Why. too, should Denmark remain stolidly neutral, when she must know that she, no less than Holland, is marked for "annexation" by Ger- ] many? When a judgment from "above; falls on Denmark, I may be prepared to give some weight to the theory of vengeance from Heaven falling upon neutral nations. **£*££ii±* A young lady, signing herself "Hopeful." sends mc two sets of verses, with a plea for merciful criticism, if they are not worth printing. She aspires to have something from her pen published in the "Star"—if only "for fun." One of the poems, headed "Edith Cavell," is a touching tribute to the martyred nurse. The sentiments are noble and the composition correct: but the verses are sadly marred by inversions of phrases and sentences, as in the lines— From those who of the ways of mercy none Save Death had known, yon men distressed did cuide, With tended hurts, to safety's path.

That sort of thing spoils the best sentiment. The other effusion, "Give the Girls a Chance," runs' more naturally The substance of it is in the following verse:— c

To join out friends and khaki; Our buttons how they'd shine! And joyous we"d go sailing Across the raging brine To join our friends and brothers In Dardanelles or France; So stand aside, yon "slackers." And give the girls a chance!

The above is only printed (as it doubtless was written) "for fun," as n o one would seriously entertain the idea ot sending girls to the battlefront. "Hopeful may live in hope of producing fair