RANDOM SHOTS

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 156, 1 July 1916, Page 14

RANDOM SHOTS

"ZAMKtI

Some write a ne.'ghbcur's name to li* Some write—vain thought—for neeflfnlSi, Some write to please the country And raise v din; " . For m-, an aim I never tub, I write for fui;.

It is very gratifying to cfceerve'io, quickly Ireland has resumed her state of normal calm, after the exciting everti of a few weeks ago. Mote pleasing "stiu is the fact that contending parties apnea, likely to agree to a compromise on the Home Rule question that -will satisfy tho Nationalists, while at the same time it will be acceptable to loyal Ulster, i devoutly hope that we have now ee«a the last of Irish, "risings" and "rebellions," and that Erin will in future merit the title of Isle of Sainte. Xbie appelij. tion reminds mc that General .Maxwell, whose prompt action made the IftJ Republic impossible, oas really toi* pleted the work of St. Patrick. Ireiand is still our "sister isle," And not the Kaiser's Cousln-Gernai Saint Patrick rid it of the snakes; Now Maxwells rid it of the vermin! Daylight saving, now so popular ia claimed to be a "Yankee notion." ia .American newspaper recalls the feet that, when Franklin visited Paris in 1784. he one night omitted to close tie shutters of lu3 bed-room, with, the result that lie was awakened early in the morning by the sunlight streaming in.':Lj his deliberate wa)-, good old Ben cogitated over this, and finally reached the conclusion that people should get out o! bed at daylight. Eleven years afterjiis Paris experience, lie wrote to & newspaper in that city, narrating the and adding:— "If it had not been for this incident, 1 wouJd have slept six hours longer, while the sun was giving its light freely; and, •accordingly, in the evening I would -have lived six hoars longer by candle light This kind of light being much mere expensive tnan sunlight, I made a few calcnlations. and fonnd that the Citj of Parii alone wonld save 96,075,000 pounds of wax, tallow and oil by using the light of'the sun dnring the six summer months instead of candle light." It took Franklin only eleven years td evolve a scheme for altering the clocki, but it has taken the European EAiaons 132 yeare to discover the advantage of his plan, and adopt it, for the purpose of saving money. It was only the explosive power of a great war that, so td speak, made an opening in the skulls ol the law-makers of the Old enabling them to receive the new idek After tii is, we must all agree, with thit other great Yankee, James RuseeO Lowell, that "Civilisation does get fon-ft, . Sometimes, upon a poroler-antT* ; XTIXTxim A new piece of music 3mb leeched (Auckland, 'bearing the gßrwino title, "Little Billy Hughes." The Commonwealth.. Premier-has *t »se stride placed himself among the. immortals. He wm little thought of in Australia until 3w suddenly resolved to go Home and fin off acme, speeches that had fallen rather flat on this side of the world. Then- to was lionised by the newspapers, patted. and petted by the notables, and almost worshipped as a demi-gpd 'by the people of his native Wales. He recently!.at> tamed the dignity of being discussed, denounced and ridiculed in the German) newspapers; but the culminating gtorjj is being immortalised in song as 'Tittle Billy Hughes." I almost tremble to think of what may happen, to our New! Zealand representatives who are shortly to visit London. Will they ibe lionise and idolised, as Mr Hughes hae beeni Shall we have Germans abusing Sit James Carroll for his fire-eating orations? And—most Itorribile of all—sbail we have a popular aong arwltiTig the doings of "bonnie Jamie Camotf , ! Soberly, I quite anticipate that Si? James , oratorical graces wSI capture the hearts of the British, people and nnJfe them wild <with enthusiasm; but, for the rest, I hope we shall be spared the othet inflictions I have referred to. ********** Reverting to Mr. Hughes, I notice-*! English paper states that " the ehfet quality of Mr. Hughes' speeches to colour. The man lends colour +o everything he touches. His mind is kaleHo , scopic in the best sense." In otter words, he is a roan of many huee! Tbia reminds mc of what a poet once saifc— "Though brightest hues the peacocW plumes adorn, _■■ a Yet horror screams from Ma dtecordw* throat." It is a fact that, in the bird weft the plain-plumaged are the best songsters; but perhaps this does not eppfy to mere men. However, Sir Alesaud* Peacock, Premier of Victoria, (bas'soiae Tight to complain of toeing accused**? uttering the "discordant" notes-cob , tamed in the following extract front the Sydney "Daily Telegraph":— The Premier CSir Alexarater Pe*e*J said that many years ago, when the won* rang with the atrocities of Turks, ■Bβ* Dr. Parker startled the whole world -wj»A in a. fiery address on those awful atrocttn* which were visited on the Chrtethms, » cried, "Dod damn the Sultan!" Now, WMB they heard of the cruelties and Iwj: scribable sulerings which had been visitto upon the innocent people in order to sansiJ the ideas of one man, they conld aWt "Kod damn the Kaiser!" Mr. Hughes never said anything of B&h a Jurid colour as that. tt±iii4*±± I saw a patent cleansing material advertised in an Auckland shop window the other day as a "Greece Exterffiiß*tor." It is supposed that the Allies had laid in a stock of this wonderful stuff, and that a knowledge of the fart_ brought King Constantine to fcisi senseProbably there will be a good Heal of " Greek Fire" about the approaching elections in Constantine's country. *i±iii±i*i The combined cruiser and Zeppeß l bombardment of Norfolk and Suffolk i» April last must have been a rather ternfying performance for nervous people to endure, but surprisingly little damage was inflicted. In the list of casualty gravely recorded in English papers I o" - ---serve the statement that "twenty """ nips were completely destroyed" by bomb that exploded in a field, .wMle_-» another rural district where a bomb »« the people slept through it all, » n * a hen turkey was so little disturbed tbM &he allowed herself to be roasted to death while sitting on her nest in **" vicinity of a haystack that was set on fire by the bomb. There ifl eomethu>3 peculiarly stofid and British about W* turkey.