RANDOM SHOTS

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 36, 10 February 1917, Page 14

RANDOM SHOTS

Bom* wrltt a nelthbetn , '* niiM t» Uih, Some write—rain thought—for ■aeVal cask Som* write to please the country elaah Aad raise a din; Far mc. an aim I ncrtr faih, I write for fan.

The event of the week baa been the covering up of President Wilson's typewriter. That much-banged instrument is to have a rest; for the President has taken his gun down from the wall and is preparing for the worst—or, as some good Americans would say, the best. The newH was received here with much satisfaction, but not nearly so much as there would have been had the President taken the same stand when the Lueitania was sunk. The nation, as well ac the individual, who has to be goaded by innumerable insults into fighting, doeo not command much respect. It wae curious to notice the doubt expressed up to the laet moment as to what the President would do. I believe one could have got even money on his backing down. By the time this reaches my readcre America may actually be at war, to be followed perhaps by Holland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Spain. Soon we may find it worth while to give prizes in our schools for correct lists of the countries at war with Germany. IZZZTXZZZZ It was probably a surprise to some of the Southern members of the Farlia- ; uientary party in the North to find tihat the Far North wae quite civilised. When an M.P. from the South confesses that tie need to think the Far North was practically a barren waste, one may imagine what other people, with inferior facilities for obtaining information, and perhaps inferior intelligence, thought about the country. One has to live in the South to realise what ignorance of and indifference to the North there is down there. Some of our visitors may have felt as Mr. Balfour and other Ministers did in "P.C.G.'s" cartoon in the parly days of the Boer War. "I say, \rthur," said one Minister, referring to the Beers' successes, "they've actually 'ot horses." "Yes, and guns too," said another. I quote from memory, but 'hat ie the gist of the thing. So gentlemen from the South found that they could get comfortable beds in the North, md bathe, and that there were sub *tnntial and even artistic houses up thpre, and cultivated aa well as hoepi table hmrta, and that sometimes there van fltrtrlc light, and that in most places there. wsre telephones. Leaving nut of account the Herekino experience, ■•'hich was not on the programme, most of tri« party had comfortable quarters every* night. Southern wives who m»J hni-f been anxious for their husbands' welfare In this far and rough land, and even fearful leat they should come to hnnn among its bushrangers and cannibals','have had their illusions removed. ********** The telephone, the motor-car, and the motorJaunc-h are lessening greatly thr isolation of the country: The telephone bae been extended into 'remote parts ol the North, and the Parliamentary party had practical experience of its usefulness in annihilating distance and saving time. The experience of the "Star" nrreppomlpnt m*y be cited. Thifi car .roke down many miles from anywhere of importance, and it was inVpoasfble to repair it on the spot. Moet of the other ■ars were far ahead. Close by wae a '■omestesd to which ran a telephone .vire. Within a few minutes those in the car were in coimnunicatioii with fchp iiext stopping-pi ace of the Parliamentary rrarty, and arranged for a car to be sen! back for them. A little later the owneof the car rang up Whangarei, eighteen miles away, and arranged for a car and mechanics to be sent out to the seeno of the accident. The stranded travellers blessed the inventor of the party wire system. Without a telephone it would have taken hours to have done this busi ness. Aβ an example of the usefulness of the motor-car may be mentioned the rtiep of a doctor in a township a long way north of Auckland. He told one of hie guests about ten o'clock one morning that since breakfast, which he had had about half-past six or seven, he had done a twenty-mile round. With a horse it would probably have taken him most or all of the day to do this. As for launches, one wonders how the people on a harbour like Hokiansa lived without them. They use them there and in otherplaces like gondolae. In the old days it must have been a case of sail or oar, with rather more oar than aafl. ********** The German Ue about the British misnee of hospital ships may have another purpose besides preparation for attacks' on those ships. It is probably part o/ the Government's persistent attempt to deceive the German people ac to our hold on the sea. That the EnglieL. use hospital ships for the transport of troops is proof to the German mind that Ger|man submarines have made the §ea unsafe for ordinary transports. Mr. Curtin, the American journalist who spent ten profitable months in Germany, found a general belief that we abused the red crosa in this way. " Argument with Germans about England and the English character produces no result. If you tell them that London is not half in ruins they do •not believe you. If you ask them to explain why it is that the EngHsh troops arrive in France through the German submarine blockade they reply: ■ They travel in hospital ships—everybody knows that." . This chows the innate stupidity of the German. Fancy any sensible' man believing that for over two years Britain has maintained communication with her huge army abroad by means of hospital ships. We find German officers, who are presumably men of education, convinced that submarines work havoc with our Channel service, and fearful lest they should be torpedoed on their way to England as prisoners. We British people have made grievous Tnistakes about other nationalities, including the Germans, but we never, even in the foolish days when the war wm young, were so stupid as these Germane.