RANDOM SHOTS

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 254, 23 October 1920, Page 18

RANDOM SHOTS

Zamil

Some write a ueightioiifs name to lasto, Some write—vaiu thought— for needful cast, Some write to please lue. country clash Aus raise a din; For mc, an aim I never fasb, I write for fun. " How ever you became a Minister, God only knows!" said the elegant Dr. Thacker tjic- other day of the Minister of Agriculture. Dr. Thacker should rralise that the ways of Providence are inscrutable, and that this applies to members as well as Ministers. "'God made him, therefore let him pass for a man," says Rosalind of a suitor. Substitute "member" for "man" —but perhaps T am getting personal. ********** The Anglican Synod decided this week that the" minimum salary of the vicar of a pariali should be £350, and that parochial districts should "endeavour" to pay a minimum of £300 to their clergy. Lot us hope it will not be a lost rndciu'iii'r. The miner gets as much. The need of an extra .02000 a year to raise tin; stipends of the clergy in the dioccs.- brought offers of £100 and £25 per annum if others would do the same. Why -if"? In the meantime the president of the Synod says he is satisfied them are hundreds of men who perhaps have- not been d"oing what they might and what they ought for tile Church, but who really only want "to be brought to boot to ilo' it." ' Quite so. Some people would use number nines. ********** The .member for Ohristchurch South, one of the Labour party, has had a complaint that the iboys * at the Christchurch High School have not been given a holiday on Labour Day. The complaint must have come from the boye. Of course they would like a holiday on Labour Day; isn't the cricket season juet beginning? It really would be a joke if Mr. Howard thought they had any desire to listen to a lecture on the dictatorship of the protoUiriat. But .Mr. Tarr wisely put hit. foot politely on the suggestion. There are quite enough holidays as it is. When 1 went to school, we we're given St. George's Day and St. Andrew's Day as holiday?, tout 1 could never sec why. The masters may have deserved them, but we didn't. 'Hie significance of the days to us was f imply ~il —except perhaps to boys of Scottish parents who were treated to haggis. ********** From a recent issue of the "Wairarapa Daily Times": "The Rev. D. C. Bates' report for the twenty-four hours from 9 a.m. this day is as follower "Freshening northerly wind, strong to gale. Mild and hazy conditions with increasing haze and cloudiness for an unfavourable change in the weather of heliotrope "eorgette over pale blue.", The Government Meteorologist is to be congratulated on imparting a little more colour to his predictions. There is quite a lot Ito 'be learnt from the woman's column. If Mr. Wragge would follow suit, how interesting Veather forecasting might become. For example: "The low pressure disturbance known as Xmplsspccssz is approaching New Zealand, and will shortly arrive in a costume of purple charmeuse over black crepe-dc-clime, with orange sash and hat to match." ********** The Government has commemorated the arrival of Lord Jellicoe by dropping the lengthy list of the GovernorGeneral's titles in "Gazette" notices. The repetition of the formula "Given under the hand of his Excellency the Right Honourable Arthur William de Brito Savile, Earl of Liverpool," etc. ,etc., through sixteen lines of print, after innumerable proclamations, tinpot and otherwise, has been a feature of the "Gazette." The authorities did not even adopt the device of the curate who, tired of reading out the list of musical instruments, referred to them as "the iband, as aforesaid." But with the advent ot Jellicoe sensible economy comes in. The new style is, "Given under tlie hand of his Excellency the Governor-General of the Dominion of New Zealand, and issued under the seal of that Dominion, at the Government House at Wellington." It is a good thing the old practice departed with Lord Liverpool, for our new' Governor-General sporte rather more titles and decorations than his predecessor. ********** The statue at the head of Wakefield street is once more complete, the branch which the figure held in her hand having been restored. This, it will be remem■bered, was surreptitiously taken away by someone devoid of artietic sense, but 1 have not heard of any prosecution being instituted against the offending vandal. A suggestion was made in this column some weeks ago that electric wires should bo connected with this and other works of art, so that would-be despoilers should sustain a well-merited shock. Instead of this being , done (or some other effective meaure being adopted) a most disreputablelooking wire fence has ! ben put round the monument. The posts supporting/ the wires are at every conceivable angle, and the whole thing constitutes deplorable evidence of the lack upon someone's part of appreciation of the fitne?e of things. The erection may be only temporary, but there it is. ********** I welcome correspondence, but some of it is embarrassing. For example, one reader offers mc some comments on the fumes that sometimes stream out of a motor hearse on the way to the cemetery. He thinks it unseemly. I can only record his objection: "as a rule jokes about funerals are not in my line. In another letter which purports to (be the joint production of about a dozen fathers and mothers, I am asked to write something a/bout "the present attitude of daughters to the mothers who have gently nursed and given their life's work for them." The sone, as a rule, so the letter says, are kind and respectful, but not so the girls. They scold and dictate, and many men are shocked at their 'behaviour. I gather that this is done mostly or entirely when the -'girls" are getting old. Now what am Ito say to this? For all my -correspondents know, I may toe a crusty old 'bachelor. The tragedy of unrequited family affection ie too common, but does not lose any of its poignancy through that. iAs Shakespeare saye, •"How sharper than a serpent's thanks it is to have a toothless child"—l mean — eh, well, I'll let it go at that. My correspondents admit that children are often spoiled, so all I can do is to pass on their opinion in the hope that it may catch the eye of parents who are now making that mistake.