RANDOM SHOTS

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 25, 29 January 1921, Page 14

RANDOM SHOTS

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The Dunedin profiteering cases furnish an exception to the old saying that a rolling stone gathers no moss. The stone—in the shape of a quantity of cloth —started to roll from the inanu- I facturers, and was then seven shillings, j But the time, it had reached the I'onaumor it amounted to twenty-one Hliillinga. Quite an appreciable amount of Moas. •H-H-M-H-M" It id proposed aa one of the items of t.hat weird industrial policy known an "job control," that ship •>• 'wardfl should give food intended for thu third class to tile balooa passengers, and vico vcrwi. Judging by some saloon paeee.ngora one : has known or heard of, tho change improve them botli physically, mentally, i and morally. It would be good for conic ! of them to know bow "the other half" j lives. A more feeble defence than that put ' up by tho Chairman of thu Harbour Hoard against the criticism that aeked for sympathetic consideration of the , proposals for a harbour /or pleasure, j boats 1 don't believe I have ever read. ! That it- was considered to select from letters that the Hoard had solicited from tho yacht clubs just such portions as were complimentary to tho public body concerned makes one fairly BBRp. The letters should cither liavn been piveti in full or the matter let discreetly drop. Tho course adopted could only make the Hoard appear ridiculous. Outside providing areas for yachts and launches to anchor ill, at no expense to itself, erecting a dozen boat shede tho monopoly in which h:is long been a scandal among boating men, anil a jetty at St. Mary's liay. it i* honestly difficult to see what the Harbour Boird has done that would not have been necessary if no privately-owned .pleasure craft existed. I I heard an unkind person Bay tinOther day that there was quite uu easy way out of tho difficulty over Mr. Maaspy'fl land that is Wanted for a j Hchuol. The need is a public one, and Mr. .Masßcy viglitly dix-b not want U< present critics •; ith ammunition for us., ugainst iiicxTf; the course is tiimpk-; Mr. Massey should resign the Premiership. But, Borioualv, Mr. Massey will have the sympathy uf many in the posi- | tion in which he is placed. The disposi tion of some folk to put the worst con- , struotion on every act of a public man peerns to be incurable. If llr. Massey had consented to supply the need and taken a fair market price for his land, j the transaction would have been rharao- : terised in some quarters as a disgraceful | job. The curious thing is that some of I the people who are ready to impute the ! worst motives to a public man probably join in the lament that so few of the beat men take up public life. It does not I seem to occur t<> them that one reason I why such men shrink from public life is , that t<»o often public office is a pillory. I and the occupant is a tarpet for all sorts , of missiles, from mud and stones to dead | I cats. I The Mayor of Takapuna in a U-ngMiy I '■ ami rather involved letter, ex-presses the I opinion that "Zaniiel" has had his leg ] i pulled both "sadly and badly" over the ' j sun-bathers. I gather that the ugly tin I shed, the property of the council, is on Takapuna, not Milford, Beach, and this, las fur as 1 can find, is the only par- | ] tieular in which last week's paragraph ' was inaccurate. Among loan proposals, which unfortunately will take a very j considerable time to mature, commodious bathing houses are contemplated at both ! the magnificent beaches that the borough j boasts, and in the interval there is a suggestion that something may be done in the nature of free municipal shelters at Milford to take the place of what ■the Mayor dubs "the unsightly little ' bathing conveniences that already sqmit J crab-like on the sands." On the subject Io: the decency and desirability of promiscuous -sunbathing Takapuna's chief magistrate and "Znmiel" do not fiee I altogether eye to eye. "So far as I myself 'am concerned." he writes, '"sunbathing ! shall exist on our benches: we have, two j inspectors and a local policeman, strict I bv-law-s a-s to Kit'Mng postimiP. proprieties, etc.. etc.. bo that if the inspectors faithfully carry out their work none but those of a debased mini! could be offended. Takapuna Reach, on a fine Sunday morning, is a picture of pure loveliness and peace. Families, father, mother and children, bathe and bask for hours in Coil's nir and sunshine, clean, sweet and wholesome, and I .sincerely pray that the dreadful microbe of fanaticism may never spread its disease into the hearts and minds of the makers of our by-laws, and wipe away one of our greatest and healthiest pleasures.'' The serious man on the ferry-boat laid down his paper with the air of a preacher giving out his text. "I see," he said, "that the senate proposes to lengthen the medical course from five years to six. That is a. capital idea. Five years was fixed as the. course, years afro, when much less was expected of the doctors than now. Since then medical science has been greatly widened. We know so much more about the bac- . tcria-l origin of disease and the influence of mind on health, great strides have been made in the science of public health, and enormous advances in surgery." "I suppose that's true." said a man nearby, getting in his words with si lightning-like thrust, "but I cling to Mr. Doolcy's dictum, that if the doctors opened more windows and fewer patients, \it would be better for the world." The ! preacher s :lv0 him the tail of a cold. . disapproving eye, but did not deign to I reply to his flippancy. "In short, he . wont on, "the modern practitioner (he ■ let the word linger lovingly round his , tongue) is expected to be a physician, a surgeon, a mental healer, a scientist [ and a psychologist all in one." , "Judging by his charges," said a third , man, sotto voee, "Tie also seems to have been trained as a plumber." A fourth man with a mischievous eye ; struck in. "Did you," he asked, "ever . hear the story of the two doctors, A and ,B? Said Ato B. 'What did you ojieratc > on Brown for?' 'Fifty pounds.' replied B. - 'But what had he got"?' asked A. 'Fifty i pounds." said B." . The serious man got up and walked > to the side to look at the Chatham. "The upshot v.ill be," remarked a fifth i man, "that we shall have to pay more ,- money for our appendicitis and our measles."