RANDOM SHOTS

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 23, 28 January 1922, Page 18

RANDOM SHOTS

Among the cable headings this week 1 singled out two —"Pacific Shipping— American Pool Formed.' , 1 trust that our frieivls do not desire the whole of this quite useful ocean for their "puol." trh-tfCrtrirCrlrii There has been very general comment about the ( itv Council securing v onesealer FOKDin Adelaide for the (ramways at a cost of £700. It is pointed out that iive-sruti'rs are procurable ill Auckland at a niiu-Ii lower figure. ■dtttnrtrdiftiti .\ reporter';! idea that a char-a-banc loud of people who wore over-turned into a tangle of blackberry bushes therein , escaped injury should be turned over to the individuals affected for revision. T Uin certain that when physically sufficiently recovered many of these fortunate 'people would desire to sit on this notion. ■ Did you notice the combined efforts of the compositor and careless reader who got off «s a newspaper heading this week -An Cnelinrtcreel Ro<-k" V A sympathetic correspondent who feels thai it is wrong that this particular rock should suffer under Midi an indignity, ask* where charters for rocks are issued and the approximate cost of one suitable for ;i medium .-ized rock near the Kast Toast. "Many n member of Parliament might npijcitr a very important personage to hi- constituency and even to himself." sniil a pulpit ~iator at the beginning of the week. ! see no reason to doubt that in ! lie second portion of tin- statement the reverend gentleman has uttered a trui.-m; Inn why slander constituencies that, have nut articulate voices to say exactly nhni they do think about their m.-nil.ei-V Were if |M..-sil.le t,, -t a runtil iirii.-.\ .- ]...itcd view ~[ \\\ member "imporimu i .•r.-i.rid.i;.-' , is nothing like tin , phra-e ilia! would meet the ca-e. 1 would very nuirii like to sep framed and hung prominently in u;ir Legislative 1 hampers a .-eutciice from Mr. Lloyd licorgc's -pec. h this week to a conference iii I '••ulitioii Liberals. It is to this cllect : "The l.'ss (iovernments interfere with trade the better for trnde and the fiovi rum. in.-."' Jt has taken the great little Wi'Mimiin a long while to discover this lia-ic economic truth, but apparently he i> well ahead, of our own hopeless Administration who blunder from one foolish expedient to another, sinking all the time deeper into a morass of their own making and dragging this unfortunate country with them. For every outrage that they perpetrate against immutable law they blanip the war. and nothing is more certain than that when they finally sink out of sight in the bog there will Moat across the desolation that they have caused tie moan "C'est la guerre.' , So the charming cascades at the back ot Swanson iTre to disappear before the onslaught of a soulless timber company. In place of the ledges and fall* ' over which the water leaps as it sings its way down the bush and fern-clad \alk-y is to be blasted out a channel clown which the lope are to be water homo to the main stream below. I fully agree that the small commercial return that is to he attained by the destruction of one ot t!ie finest remaining beauty spots of ti.e western hills, involving as it does grave danger to our water supply, is entirely unjustifiable; ami 1 lio|h- that some pow.v superior to the spoiler will retrieve this area from the maw of sordid commercialism. Hut if there is to be a n>l k hewn channel down the valley how nliiillt having it constructed, sufficiently smooth to allord a. rivul to the fair,?d .-li.ling rock of Papascn, at Apia. Auckbinders would forgive a good deal for the creation of a new and exciting sport. TTic gentlemen who prefer retaining their .-eats in crowded tramcars are furioilsly incrlisiM with Hie Indies wlio consider that they should surrender them in their favour. (For the purposes of this paragraph the protagonists will in all cases be n ferred to as ladies and gentlemen.l So far (he weight of argument judged hy quantify rests with the gentlemen. They have' been decidedly more prolific in their letters to the lIP-A spa per. It is very evident that the emancipation of ladies and their incursion into all avenues of employment lias engendered a smouldering feeling of resentment in breasts where one would look for only the tenderer feelings towards the opposite sex to have lodgment. Then there are the gentlemen who resent ladies of leisure remaining in the city until the rush hours. These in a measure 1 take it arc those who have developed chronic dyspepsia through the hurried culinary efforts of ladies who rely on the delicatessan store for ready prepared meals or who regard half aii hour with a frying pan and a gas stove as an ample, preparation for dinner. It is a pity that it is not possible to make definite rules as to the rights of the case. An expression of opinion from the Women's Council on the one hand and t!ie Federation of Labour on the other might clear the atmosphere. The confiding nature of the Babu is truly touching. La.xmichaud, Dassabhai and Uros. have written to this paper nsking: -Kindly loan us a file of your paper of the months that contains descriptions of the Royal tour in your country, and also please send us a few of the blocks appeared on the occasion in your paper, which will be returned fo you." Tliis firm is going to issue an illustrated book of the Prince's Kmpire tours, including the one that he is engaged on at. the moment. I like the naive application, but especially do I like the opening of their jolly old letter, which is addressed, 'Dear Brother in Profess-on." It is only fair to say that the service demanded is by no means to be a. gratuitous one. for 1 find this paragraph: "We shall lie very much pleased to present you with a" volume valuing flu when appeared." Some A c'.,aiming little story of a confiding little sparrow is forwarded by a tender-hearted bowler:—"Whilst playing bowls on the St. Holier'a green," he writes, "a sparrow became very in tcrestid in the same. We had*j ju t bowled the first bowl of the head, und it touched the jack. A sparrow flew, down and ran up to t!ie moving jade, and wherj it st-oppod the. sparrow lamped o:,e ineli away from it, and two fed from us. It staved there picking at tne grass until the next bowl came upliien it flew away." Pro'.iably flic lilt'e .-parrow mistook the "kitty' , 'for an that it had been robbed of, and was contemplating hatching it when it was rudely frightened away.