THE PASSING SHOW.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 90, 18 April 1927, Page 6

THE PASSING SHOW.

(By THE MAN ABOUT TOWN.) IHve you bought your aspirins for municipal election davr If not. why not? At national elections a citizen who has pt»rbap!« only three names t<i WHO'S WHO? wrestle with will remain in the tent where the anchored pencil lives for half an hour What of the City Council elections? In Auckland there are forty thousand elector* on the roll. For these election* there are sixty-one candidates for the lily Council alone. Imagine the average elector faced with the work of crossing off forty names. It is safe to say that the average citizen doe* not know n-tliiid <'f the women or men hlid-o name* arc *«•! down, m> it i< largely a matter of chance what may happen. A cablegram contain- the information tlir.t Nationalist soldiers in China ate "selling respectable girls for five cents.' . One reniriulterwjili prat it iido Mr. Kip RESPECTABILITY, assertion tha: "Kast is Kasj and We '. is West, and never the twain shall meet." Ik>;. ing the activities of the Chinese ma- '<o iv strieted to Chinese soil. The occurrence of the word "re* pert a Mi" reminds one of an Auckland Supreme < «>nr! case in which there were details not cxarlli suitable to l>e heard by people i< t intimately connected with the case. Mr. Justice Sirin «r made this memorable remark: "I noti<-e that the gallery is crowded with women. The «»-<• before the Court will lay bare some unsavoury details. Resj»ectable women will leave lli Court. Women who arc not respect a tile ma} remain." There was a shuffle of feet while tii<assembled ladies thought it out. Then a f<-\.-rose and left, and later it was shown that the \v holo body of women were rcsp'-ctablc. Not one remained. Meanwhile the ic).orlcrs reduced the story to respectability for home ooiimiiii] • (ion. One reads nowadays without emotion tli..i women members of the National Labour pally are holding a conference at Napier, but it was not long ago that, everj • THE AGE OF body who woie trous.rWOMEN. would rise up and wonder whatever the world wa-h-coming to if a woman took interest in anything except washing, scrubbing, and being a general household packhorse.

When the first New Zealand lady lawyer (Miss Ethel Benjamin) appeared, men diM-'i*>c! this irruption of the fair sex into their field <•! kind endeavour as almost a crime, and dom nobody would l»e without Mies Melville. Humar attitudes change. When Edinburgh made i'« first lady doctors, and they were awarded their diplomas at the 'Varsity rapping ceremony, n;cn medical student* beha\ed towards them like hooligans, and made a memorable and disgraceful scene. Miss Pankhurst (whose picture vuu may have seen in the newspapers) threat en j the Imperial Parliament with a woman Prii. <• Minister. Mm have l>een so constantly put in their place during the pa-st quarter-century that not one of them would protet-t even if they made Miss Pankhurst a bishop. From that to women governor-generals i> but a sho;i flight.

The first of tho Auckland autumn fogs k one of the stock excuses for the worker who arrhes late to work. The harbour is one vast scream. Every little FOGS. eteanicr with an ounce of power hoots like groans and whine*, and people eoming to work have a topic in 'Fogs I Have Known."' Most people, seeing a comparatively feeble Auckland fog. instantly think of London, and what cockneys call a 'London Particular." A real London fog will stop ail trallic .and even conversation. To have to light a match to recognise one's dearest friend is a common experience. Citizens arrive at their work piebald with soot, wiping the condensed atmosphere from their countenances with once snowy handkerchiefs. A fog reminds Londoners that in many of tho old squares there arc still large iron extinguishers over the doors, where the link boys who used to lead people across the streets extinguished their torches. Many of the noblo families who could afford extinguishers have l>een themselves extinguished. Auckland fogs are mainly an excuse f«.r the tired citizen to catch a train, bus or boat ialei than usual to arrive at business breathless with haste and voluble with his adventures. A fog is also a good excuse for a concert o: machine-made noise, which make- lovers of Wagner lo\e him still more. DiscusMiip the clothes of cejebrii ie*. the London cable tailor mentions that Mr. Winston Churchill and Lord Birkenhead are HI-dressed.

and ho thinks '•Galloper" A PENNILESS is untidy because he conPEER. sorts with Winnie. They do knock about a lot together. Not Ion;; since these two celebrities were having a day out together, and took a twopenny bit*. When "the conductor came round to tin"little red-headed Englishman" and asked for his fare. Winnie searched his shabby clothes, but not a single denarius could he -find "Len-J me tuppence. (JallojKT.' , he said, turning towards the Secretary for India. Lord Birkeihead dredged the twelve pockets of his fihabbv suit without result. Neither could defray iLe fares. Churchill whispered to the conductor: "As a matter of fact, old thing, both Lord Birkenhead and I have come out without a beaiI'm Winston Churchill. We will post the fare to your head office."' Then the conductor mentioned that '-feller* a-travellin' on the nod often did that sou of thing." He "ad "eard that 'ere tale before \.. legal argument of the great lawyer sufficed "You jest give me yer addresses." or I'll hard yer over to a slop," he said. Each produced uic card and handed it up. To make the storv complete, it should end that the conductor abased himselt on the floor of the bus but it apiH-ars h« merely ~,11 the cards in his ,K>ck. t without looking at them, and at a stop told his tale to a policeman. The constable happened to know the celebrities by sight, and paid their fares for them. Wonder w a « he nmV Lommissioner* "'" '

People who climbed or motored to the to,, ot Mount Eden on Easter Sundav were rewarded with one of the finest views in the MOTTWT S-niriff a Wor,d ' and °" o»e of thr MOUNT EDEN, finest blue and -old dav* (iod ha* made. But tlranpers and many habitual Aucklanders, whikfeeling m their hearts the of t • scene were often unable to pick out «he ~u l of uiterest. They will later appreciate The action of Mr. Ernest Davis in -i in- a HirV ton-finder for the top of \£ £Zl vZ\*, xv ho know and | ove Auckland are Mi 1 unab e to indicte , o the innuniera le £1, which make this city and it, M irroun«7i •. unique. One is reminded of the exce le 1 that » placed at the top of the Wallace monu nockb"rn St,r,,n? ' ** W of Ha,!This panorama is under pla**. and portionOf it face each way of the compass everv iJ.i - the way, the sw ord of Wallace is there 'Man