THE PASSING SHOW.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 31, 7 February 1928, Page 6

THE PASSING SHOW.

(By THE MAN ABOVJT TOWN.) The milkman is that creature who wakes you at five a.m. to ask you in an ominous tone just why yo* did not leave the billy out. If you did leave the billy THE MILKMAN, out he wakes you just the same by slamming the front gate. However, one should sympathise with him. He was probably up at "two a jn., seeking elusive bovines with a storm lantern. If he is extra vicious with your gate, one of the cows may have kicked the milk pail over. It happened in a provincial town which boasts of a club upon which the blessing of a charter in terms of the Licensing Act had not been bestowed. He THE was a prominent citizen LOCKER HABIT, and was found late one night in the private box lobby of the local post office. His head rested dejectedly upon his hands, the door of his private box was open and a bunch of keys dangled from the lock. '1 say, old man, what's the matter? Anything" happened?" asked a friend who happened upon the scene. "Anything happened!" responded the dejected one thickly. "Anything happened! Some blighter's been and taken my last bottle!" It is not so long ago that popular music hall taste was caught by that inane ditty, "Where Do Flies Go In the Winter Time?" Perhaps these muchMISTAKING swatted insects have only THE SEASON? now realised the import of the query and have decided to forestall man's inquisitiveness as suggested by the vaudeville comedian, or perhaps their behaviour this summer may be ascribed merely to the shock of a new climate. Certainly, despite the unusual heat, the housefly is far less of a pest this summer than he has been for many years past. Housewives throughout the city and suburbs have noted the fact, and those sticky papers that delight baby and bring forth curses from father are not at present a quick-selling line with storekeepers. Old Rangitoto, No shillin' photo Thy wondrous beauties can e'er portray. This is what the Auckland poet laureate of another generation wrote. Dr. A. W. Hill, director of Kew Gardens, paid a visit to the island yesterday, all for A BOTANICAL the reason that botanical"GOLD MINE." ly the rocky and familiar place is the richest field for exploitation in New Zealand. .Most people who go on an excursion there walk to the summit and admire the panoramic view of Auckland. But the true botanist likes the lower levels. There is a fern which grows on a bare rock, a very ornamental thing that would languish were it shifted to a hothouse.

As M.A.T. has said before, every New Zealander knows all about every other countrv, but the lack of knowledge of this hub of progress abroad is fairly TRAIN TO astounding. Just to give NEW ZEALAND, a few instances: It was stated at the Old Comrades' dinner in London recently by Dame Meriel Talbot, and the statement was enough to raise merry 'ell in the High Commissioner's Office, that a man inquired at the Comrades' Office how to reach New Zealand from Australia by train. An Englishwoman, asked what part of Canada she had visited, replied, "Mexico." A high official, the speaker added, recently told a Canadian who wanted tickets for the enclosure at Ascot to apply to the American Embassy!

Botany is an ancient study, but even those vho have spent long and laborious years in reading Nature's mysteries have touched hut the fringe of their BEYOND subject, It is to their THE VEIL, eternal credit that they admit it. Dr. Cockayne, who, by years no less than by pre-eminence amongst New Zealand botanists, was the "grand old man" of the party which conducted Dr- A. W. Hill, director of Kew Gardens, to the Waitakere Ranges on Sunday, stooped to pluck a. tiny root of the common water fern. "There,he said, "is a small, simple plant. It looks bui little, but if we understood one-half of how it grows and what composes it we should be nearer God." How beautifully was the same thought expressed by Tennvson: Flower in the crannied wall, I pluck you out of the crannies, I lo '! 1 , y ° u here, root and all, in my hand. Ll ttle flower—but if I could understand What you are, root and all, and all in all 1 should know what God and man i«

There is going to be another big korero in the north, this time to discuss hygiene and other matters of interest among the natives. TP mr ~n i)l, D n Th . e Minister of Health is TE BIG KORERO. going to be present, also ~ , . , Tau Henare, M.P. This calls to mind a former big korero. It was about sixteen years ago, when the northern -Maoris were seeking someone suitable to voice the claims of the Xgapuhi in the Halls of Ponekc. The tribes of the north gathered. Hon made a speech. Hone came next, and then , ir emu had a say. They were all lons-winded likewise those who followed them. "For two weeks the men of the north argued. There was no linality. Then the komiti wahine took a hand. The Hones, Horis and Wiremus were evicted from the meeting place. The laro- c «t wahine selected Tau Henare, and that wa s "the * °ii 'f' • *-' a i er ' w hen Tau Henare was safelv installed in Poneke, they counselled him to 'stand on one foot and then on the other" It was merely a way of advising him to assume an independent attitude.

tt sends along a good suggestion. He says that in England tliey have founded a Road Fellowship League, an off-shoot of the MnTnorrcc ~?^* v First Association. MOTORLESS The object is to teach LH/AviUE. consideration in travel aud btiild up a community of people who will take the road in a cautious and mannerly way. The league is open to all who walk and ride, as well as to all who drive, and the pedestrian who signs on and wears the badge will thenceforward have a claim to be considered no menace to the road hog. It is true that the walker is often the victim of his own carelessness, and it is not certain that the feelings of absent-mindedness can be cured by the signing of papers or the wearing of a badge. Xor is it certain that the fixing of a triangular emblem on cars of such owners as are avowed to virtuous driving will greatly protect the public. If a man is drivinspeedily where speed is criminal it will little avail his victims later on, if learning is still possible, that he was one of the However, leagues, like men, must be judged by their works. "Motorless" savs that* a branch of the league should be 'started in Auckland, where there is a wide scone for such useful work. THOUGHTS FOR TO-DAY. Table talk, to be perfect, should be M-cere without bigotry, differing without discord' sometimes grave, always agreeable, touching on deep points, dwelling most on seasonable i ones, and letting everybody speak and be heard.—Leigh Hunt. • • • • With malice towards none, with charity for all. with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right.—Abraham Lincoln.