RANDOM SHOTS

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 46, 23 February 1929, Page 2

RANDOM SHOTS

SHOTS

Says an advertisement: "To Mr. ant] Mrs. X, of So and So, a son, Loth well.' Who is "odd man out?" It is said that the Bluff Road, Invercargill, has "numerous large boulders extending for miles." Only the bolder motorists take this road. Gene Tunney's straight right to tilt photographer looked like biting the banc that fed bim. Perhaps all these yean Mr. Tunney,. like Mr. Crummies, has been wondering how these things goi into the papers. "The essentials of success in thai town," said a speaker at the Grocers Conference in Napier, "are quality service, and long credit—particularly long credit." Nobody, however, is asking which town the delegate referred to, for everybody recognises the Jasl condition. A Southland newspaper, reporting upon hospital improvements put forwarr at the meeting of a hospital board, says: "The board authorised purchases, ineluding £15,000 for junior doctor'! residence, and £12,000 for a maternity block." Even if these figures art reversed the junior doctor promises t( have space to grow in. It is said that 110 longer ago thar last week at a bowling match one oi the played bowls "ran up the bank then up the scoring board, and spur round and round on the top before i 1 fell." A friend says that if he coult depend on seeing bowls behave like thi: ho would take up the game. At preseni he thinks it an inferior kind of billiard! gone to grass. "The human personality is a concrett whole, a complexus. To know it wc must analyse it. fiut analysis is artificial, since it disjoins groups of phenomena which are not juxtaposed, but co ordinated, their relation being that ol mutual dependence, not of simpli siinultaneousness." The above is a passage in a Rotarian address. I begau tc rotate upon reading this, and did nol attempt to absorb a further columr of siinultaneousness published. Tin speaker may be described as a master 0 words. There has been a lot of comment 01 the cable message about the passengei in the Kanowna who "lost £15 and hi: boots." The poor fellow evidently ha< to walk along the deck and go over tin side, barefoot. I suggest that tin message was mutilated—that it shouli read: "£ls in his boots." He put then there for safety while he slept, am possibly lie tried to blow out the electrii light before he turned over. An affrighting picture of the horror: of poison gas has been drawn by Lore Halsbury. He "envisaged attack aftei attack on London at intervals of tw< hours, continuing possibly for two oi threo days. As a chemist, he said, hi was sur& a gas had already been dis covered that was worse than anything used in the last war. It was useless t< rely on gas masks, since a mask thai was effective against one gas was ineffec tiva againt another." And while thi enemy is making "attack after attack" 01 London, the British defenders, of course will be doing nothing at all. • , An Australian racing man thinks thai if New Zealand allowed the bookmakei to work in conjunction with the "tote,' the way of the New Zealand ownei would be far easier. "As the positioi now stands," be says, "it is very hard t< make ends meet in the racing game.' Simply thousands of people, strange t< say, have experienced the same difficulty But does our Australian adviser imagini that the bookmaker's secret desire is t< help the owner? Those who have not been through tin Lyttelton-Christehurch tunnel in a slow train cannot appreciate the joy of tin Canterbury people at the electrificatioi of the port line. "Zamiel" can speal feelingly, for he onee spent twenty-fiv< minutes in the tunnel, in an excursior train packed to the limit and on 1 sweltering summer day. Two persons sat on his knees. Acrid smoke fror. the engine filled the carriage, and liter ally the passengers were near to suffo cation. A suggestion of what we went through may be experienced in tin tunnel between Karangahake and Waihi The old Parnell tunnel used to be try ing at times. There was a time wher the trains were in total darkness, anc curious things happened, especially ir school trains. One high spirited girl attending a secondary school in town leaned across in the darkness to pul the nose of a companion, but pullec instead the nose of an inoffensive middle aged gentleman. He was so horrifiec that ho took his children away fron that school. Now the tunnel is lightec and sport is spoiled.