PERSONALITY OF THE WEEK.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 242, 12 October 1929, Page 8

PERSONALITY OF THE WEEK.

With a single exception, Sir Frederick Truby King is the most eminent New Zealarider. He originated and made world famous . . the child welfare system SIR TRUBY KING, of New Zealand, idoiiig both humanity and the Dominion immense good. He has a genius not only for research, "but in application and organisation infects people with his abounding enthusiasm and. sweeps, stuffy • shibboleths, away. He is the son of the late Mr., Tom King, of New Plymouth,, and, with his wellknown brother, Newton King, was brought up in Taranaki. - Was successively resident physician at Edinburgh; and Glasgow Royal Infirmaries and for many years surgeon- superintendent at Wellington Mental Hospital, obtaining fame later at the Seacliff institution. Sir Truby is a scientific farmer and immensely interested in life generally, animal and "vegetable. He has been hard worked and likes it. Hβ has travelled much and has organised the New Zealand system of child welfare in England and the East. He is a penetrating and convincing lecturer, because he has always much to say that is worth the saying.. Indeed no one speaks with the same authority on his special subject. News about foreign thieves should be interesting to us in a country where we already have a modest but growing reputation. It was cabled that the Afghan LAZULI. Minister in London had been deprived of his job and kicked out. Hβ flew to Paris with the swag. He did not get away with four cases of lapis lazuli, Scotland Yard intercepting them, intending purloiners may ask, "And what is lapis lazuli, anyway?. How shall I recognise it if any is lying around loose and it shoxild'be necessary for me to! leave Wellington . suddenly for Reno, or Auckland for the Argentine 1" A scientist tells M.A.T. that lapis lazuli is a beautjful blue mineral made by Nature of silica alumina, sulphur, soda and lime. Some is red, some violet, Some green. Some has spots and some is barred (sounds like a billiard report!) and some is white. No living thief would cart four portmanteaux of raw lapis lazuli about, so the inference is that the Afghan Minister got away with ancient lapis lazuli ware, which is another story. The ancients of Persia, Tibet, China, etc., used to make exquisite vases and other articles of this extremely brittle stuff, and it is the art that is so much more valuable than the mineral. The raw stuff is often ground up to make ultramarine paint. This par has been written Chiefly because lazuli is such a pretty word. It lingers on the tongue. Even the typewriter hates to let it go. A simple domestic incident, imprisoned here more as a warning than an entertainment. The good wife, departed for a two weeks' holiday with general inTHE EVIDENCE, structioiis to Henry not only to be good but not to leave the dirty dishes piled in the sink for fourteen days. . Henry wet his finger and crossed his heart. Naturally, the attractions of the home being fewer, he dallied slightly in town at intervals, returning later thaii usual on some evenings to his desolate home and to those domestic duties he had sworn to undertake in his wife's absence. On the day prior to the wife's reappearance Henry scoured the good old home, polished the linoleum, the crockery and the frying pan. Proudly conscious of being the perfect little husband, he welcomed his wife home with satisfaction, and she, for her part, looked round with pleased surprise. Then she sniffed. Had the drains gone wrong in her absence? Henry investigated with chloride of lime, hot caustij soda and tar products. The olfactory evidence still persisted. Perhaps a rat had. died? Maybe a cat had crawled beneath the house and died? Henry began a complete' organised search of the house. Nothing was discovered. Henry's wife searched, too. On the top shelf of an obscure cupboard she ran her quarry to earth. It proclaimed its presence. It was almost unapproachable. It shrieked its presence to high heaven. Henry was. called. "What's this?" asked the wife. Henry gingerly undid the brown-paper payee!. It contained "a crayfish a fortnight old. '-And you don't remember bringing it home?" she asked severely. "Oh you men!" And she added, "But what I can't understand, Henry, is that you left two full bottles of beer alongside it." :.'Tull ?" yelled Henry. "Oh, what a mug I wasV"