THE PASSING SHOW.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 234, 3 October 1931, Page 8

THE PASSING SHOW.

(By THE MAN ABOUT TOWN.)

New Zealand people are not notable collectors of antiques. The thought:, is born of a slight local incident. An anxious citizen stood in the corridor of THE ANTIQUES, a congeries of officials staring patiently at a door. On it was pinned a card, "Back in Five Minutes." Like Mr. Pickwick's message to Mrs. Bardell, "Chops and tomato sauce," there was no date to the document and the gentleman told M.A.T. that lie had been already waiting for the ticket writer for forty-five minutes. It subsequently transpired that the tenant of the office had been on a business tour of the South Island for three weeks, having merely forgotten to remove his misleading pasteboard from his outer oak. Lists of other antique documents thronged through the mind, and particularly those frequent local body notices that have remained untouched since the dear, dead days of horse traffic, in some cases signed by officials who have_ either been superannuated or have gone to their long home. It says a good deal for the decency of citizens that they let an antique notice referring to Seddonian days rot on its pole on the supposition that public literary expressions are sacred. There was the case of a fruity old board which used to inhabit a pole at the foot of Wellesley Street. The document had been affixed by the State to direct the paying public to one of the State offices. For years and vearsithe painted hand which was a part of the notice pointed the wrong way. until M.A.T. had the insolence to draw attention to its misleading qualities. One feels that one has not lived in vain.