THE PASSING SHOW.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 135, 9 June 1932, Page 6

THE PASSING SHOW.

(By THE MAN ABOUT TOWN.) Dear M.A.T., —It may be of interest to the numerous readers of your column 111 "Star"' to know that the first white ch. born in Wellington is st' u WELLINGTON'S alive and. well in the pcrFIRST. son of Ihomas Tlodgers, who was a leapvear child horn on February 29, 1840, and is now ninety-two years old. Being a Ica P">T* child, his natal day has fallen only on } three occasions.—Firefly.

The dear old gentleman wasn't going to the, races, but he was going that way, ana got on a special tram. A shilling was, as everybody knows, the THE TRAM FARE, official fare, and of course tlie conductor wanted it. The passenger refused "as a matter of principle" to pav the full fare, being told, of course, that he must get off if he did not pay. A Maori, obviously on his way to the hoises, intervened and indeed paid the shilling to the conductor, and the old man, slightly pertui , remained. He apparently thought deeply, -' n( ' takiii"' a florin out, told the Maori he had merely objected as a matter of principle. "That's a bob for the fare," he said, and have a drink with the other bob. lne old. "■entlenia.il, now an object of interest to the passengers, continued his journey and said directly, "Oh, I'll have to get off at Mountain Koad," and stood up to ring the bell. Someone told him that he had passed Mountain Koad about half a mile back and remarked to the Maori as the gentleman descended that lie oii"ht not to have offered to pay the fare, as the old gentleman was quite able to pay much larger sums than a mere shilling. The Maori replied, "Oh, orri, I have a little joke with him. I slip te two bob back in his waistcoat pocket!"

Since Copoy, who won the Great Northern Steeplechase, has owned that he stout for breakfast other moderate drinkers in the domestic animal world A GLASS have admitted (by human WITH ME. deputy) that they, too, are not teetotallers. Elephants, for instance, arc well-known boil vivants, and ancient colonists still tell the tale of the Duke of Edinburgh's elephant, who came ashore at Auckland in the eaily days and drank his way past every hotel on the route, the publicans rushing to the street with buckets of beer to preclude the possibility of the "hathi" entering the bars. The numerous stories of British rustics "shouting"_pots of'ale for plough horses may be taken with a grain of salt. "Doramcd shame to waste ale 011 a 'orse, Garge!" The sudden entrance into the bar of a suburban hotel recently of a large Alsatian dog caused the clientele to grasp their pots, and remarks such as "I don t Tike them dogs" to fly around. The owner, emphasising the point that the dog was as harmless as a sucking dove, persuaded one of the -customers to imprison some biscuits in one hand and to offer the other hand to the kuri. The intelligent 'hound sniffed the closed but empty hand and then gently nosed the biscuits from the hand held behind the man's back. The owner, one of those generous chaps who believes in sharing luxuries with a pal, emptied part of his beaker of ale into a vessel, which he placed on the ground. The dog wagged "Kia ora! Here's luck! Chin-chin!" with his tail and drank gratefully. In fact dogs seem almost human.

Dear M.A.T., —Your remarks about the Duko of Gloucester's liorse at the recent Trooping of the Colour remind me of a similar occurrence over forty DANCING years ago. At the miliTROOP HORSE, tary tattoo, for two (I think) preceding years, a great feature had been the dancing of quadrilles and lancers, and I believe some other dances, by cavalrymen and their horses. It was said that the horses understood and enjoyed these dances as polo ponies understand and enjoy the game of polo. Came Queen's Birthday and the Trooping of the Colour. Half way through a band struck up the tune of "Agnes Sorel," a quadrille, and a horse in a second rank began to dance. He was ridden out of the rank, quieted and placed at the end of his line, but finally had to be ridden pretty well round the parade ground. Then the tune ended, and lie subsided. But later a popular waltz was played, and waltz he would, and did. He was taken to a distantcorner and danced the tune through. Of course for weeks he had danced to those tunes every night in a wide space, ringed by applauding crowds. And he had been greatly praised and petted. Again he found himself in a wide space, ringed by crowds, and those tunes were played. Of course he danced, the dear. And of course we applauded. What the sergeantmajor said we never knew. Those with good sight said that the -Royal party were not the least interested observers. But some who did not know and love horses saw merely a horse who declined to keep still or go straight, and spent most of a colourful hour on his hind legs. I suspect that the Duke of Gloucester and his mount understood each other very well; and that the reporter is only used to motors. I could tell of some wonderful behaviour of police horses in controlling crowds, apparently quite on their own initiative, but you would not believe one, so I refrain. I personally saw the above incident. —M.A.C.

Lieut.-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles, M.P., has paid another tribute to the Australians, declaring they are the finest specimens of manhood in the world. He POST AND RAILS, attributes this superiority of physique and the Australians' undoubted valour in war to the quantity of tea they drink, for they are, as you know, the greatest tea drinkers in the world, New Zealand stalwarts drinking slightly less, and possibly drinking it less black. Sir Walter may have been moved to this tribute to Cornstalk and to tea by the fact that lie lived in Assam for so many years and is chairman of a tea company. The Australian drinks tea because it is easily available, because it is an excellent stimulant, because the pubs .ire so far apart, because it is often hot, and because the art of coffee drinking has not become universal on his continent. If he drank col Tee like the South African or the Turk he couldn't possibly be as good a man as lie is. Might just as well ask for sherbet or pink lemonade. Anyone who has tarried with the Ajvssio in the backblocks will confirm the Assam tea merchant's declaration that he is the world's champion tea drinker. But in that typical repository for the hard-'bitten sons of the sun-swept land, a shearing shed, the worship of tea lasts the day round. The cook, if he knows his job, boils several buckets of "post and rails" before breakfast in the morning. The man who intends to become stalwart drinks a quart or two (well sugared but never adequately milked) at the opening meal The buckets are set on the floor of the wool shed and the tea grows black and dank and bitter as the day goes on. No Australian ever shears two sheep without a. quart or so of post and rails, and., as Sir Walter infers, you can see him swell in' visibly" day by day until he reaches the standard that makes him the wonder of the world. It i s hardly patriotic of the Assam tea man to invite the lesser peoples of foreign lands to drink more black tea and thus become equals in courage, size, stamina and beauty with Australians.

THOUGHTS FOR TO-DAY. sist withnl? l L ' St ,° f rCaSO " t0 Lc a Wc to subsjst without bugbears.—-Hazlitt. pur„osc on sent C T"' W, " Ch Sa - VS ~ This is w itll Oxen ham _ for '"7 cnnoMement.-John <?ri . ticism °"c > s entitled to make i l 'S l ' n- a J', ent onc - tha t of a good example.—ivev. Duisdale T. Youn^