THE PASSING SHOW.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 161, 9 July 1932, Page 8

THE PASSING SHOW.

(By THE MAN ABOUT TOWN.) The gentleman who sends in an envelope from the United States addressed "New Zealand, Australia," will, one feels sure, pardon one for being neither asFLYSPECKS. tonisJied, angry nor superior. M.A.T. hadn't the foggiest notion whether Lutzenkirehcn was in Prussia or California before looking it up in the gazetteer. There is the story of the reprehensible ignorance of the Americans. Two war-time Fernloaves found themselves on leave in Now York, where six million people are entitled to forget where Wharekirauponga is. Their hats looked a bit like the Doughboy hat, and a stranger, stopping them, said: "Say, buddies, what State do you hail from ?" The Fernleavcs explained that they didn't belong to "God's Country" at all but to "God's Own Country," and even went so far as to take the American into a bookshop to buy a map. They showed him our land nestling among the waves of the Pacific, and the American remarked: "Say, how do you prevent the tide swamping your country 1" Yet, you know, we object to the term "Australasia," which would be a good lump of land to show to Americans who are ignorant of us. Very likely Americans will etill go on thinking in large pieces, just like the classic Yank did who was travelling on the Cheltenham express, the fastest train in the world. Tlie American was plainly perturbed. The habitual traveller asked him it" the pace was too great for him. "Nope," said he, "but I'm seared the train will run oil your darned flyspeck of an island." PERSONALITY OF THE WEEK.

Mr. William St. John Clarke was born at Waimate North in 1573. His parents, from families addicted to the Church and brewery interests in Hampshire NO. 347. and Devonshire, arrived in this city by the Kobert Small in January, ISG2. He ran about the beach at Paihia, Bay of Islands, and gazed across the mile or two of water to the historic Busby house and Waitangi. Ho came to Auckland and was educated ft the public schools and at Mr. C. P. Newcombe's private school. His working life commenced in the oflice of G. W. Binncy and Sons, wool brokers, transferring later to C. J. Hutchinson, kauri urn in merchant, and then to an English sold miniucr company interested in the Waitek-iU'.ri and Keefiton, Westland, mining districts. , In 1899 he joined the tramways in Auckland on their purchase by the Auckland Electric Tramways Company, Ltd. He is now secretary to the* Auckland Transport Board and also to the Metropolitan Licensing Authority. For two to three decades he has been a yachtsman and may often bo found with a rod en route for Cape Brett find the big game fish. Ho has two daughters going to school.

Xature threw down a hatful of blue and sold days during the week and mitigated the severity of the winter season. One witnessed with joy a bunch of young THE OUTDOOR New Zealanders "seeing SCHOOL. New Zealand . first"—in the playground —and surrounded by as fair a bit of Maorilnnd n<; an old-timer could burn down in a week. The master had drawn with chalk on an asphalt ground the North Island, and it was good to see that children as they walked round the coast took much more interest in this outdoor presentation of their country than if it had been in a book conned within the four walls of the schoolhouse. What could be more enthralling to a boy than a bit of scrunched white chalk dominating Taranaki and representing (with chalk dust for snow) Mount Egmont. To those young citizens of the future who were constructing whares with the materials close to hand it was joy unutterable. The instructor spoke to. M.A.T. of individuality and the futility of blaming a chap for not having the same kind of toppiece you possess yourselves. Takes all sorts to make a world.' For instance, there was the boy who couldn't spell. Xever had been aide, to spell, and. possibly never would be. able to spell. But give him any kind of materials and ho could build you a young bungalow or a topholo Maori whare, showing remarkable constructive ability. One is able to comfort the person who can't spell and feels worried about it by mentioning that Thackeray couldn't spell very well and that other great authors have had their finest works "rendered into printable English by people who couldn't write "Pilgrims' Progresi?" if they were paid a hundred pounds a word.

Here's a picture of Lea Dix and Reg Grange, two hefty Aussics. walking down Swanston Street, Melbourne, on the first lap of a niiie-thousand-mile THE BLUEY. walk. The catch about these walkers who are dressed in clothes smart enough to make a swaginan titter himself to death is that every one of the ninft thousand miles is to be done within Australia—gives you some notion of the amount of spare ground about. Makes one feel that the hikers who do ae much as fifty miles of a walk in New Zealand are justified in the determination to "'see New Zealand first." Reference to the intrepid Los and Reg is merely an excuse to boast that one has oneself done a twelve-huiidred-milo stroll in New South Wales- alone, possibly without the advantage thcs.e "hefty hikers possess in the way of clothes, ruksacks, money and publicity. The difference between swagging it and hiking- it considerable, the swaginan usually living on the hospitnlity of the far-severed settlers and hoping for a "handout of scran" from the station cook as the blistering sun drops down behind the messmate gums. When the predatory swagman is alone the families on stations welcome him with gladness, but when the travellers arrive in droves and deplete the station owner of, say, a bag of flour a night, the welcome is not so ardent. Now Les and Reg in the lovely clothes will probably never be asked by the bose at Wingiwingi to chop half a ton of ironbark firewood with a gapped axe before 1' the cool: fills their tui'kcr bags. Ylv., there's a distinct difference between "hiking" and "humping the bhiey."