THE PASSING SHOW.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 70, 24 March 1933, Page 6

THE PASSING SHOW.

(By THE MAN ABOUT TOWM.) WHO WILL PAY? Sir Mark Sheldon, of Sydney, speaking of the New Zealand exchange question, asked, "Who is'going to pay for all thie in the end?' —Xews item. I note Sir Mark is wondering Who will pay? After all our blundering Who will pay? In the neck we net the axe, Exchange and sales and wages tax. When Mir losul has broken backs, Who will pay? "Tis a nmttcr makes you think, Who dow payV Some conclusions nmke you Wink — Who does pay? WhPii high finance its duo has got, \nd markets Buffered further rot. And partilnjjK further "gone to pot. * Who w/ll paVT -QUAEKO. On his way to the office yofrterday morning M.A.T. ran into an old friend who came out from the Old Country when the fare wasn't nearly so much as it is SPRAT SUPPERS, now, and he, like M.A.T., had never been able to put aside enough to return. The friend, it appeared, had put in a couple of hours fishing from one o;' the wharves on the other side ol the Waiteraata and collected a dozen or. so sprats. It seemed like old times, he said, I to sit down to a sprat supper, and offered the j opinion that Aucklanders didn't know what a j delightful meal could be made of the little parked around the wharves waiting to be caught. M.A.T. agrees. He has not yet leard of a sprat supper being given in Auekand, but in London they have been organised on a' large scale (this ie not intended for a joke), and at one time the sprat dinners were as familiar as the whitebait dinners at Greenwich. Sir Henry Irving used to give them, with Mr. Gladstone as his frequent guest, so did the late Duke of Beaufort,, and the late Sir John Astley ("the Mate"). George I Edwardes sometimes launched sprat suppers after Gaiety first nights—ar I these were, probably, the last regular occasions. The story about the Maori who thought a whole day had passed while the train took him through the Parnell tunnel because he had gone from darkness t MISSING to daylight, reminds RELATIVE. M.A.T. of the clays when he "did" the courts. There was an occasion in the civil-court when a Maori was the defendant in a claim brought against him for a few pounds for work done. The case promised nothing in the way of "copy," but experience has shown the reporter , that* one never knows. The evidence showed that tho Maori's father, or grandfather, or some ciiich branch rf the family tree, had some ; years previously died and been buried not a j great many miles from Auckland city. The plaintiff, wishing to have his ancestor buried at his native pa, arranged with a local firm. to have the grave opened and the bones packed in a bag or box. This was done, and the Maori,"carrying his dear, though dead, relative, boarded a train, placing his grandfather in j the rack above the sent. Jtot what happened , on the trip did not come out in evidence, but ( the Maori arrived home without his bag and j ancestor. To [wiy for the exhumation then j looked like giving money away for nothing,- ] but the magistrate didn't sec it in that light, , and the Maori had to pay up. t

It was merely a dispute over a piece of ( land, but the two Maori claimants could not i agree, and one of them, Hori, decided to come f to town and see a solici- j BRACE OF BIRDS, tor. He duly arrived and t turned up at the office of a well-known firm, which makes every use of ; such words as justification, provocation, , privilege, ignorance, etc. In reply to his qurs- ] tion, "Are you te rawyer?" Hori was informed ( that he had scored a bull's-eye first shot, and t he then was asked to explain his trouble. ( "Costs" listened attentively and expressed the f opinion that there were good grounds for an j action, but at the same time it would not - be an easy case to win. However, there was .j nothing like giving it a go. Hovi seemed to j be a little disheartened, but suddenly he had ] a brain wave, and aeked, "You know to ( chudge?" "Oh, yes, I know all the judges, ~ but in this case it would be a magistrate, not , a judge." "Well," said Hori, "you tink he s like te prace pheasant?" "Now, look here," } said his legal adviser; "get that out of your ] head at ou<;e. Don't you go thinking about { sending the magistrate any pheasants. If you , do he might have you up for contempt of a Court, and if you sent him a couple of pheas- e ants you would be bound to lose the case." t "Orright," said Hori, "you know te pest." ( "Yes, I know best. Now you go away and j pet your witnesses," said counsel. A few days g later the ease was heard, and, to the delight + of counsel, judgment was given in his favour, j, "Well, it was a hard fight," said the lawyer, c "but we won." "I tink te pheasants won," ventured Hori. "What! You don't mean to tell me you sent the magistrate some' pheasants?" "Yes, he orright," said the Maori. "You tole me if I-sent te pheasants I sure to lose te case, so I put te other feller's name on them." The fact that several New Zealanders have v drawn horses in the Danzig sweepstakes on the n .Liverpool Grand National to be run to-day a will give to the world's I LOTTERIES. greatest cross - country t horse race a little more a interest than usual in Messrs. Forbes , and n Coates' country. Although for many years jj State lotteries have been advocated by ji innumerable people of the Dominion, the ]< Government has not yet fallen in with the n idea and in the meantime thousands of pounds f, annually trickle across the Tasman to „ "Tatts," and will go on trickling so long as C(

there is a chance to win £5000 for an outlay a: of a few shillings, Although lotteries are w illegal in England, it wasn't always so, and 0 it was not till 107 years ago that they were a prohibited. From 15(19 right down to 1826 u they were a regular feature of English life, a) save for a short period of illegality under Qu-een Anne. The Government relied on them for an annual revenue of from £250,000 to £300,000. The first State lottery was "boosted" by Queen Elizabeth herself. She declared by Royal proclamation "a very rich lottery— general of money, plate and certain sorts of merchandise," including considerable quanti- ej ties of tapestry, and all the prizes were displayed in tlie window of Mr. Dericke, the ". Queen's goldsmith, in Clieapside. The worthy * object of this lottery was said to be the repair *v of the harbours and fortifications of the " kingdom and other public works. There were ?' 400,000 lots of 10/ each. At first they sold J ll rather tardily. Thereupon the Queen issued a , second proclamation to set aside "any scruple, suspition, doubt, fault or disliking*" Later *!' she roundly rated the justices of Kent. Sussex, " Surrey and Hampshire, in order to stir them C 1 to greater efforts. The drawing began on January 11, 1509, and continued, day and night, for just short of four months, in a building specially erected at the west door of St. Paul's. By 1707 the Church had gone so far in its recognition of lotteries tliat a Holborn lady who held a lottery ticket was prayed for in the church of that' parish in this manner: "The prayers of the congregation ?? are desired for the success of a person engaged X," in a new undertaking." Ll ° th A THOUGHT FOR TO-DAY T1 * ■ of We have so much to encourage us in the th past; so much to claim us in the present; so by much to hope for in the future, that we can- of not hesitate or lose heart.—Bishop of Durham, ga