THE PASSING SHOW.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 196, 21 August 1933, Page 6

THE PASSING SHOW.

(By THE MAN ABOUT TOWN.)

Pea cultures, noting that spring lamb is already available, will put their best feet torward, and mint cultivators wi .look with anxiety to their beds. It SIGNS OF is intimated by the prose SPRING, poets of daily literature that Blenheim As already feeding Wellington with lambs, whose .little lives Spon the breezy hills of Maryborough have been so brief: And it occurred to one as one passed a steaming calf skin hung carelessly on a fence this morning that no one ever bursts into poetry about a new born and freshly slain calf, especially if it is a ■bull ealf. Cruel commerce, artificially stimulated, demands the instant death of the larger proportion of bovine new-comers, so that the milk bucket may bo full and the spotted cow childless. At this time of the year the air is blatant with the anguished cry of spotted mothers who have hardly noted the presence of. the latest tribute to Nature before the farm hand eliminates it. In a human world, equally artificial, similar interference with the balance of the sexes would have a remarkable bearing on the future of tho race. «NQ doubt scientists who hope to set the world right have often viewed the young human newcomer in the light of dairy farm science.

, ' Dear M.A.T.,—When the members of a collegiate senior Rugby team on Saturday night were having a dance 'they heard that a number of the Hawke's Bay

CHIVALRY. representatives were guests at a house party in their district. Electing not to catch' the final bus home, they collected most of the remaining boys, and, calling at the home in question, lined up and gave three midnight cheers for the southerners. T,his will be recognised as a fine sporting tribute towards the vanquished enemy, who had nearly brought off a spectacular victory at Eden Park, especially as those young seniors of to-morrbw and representatives of the future —some of them perhaps All Blacks—had then to walk from two to four miles to their own homes. This jubilee spirit in the year of the Auckland Rugby Football Union's half-centenary' celebrations indicates that the youth of the province are still endowed with that spirit which prompted so many spectacular incidents in old-time Rugger, in the days not so long distant when fonrs-in-hand and flying banners were indispensable to games played at Dilworth's and Potter's Paddocks.—Old Boy.

The pleasant spectacle of a bunch of gymnasts gracefully upsetting themselves in Albert Park for a cinema record irresistibly

reminded a man who can BABY ACROBATS, hardlv throw a watch-

spring, let a lone a handspring, of the Craggs. The Craggs came round to Percy Dix's shows what time the plump and smiling entrepreneur was attracting world vaudeville turns. Generally understood that the Craggs—long since broken up—were six brothers and their father, the "father," aged about forty-five, being the base for the family to pile themselves on. Marvellous turn as it was "on," it appeared to be an even more marvellous turn "off." The Craggs were family men. Young Craggs kept on arriving in all parts of the world, and ' these newcomers were taught their acrobatics from three months upwards. A performing Oragg, blessed with a new baby, would every day lie on his back abed, juggling the newcomer with his feet, "vvnere an ordinary infant would gurgle with pleasure on being chucked under the, chin by a gentle parental thumb, a new Oragg would screech with delight as pa threw him towards the ceiling with his feet and caught him on his toes in the descent. M.A.T., who witnessed one of these matutinal diversions, could never ascertain if thd Mesdames Cragg were themselves acrobats who approved this style of training for the young. One wonders if the Oragg babies of Percy Dix's day are still twinkling in the air and bringing up a new race by foot.

Mentioned currently that a feature of 'possum gathering in Stewart Island is the 'harvest of cats the trappers catch—and it

is no new feature, either. CAT CATCHERS. The domestic cat has ,a penchant for getting back to Nature, and once there is as angry a spitfire, weight considered, as its large relative the tiger. Often a few cat generations in the ■bush produce a long, raiury, ferocious beast that gives the trapper some trouble. As a rule, a trapper with a trap full of cat does not approach,' but lies off with a gun, and settles it that way. For fifty years or so the Australian trapper, finding a cat in a trap, simply slew him and let 'him lie, but the passion for fur garments among sub-tropical females has gTown to such a height that pussy's hide is saleable nowadays. It was current many years ago, when cats began, to multiply in the far backs, that the cats came to an agreement with the rabbits in regard to the dear old home. Cats, as everybody knows, kill rabbits, preferring the little* ones, but capable by a long and painful process of eliminating the larger, kind. It was said, however, that cats and rabbits have been found amicably disposed in the same burrow, and many incompetent naturalists did positively aver that hybrids of the two species had been discovered. One is able to say, too, that local domesticated cats, living on hearthrugs within short .distances of the tea-tree, have often absented themselves from tlie house for a few days at a time, coming back to have a look rpund, and then going away to the tea-tree again to establish the feline families that will so aggravate the Government in the years to be. Cat skins make excellent rugs.

Another Dutch family Bible, looted from a farm during the South African- War. and brought to New Zealand as a trophy, has been restored to Africa. JAPIE'S LETTER. No doubt there are many

more of these priceless old books in New Zealand that will be restored. It has always been a marvel how New Zealand soldiers managed to carry these immense volumes on trek and to get them out of the country. The feat is related to the other useless one of carrying heavy shell cases as souvenirs on staggering horses day after day and month after month. The old Dutch Bibles -were the priceless possession of Boer families, not only for their antiquity, but because they invariably contained what was often the only family record of the generations. They were obtained at great risk by soldiers,. <and the reason for their "theft" in many cases will exonerate soldiers who brought them home from blame. It was deemed necessary .by the High Command to burn farmhouses, the owners of which were absent fighting for their country, and were classed as rebels. Although it was against orders for men to loot these farmhouses —the instructions being to burn everything—men doing the unpleasant duty often rescued the family Bible without evil" intent, many being handed in to the authorities on the spot, and some, as lias been shown, coming to New Zealand and other cquntrios. There have been romances about "looted" articles. For instance, a soldier found a love letter written by a Boer maiden fluttering about the veldt. He brought it to New Zealand, and a year or so later returned it to South Africa. The girl got her letter back. Her fiance to whom the letter had been written was killed in action. A correspondence ensued between the.girl and the New Zealander. The girl— no longer a girl, however—nowadays bears the name of the man who found that letter blowing about the veldt.