THE PASSING SHOW.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 243, 14 October 1933, Page 8

THE PASSING SHOW.

(By THE MAN ABOUT TOWN.)

Dear M.A.T., —Re daylight saving. I have had an argument with my wife. She insists that twelve o'clock is noon, and I cannot make her see that noon is THE ARGUMENT, twelve-thirty. You know how obstinate women are, and as there may be others who have the same idea as my •wife I point out the error they are making. You know if you look at your dial (I mean sundial, of course) that your watch will show that it is twelve-thirty at noon. —Fugit. PERSONALITY OF THE WEEK.

The Anglican Synod, which is at the moment sitting in Auckland, has appointed the Rev. F. G. Harvie vicar of St. Barnabas', Mount Eden, its clerical secreNO. 408. tary—and here he is. Mr. Harvie became vicar of his present parish in February, 1930. He is a Winchester and Merton (Oxford) man, and came to Auckland in 1907 when Dr. Neligan was bishop of this diocese. His duties were in the mission, area of' this province. He was vicar of St. Mary's, New Plymouth, from 1017 to 1927, and thereafter was for some time in Hamilton. He is an examiner to the Board of Theological Studies, an authority on Church history, and keenly interested in the spiritual and physical education of the young. The rolled-top sock; stocking or hose is equally fashionable with celebrated tennis ladies as with selected schoolboys of our own suburbs. For some reason THE or other tho .puerile suburROLLED SOCK, ban sock, rolled tight and nestling over the boyish shoe, has come to indicate "a hard shot"— although many boys with this sartorial feature are as innocent of guile as Lenglen or Moody. One recent evening young Bernard took the air with his parents. On the way Bernard's mother noted that the lad was wearing his lioso in the manner described. She said it looked untidy—he should unroll them and pull them up calf high. Bernard did not obey the maternal mandate for a little while, but suddenly there loomed in the distance a gigantic blue form—six feet several inches of "lawnorder." "Oh, boy! Oh r boy!" exclaimed the young New Zealander, speaking the argot of Los. Angeles as he rushed into the shadows and elevated his socks to the heights of convention. The boy emerged from the gloom. The large figure passed by, casting a winning smile at tho boy. He has by judicious tact and a few kindly wurruds been sub-editing tho legs of the lads, and manny a bhoy, formerly addicted to rolled socks, now raises to a da'cint height.

Surprising how many people come along to M.A.T. bearing money in their hands- No, not bribes! —just real or alleged curiosities, nangting from "brass THE RUPEE. "spade guineas" to East

India Company rupees. Here is an E.I. Co. rupee dated 1840, looking as spick and span as if it had been minted last year. Somebody has wished it on to somebody else as a half-crown —and it probably contains more silver and better quality than any modern half-crowns. The sight of the old E.I. coin, with the young Queen's head and "Victoria Queen" as part of the superscription, at least serves to remind a person brought up with Anglo-Indians of the marvellous romance of the company, which controlled vast countries with far less fuss in a business way than political Governments do it nowadays. The E.I. Co. was incorporated in 1600, and it went on doing its job up to 1808. "East Indies" in the original charter comprised not only India, but Sumatra and Java, as well as innumerable other 'islands —breathlessly vast for a board of directors. The Dutch emptied John Company out of Java and elsewhere in 1022, and showed a turn of genius as colonisers that makes us glad we I are relatives. The history of the E.I. Co. is the history of Kmpire. It was purely commercial up to 1831, but its privileges were curtailed, and it became administrative. There used to be company wars and company armies. One often wonders wliethei modern Dominion Governments couldn't swot the art of ruling a few people from the history of a company that ruled hundreds of millions —and paid dividends. Good old rupee!

I The fact that a brass button bearing the number of the Sixty-fifth Regiment of the hence almost pre-dating civilisation in Auckland —was found MORE BUTTONS, embedded deep in the earth in the vicinity of a hotel, itself lias no significance. It may have dropped from the expanded tunic of an old soldier long ago; it may have been carried, detached from tunics, by a collector of buttons, the soldier's own sweetheart, daughter or wife; it may have been part of an exhibition of buttons. Note, if you please, that the maker's name on the reverse of brass button was Smith and Wright, of Birmingham. Here between one's fingers is another brass button of a vintage several decades later than the Sixty-fifth button. It bears the Royal Arms and is the common button worn by* British soldiers in several emeutes, etc. It also bears the same makers' names as does the much older button, inJerring that button makers have a constant job and that firms live on—esi>eeially in "Brum." The Royal Arms button is unique because there is a very strongly-defined dent across it, made by a bullet shot in wrath at the wearer of the tunic the button once helped to keep tight over a skinny turn. The fact that the owner of the button is still cumbering the earth is all in favour of slimming. If the wearer had been, say, a couple of inches more podgy he would not be with us now. Buttons really are useful as armour, though. Little Doctor Dollfuss, Chancellor of Austria, was recently shot in a button by a fanatic, and he undoubtedly owes his life to the same. The moral of which is to wear as many l>uttons as you can. By tho way, before the days of medals many army buttons bore tho name of .an engagement in which the wearer shared.

THOUGHTS FOR TO-DAY. That which is a great evil in itself becomes relatively a good when it prevents or removes a greater evil. For instance, loss of a limb when life is preserved 'by the sacrifice; or the acute pain of a remedy by which, a chronic ■disease is cured. —Anon. Friendship which flows from the heart cannot be frozen, as the water which flows from the spring cannot congeal in winter. — Fenimoxe> -Cooper.