PERSONALITY OF THE WEEK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 285, 2 December 1933, Page 8

PERSONALITY OF THE WEEK.

Here you see the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament from a new angle. Mr. Michael Joseph Savage, who so recently succeeded the late Mr. H. E. Holland NO. 415. as Leader of both Opposition and of the Labour party, is highly ■esteemed for his common sense, the clarity of his method and his general knowledge. Born in Benalla (Vic.), he worked in Australian mines and was a fellow pick 'with Mr. P. C. Webb, recently restored to Parliament at a by-eleetion for the Buller seat. Mr. Savage became manager of the Rutherglen .Co-operative Company, and came to New Zealand in 1907, where he has been intimately associated with the Labour movement ever since. He has represented Auckland West in Parliament since 1919. His excellent services as a member of the Auckland City Council and of the Auckland Hospital Board are generally esteemed. His recreations largely consist in copious-study of national and international problems and he is a fluent and easy j speaker.

Maybe you thought that the silent film was a.s dead as the dodo, moa, pachyderm or Caesar. Not at all! A recent bunch of picture statistics show that in OLD FLICKS. England there are still

two hundred and fiftyeight cinema houses showing pictures undisturbed by the nasologies of the City of the Angels —yes, sir. Some of these silent houses put on two shows a night—best' seats fourpence; others twopence. Deaf and dumb people rush them —come in special buses for miles to have twopennyworth. Makes you wonder if the habits of the earlier days of silent cinematographic flicks still persist. You know the sort of thing. Street scene jvith cabs jerking along like rabbits in a shooting gallery. Lusty man "off" making street noises— especially the "clip-clop" of the horses, which continued long after the horses had gone. How dear is the memory of those terrific explosions, the big bang coming two minutes after smoke; or the synchronised song in which the pictured singer warbled to a gramophone record three bars behind or a couple of feet in front. Appropriate noises used to keep 'on noising even when the screen was blank. People used to emerge from the sight of flicks with streaming eyes —almost blind and deaf with the clip-clop of the horses. A German chromatic film shown before the war was so flickery that opticians all over the world reaped a harvest—and the German spectacle trade made a fortune.

Dear M.A.T., —The good old song "Soldiers of the King," recently described as Edwardian is not so. Many people to-day are inclined to believe that Leslie AN OLD SONG. Stewart (the composer) perpetrated this melody during the South African War, but such is not the case. It was written by Stewart for ail exhibition in Blackpool ((England) in 1881, but it failed to hit the popular taste. George Edwards bought it later for his London Gaiety production "An Artist's Model," but again it thudded, only to crop up once more, at the commencement of hostilities between Oom Paul and the British in October, 1809, when it took the Empire by storm. Mr. Walter D. Charlton, of Wellington, in an article entitled "War Songs," which appeared in the Australian Press a short while ago, mentioned these facts, together with the interesting information that "Soldiers of the Queen" (as the oldtimer was originally known) brought to the composer's coffers more shekels than did his other two "best-sellers" —"Lily of Laguna" and "Dolly Daydream." "Soldiers of the Queen" was, indeed, Stewart's pet—his veriest baby—for it marked his entry into publicity— although it took Oom Paul Kruger to make the public'fully appreciate the merits of the song. Even the scintillating "Floradora" (perhaps the composer's most ambitious effort) could not quite eclipse the popularity of "Soldiers of the Queen," and they were both being hummed while the bullets hummed over the veldt. —Ajfix.

Dear M.A.T., —"Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings ." Tell me, please, if the Putarura schoolboy made a bon mot, supplied the mot juste or merely HOW THEY made a howler. The class HOWL! was learning verses from Wordsworth's "The Happy Warrior." The teacher asked, "Why is the man referred to happy?" A pupil, obviously influenced by the lines "How happy is he, born and taught, that servetli not another's will," replied, "Because he is a bachelor." It will be obvious to you that the bright pupil is a boy. Ten to one he will marry some day.—Dominie. LITERARY INFLUENCE. Ix>cal teacher to class: "Name a book written by Charles Dickens." Promising pupil: "The Sheepherder of Poison Creek."