THE PASSING SHOW.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 102, 3 May 1939, Page 10

THE PASSING SHOW.

(By THE HEN ABOUT TOWN.) An incident which might have resulted in all sorts of serious consequences oce/urred immediately before the departure of the Monterey on Mondav TICKETS, PLEASE, evening. The Hon. W. !NTash loet hie ticket! The incident reminds one of the eminent swimming instructor at a certain English public school. During his years of office he had taught several thousand boys the art of ewimming, but one day he slipped, fell into the swimming bath and was drowned—or rather would have 'been had not some of his pupils, dived to his rescue. Had Mr. Xash failed to produce his ticket, what would have been the result? Could he have approached the purser at sea and offered to pay again? The answer must be in the negative, because Mr. Xash would not be allowed to take such a sum out of Xew Zealand. Query number two is: "Was Mr. Xash's permit to leave our shore* duly filled in and certified? , ' I am afraid that those social security forms are potting on my mind nowadays, otherwise I would never dream of putting this third query of. '"Was that ticket a return or a single?"— H.C.H. "Touchstone" writes: It whs like old times to see a question from "Onium" on the propriety of the term "sympathy for' ae distinct from "svinpathv WITH OR FOR. with." which Thomas de Qiiincey had a strong ; preference for. The definition of "sympathy" given by Funk and WagnalFs Standard Dictionary (an old favourite) is: "The quality j of Ikmiijt affected by the state or condition of another with feelings corresponding in kind or correlative with those present in that person; follow feeling." The Standard Dictionary adds that "sympathy with" another in joy or jrrief, and "sympathy for , ' the needy in their distress are both proper sentences. "Sympathy between" kindred spirits is also correct. Another authority, H. W. Fowler, goes further, and says tliat the exception sometimes taken to "sympathy for" instead of '-sympathy with" k" groundless. He adds that till' Oxford Dictionary, under the sen*o of "compassion," cvon puts "sympathy for" iis the normal construction. The 'correspondent who sijriis himself "Opium" is right in iissuminy that <lc Quincey* ruling has not survived the century. He asks, pertinently enough, if hate or hatred could be linked with •■with" instead of "for." Xo. but they are linked Unth with -for" and -'of" (hatred of, hatred for). A note on the principle at issue will be given if space permits.

• Are our youiiir men "stirred up with high hopes of living to lie brave men and worthy patriots, dear to Hod. and famous to all ages'" nr are they not? I,' for THE APPEAL, one. am convinced that they are. I am, therefore. puzzled at the poor response in. Auckland (more apparent here than elsewhere in the Dominion) to the appeal for territorial service. The older men, who have been through the mill and seen war in all its horrors/ come forward to a man to serve in any capacity. They see the need. The younger" men. who have as yet had no oppo'rtuiiity of "doin" their bit," hold back. Why is'this so? T have talked to a number of youths, and from a welter of reasons and excuses, two points emerge crystal clear and clear cut. First, there is no personal lead from the proper quarter, i.e., a man-to-man appeal from e.\-soldiers and athletic leaders of standing (leaders of men who appeal in the real youth sense), direct to the younger generation who know not war. The feeling I sense is that the appeal is from the wrong quarter and the wrong approach. A man-to-man talk in the football training shed or at the nineteenth hole at the golf club—the veteran and the

youth brought informally together—would be productive of Letter results. A well-known and popular chap puts his name down, and the rest follow—the rirfit lead. Secondly, during the last few years there hae been too much political talk "of "minding one's own business and letting the other chap mind his," which ha* had a slacking and wrongly pacific effect. To-day the state of world affairs i warrant* something different. My younir 'fiend, Jim Fortune, who is a born loader and has his finger on the pulse of youth, tells me that he and hie pale are just as willing, capable and patriotic as of yore, and, giveii the right personal lead, the need having been made apparent, there would in twenty-four hours be more volunteers for training than we have arms for. Young Jim knows what he is talking about when he eays, "Y T ou can get any bloke in the city from* eighteen to thirty in five minutes when tlip blokes up above go about it right." Xot very clecrantly expressed, but one knows what he means. The right lead again.—J.W.W.

It was Hollywood's off season. Soon— unless he got another inspiration very quickly, he, lamina, Vamma, Columsky's greatest great producer, would be off. "IN DUTCH." too—for the world was sick to death of sex and gangster films. Swooping, he picked up a copv of the "Standard" that a Xew Zealand visitoV had dropped. Totally oblivious of the mad world around him, he read and re-read every word therein, Michael Joseph Savage! What a man! "God's Own Country'"—what a title! Wait—"The Re-birth of a Xation"—how was that? Hastily flinging the script of "King Solomon's Secret Love Affair" into the flames", he called Ali Alouf. the Turkish eunitch, to him and made him read the "Standard." "Xew Xealand has nothing to offer me," Ali said slowly. "Once—on Gallipoli—T met some Xew Zealanders—ugh." He motioned to Droppa Gin, Gunga Din's cousin. Dr-oppa read the front page. "This Savage sahib—he certainly putteth juldee (speed) into his works. He's a better man than I am, oh sahib." He salaamed and pinned a memo note on Gandhi'e statue. lamina sat there trying to visualise this Xew World of the South created by this superman Savage out of the wreckage, the flotsam and jetsam left behind by the tides of cursed Capitalism. Before hie eyes floated a vision— all —that was a title now—"The Vision." St. Augustine's "City of God" come true —the Xew Atlantis. Forhours he wrote —feverishly. "The Great White God," he decided to call it —yes, and he would nee those six hundred wives ordered for Solomon in the grand finale —the "Worshipping Scene," aleo Solomon's thousand con—no, no eex. That was final. This Michael Joseph Savage was a bachelor. He rang the casting office. "Where is Xew Zealand, anyway?" they asked of him. He couldn't think; he had never heard of the place before. Still—it must be somewhere— I

unles* this "Standard" was a Hollywood hoax. "It's in Kew Holland," a travelogue script | man advised him. "A follow named Abel j Tasnian renamed it 'Van DicmanV Land' in j honour of the Governor. Sir George Grey, who first eet foot in it, in 1770."' Holland, eh? Throwing the script into the flames. lamina re-wrote it, more feverishly. Holland? Yah he would etar Greta Garbo in it. "In Dutch" he would call it. It would be colossal, stupendous. He could visualise Greta register ing under the Social Security Act. "Lak a dog, eee it." "A lady dog," he corrected —'■ MaeClure. i A THOUGHT FOR TO-DAY. Humility Is the first fruit of religion The devout man loves to lie low at the"f ontetool' of his Creator because it is there ha attains I the most lively perceptione .of the Divine 1 excellence, and the most tranquil confidence ' in the Divine favour.—Robert Haii. I