"SPINDRIFT."

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13007, 8 January 1908, Page 9

"SPINDRIFT."

(grzciAixY wnrrrnv for "nra press."} King C'ustav of SwMen declines to be crowcvd, considering coronation an unnecessary ceremony. Tho Kings of 0 oosiins utilitarian ag* will dash Keenly out of 'h<- respective factories affording tliom r.vor but honest empJoy- " merit, during the dinner bour, and demand to be to face, the ceremony in ovraik, before tho ono o'clock should sound: "Lnasx lies the h»-.vJ that wears a crown"' gbake?T*"T-"' hiS suSS^t^l; but it is .lonbtful wlu-ther a p»>opl" would bo the happier ivhaso head had no crown ft t all to lie Jn.

Tho Admiralty has evidently boon combing tho naval scrap-heap for inoonsider<d trifle falling from the ronntry's table in the more opulent days pone Vy. It has retrieved the thirn-<ilaF.' cruiwr I'hilomel and the sloop Mclnretl ineffective- in 1*704> from tho national debris, and replace*] them on the active list. This ia V. dMihz Britain's angry retort to Germany's lirst T>r*adnought, And it vrts »rf> pnt to it, there is alwaye >e!»,s n Victory. to S *J' nothing of tlio ■ \mokura (which onoo twitter**! as tho Sparrow), to rtand between u> and tho pallinß foreign joke- Than* ■ Hwn. with a few "vote and si nib Sown with paint, the Dntua -Navy tan still bo made to look saucy.

Tnc idra. of tho London "Tnnrt?" txv in" , Rold and parce-llwl oirt among proprietors of magazine*, like so many or knobn of blue, is, somehow, ropngnant to British notions of the rtirnal fit now of Whatever national crisis or emergency has arisen dnrine the pa*t thr«Mpiart«re ot .1 Z\ucv, -Th° Tim**" hae wvarieWy β-iid its solid say, and heartened tho £&**«* of tho people ,n tho efficacy of their Imperial institution*. There it fomotliing wry British, very buUd«£fe£m * jonrnal that never ro?rS a pnblished word, and wh.ch d hauid ohMige with thorn. It is almost incomprehensible that a * a t« of matters should exist tuider V h;ch it in possible for any eealrwag I«id««ta«y clothed with a Trhito «*«- dormis to grant himself the freedom of the Transvaal to all he can lay his soiled paws upon wit 1 wit beiue detects S wlflo the Jlaw ha* doer cod the do- ■ Potion (among othe«) of a brace of Indiana serving our Sovereign and Empire, more effectively than an entire .titwt-foll of snch trhito trash Mβ a conepiouo.M element in the feouth African cemmunity of tc-da-y. But maybe these dark-skinned fellow-enb-.ycts of ours (one ot whom served in four Indian campaigns and the Uoer War; tho other thirty years in tho Indian Army) would have vaoatod the country in any case, once the nature of their environment had been bonne in upoa them. The leal citizen h«s an indisputable right to object (yea, oven from the house-top) to tho cable intelligence lending himself to ench announcomente ac this :— " Mark Hambourg, the Troll-known pianist, "will make a three-months' fjonr of Australia and Now Zealand, opening in Sydney in July." And thia has been laboriously flashed at us all the way from London. The pianoplaying person benefiting may be able to tickle tho box of tricks to a' tinkling death by the exquisiteness of his touch, but all the same ho has wares to vend, and ia coming right along to vend them. And if the professional musician is to bo made subject to the distant puff preliminary, why not the peregrinating sawbones ecouring tbt world for appendices and a bank baianee, or the peripatetic dentist proffering new teeth for old once?