OBITER DICTA.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17609, 11 November 1922, Page 10

OBITER DICTA.

(ByK.)

..Tie Biochemical J° urna J"- , . v » miner!" ns Morris Fins"Onllv I what n. paper i «*> v La of tie «Athenaeum"-con-bury said of 1 : mßny import . tarns m ito August ■? n <£bo»to Arid Compounds StU S° S /ln irActivities in Blood "J a contribution to and Salt bo'nt rf LflWrence the theory of the eq lbalch y j. Henderson and K AH f An ° ther of the Runner r o '" Still another deals with Sets anTits relation to vitamin A. thet -soluble factor." You did not the iax«. vnl]9 _ that many men are know-did you.--tna . k _ nd engaged on problem ° . onder and, knowing it, you V ' _.i, ' theso Rood people so waste tneir t t k dole o days, and what use they IS- thev are. But they are pioneers, age will accept us unquestionIwTwe accept the telephone someHul which will have come "through xhe patient st.dy of t; loaves of the runner bean. If you munv thi as vou wiU if you are a reasonable von will admit that while we tit reallv only at cock-crow and the in "star- n other words, that we morning it have a long way to go. fore hesitate before you agree that the o°ilv thing wanting to the perfect hapLess of the Dominion, the only rtep feft to take in order to reach the Sm.de of perfection is the election of the Liberal Party. Progress consis of a good deal more than putting Mr Wilford on the Treasury Bench.

There is one sturdy soul, however, who evidently feels convinced that if Mr Maaey can be pitched out there will be no further need for either the "Biochemical Journal" or me. This sturdv soul is Mr D. Buddo, against whom nothing be fairly urged oxcept that he IS- Mr Buddo. Consider Mr Buddo: "Since the Reform Partycame into power the National Debt had increased to an alarming extent, it now stood at 208 millions net." To Mr Buddo'a innocent eyes the war which caused the increase in the debt was plainly the work of Mr Massey. How he must pity the Curzons and Poincare's, who are wrestling with Kemal Pasha, and Herr Wirth, whon they ought to he out here chasing the fons et origo, who goes callously about mailing speeches as if he had had nothing to do with the war- And again: "Mr Buddo stated that the number of sheep in the Dominion had recently decreased by a million." He' knows where they are; he knows where, Mr Massey gets his mutton. And still again: "Touching on hydro-electricity Mr Buddo said that he was strenuously opposed to Canterbury being deprived of its natural advantages in this connexion by having to face a flat rate. At the same time he was not favourable to a duplicate system being set up by any local body. The beat way to deal with the matter was to put the present Government out of tho Treasury Benches." "Ah! qu'elle est diificile, la vie!" is a cry which Mr Buddo would not at all understand. "Nothing simpler," he would say; "put the Government out!" And this, in a less direct and homely and winning fashion, is what all the Liberals are sayiug. Theirs not to reason why.

Being an Opposition paper is not, I should say, in Mrs Warren's phrase, a bed of roses. It is hard labour enough to find arguments for Mr Wilford, but harder still it must be to bear his reproaches; Since Tamburlaine there ha& been nothing like his this vyeek's fuming. You remember that great Scythian:

Tmdl >: Holla, a _ What) «W,£ j»4. v, «"» ding the Liberal Jr* ** Bcolded all the * Liberal papers w V*-** «• I* be are in a parlous rt,^ B^ |»id, from W h % «y .but bom* 0 f new S p a pe rs 0 f all y- * "Urd fe od that not a single Opposihon press ventaJTJi^ , tort concerning --.eHforMr^J j I hls newspaper friends, but iL -^ R>™n by the jockey who J2 ed to lie in a handy nJJ? "£■*' come away and win hnfc'S. « .***■ eighteenth. UpbraSe bo asked how he could come I°3 out the horse. If Mr b tS fnendswhattos, 0 s,y (a odoulrt2 will say it. But it is quit*" 3 ta.co to suppose that his chirm i.tgreat that ten thousand fountain must leap from their dip, te d*£ iMoved by my mention in last «-w notes that I have temporaruj-S only temporarily Most the tion of my Prohibitionist colwT. '•< correspondent who has on oth« o«i! ' sions assisted me sends me this notes 1 Dear K.,-apropos the oaertwa of ' the observance of Anniversary DitT «?£ objection raised that the dW-wJS 16tb-f.ll, , t a busy trad. won 18 suggested by a made in the calendar sppearimr intLT»»2 pal booklet iseued by. STaSSteffSt"Council. Happening to consult thfc eiu '' dar to ascertain the d»v of the wt«lj» i which Boxing Day fells this y«r 1»Z : - covered (aa others will) that the »&££ < kindly provided two sixteenths of DeefflW f this year-one following the 15th to d the month and tho other following th«»S day of the month. Why not MnslnuasU il! niveraaTy Day *rith Boxing Dayf* Or . it December 28th -the date on wMIE Creasy, the last of the "first four ihfau" 7 put in «n appearance, arriwd at Lyttalta, The compiler of the calender n doubtless flying a kite; it is a pity no> body noticed it Booner. /What he *& ed, one assumes,, was to test the opinion of the public concerning two celebn. tions of Anniversary Day. 1,-forots am amongst the "Ayes"—not beciM I love that day more, but became I dielike such upstart intruders as Domia. ion Day and Labour Day. As'the yew pass the days multiply, and a hundred years hence there will be no date in tin year which will not be a holiday.' Ani the truth so well expressed by Don .!]• hambra, "When everyone is toot bodee, then no one's anybody," is. true of Days. Another correspondent has nude it his- life's work to establish an identity between one of the Opposition fspert and Mr Polly. Twice before beJuisut me some evidence on this poiit,»hica was duly printed in these notes, isd hero he is again. His theorj ia\tuei upon the strange likeness between "Ifi Polly's curious polysyllables and-tint • . of the paper he quotes. -<| If (ho writes) i '*h}s' does nsl contiae* T**M that Mr Polly, is spending his jart dsys a A the servico of; Liberalism, nothing will. Il.'> is the sentence of the week from on* of its , editorials: "And if Mr WiUisms wWw *»,,, ouote the. statements, of bankers with \ujLf dwree of veiisilitude, be will bsw w rw. ■«ii his habit of referring to Mr TttMP -m Mr Vanderbilt" : You ajr tok tUI is a case of their both thuuosg U*J «V saying 'am. Perhaps it is; but veriailitude is ss excellent word, which is more than csnoe said of most neologisms. Indeed or most "neologisms it can be said thst their verisilitude is unputupable.