OBITER DICTA.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 17981, 26 January 1924, Page 12

OBITER DICTA.

i (By E )

There is nothing to Bay here to-day about either the Bowling Tournament or tho Political Upheaval in Britain- I have often thought of recognising in a practical way the kindness of those who abandon their minds to the reading of those notes, and this abstention from commentary upon the Upheaval and. the Tournament is the easiest way of paying my debt to them for their bearing with me for two years. The Bowlers, five columns a day, neither know nor care anything about, thq tTpheavers, and the Upheavers, fpur columns, have as cortainly paid as little hec'd to the bowlers. Why, then, should we pay attention to either crowd? Fifty years hence they will all be forgotten; at the best, some careworn journal will give its readers, under the heading "From 'The Drip' of 1924," a crumbling bone of news about Miteholl's miraculous draw or Miss Mac Donald's criticism of No. 10 Downing Street. Let us, then, praying that the spectaelo' of Mr Mac Donald enlarging the Peerage will not break Mr H. E. Holland's heart, pass on.

First, to a correspondent:— Bear IC, —A crop of ling-aal distortions, raised in a centre within a radius of a thousand miles of Christchurch Post Office, is calculated' to give ona pause and make one enquire: Whether we are really getting our money's worth for our expenditure on Education,

Narrating Experiences at «i Alpine resort, reference was made to the grandeur of Mount Cook and the comforts audi delights of the Hemorrhage.

A distinguished citizen, reoently returned from a world tour, reported hs-ving seen tho motion picture, ''Argamcddon l To one whose employer did not him a holiday, it was Guggoated that ha should complain that ho was iitcapatiatcd. Of a cricket ball that hit fcprao picnickew it wag eaid that if it had reached the spCilkeis'G hfvnds ho would hsY® C<?nii3 tics tod it. •

And this correspondent wonders whether wo are really getting our money's worth for our expenditure on education I What more he can desire it is impossible for ine to imagine.

" Another correspondent unwittingly supplies me with another proof—if proof were needed by one who is lovingly familiar with such facts as Mr Caughley and Mr Parr —that pur education system is bringing forth fruit eVerywhere. Unwittingly, because thia other correspondent thought he had discovered a string of pearls in the following extract from a local journal:

The oollnpap of Hnßajp. Ps a factor in the struggle wu3 not unexpected- But the political consequences, if not altogether a surprise, startle*! the outaido nations. Hero was another Frankenstein, they told themselves, to whose malign influence no bounds could to set. Aa the revolution swept through Russia, leaving a trail of blood and smoking ashes, tho Western civilisations shrank from tho prospect of the ©pidemio rushing across their frontiers.

I rather admire this. Time was when it irked to find newspapers mixing up Frankenstein with his monster. But. that time ig long gone' by. For'those papers which, having heard and liked the name Frankenstein (as the eminent Ohristchurch Citizen heard and liked Armageddon), use it in the silly fashion shown in the quotation above, really do no harm. They and their readers are completely cn rapport—deep, as it were, calling unto deep.

From lime to x it ia thea * forrard"r~ tU ?, Science is no g, cd- I|| Science doe 3 „ ol «a»pla, it i, * 'WW. as we all know Bian,inodh ? ,i a : a7 .^^ ? J duced by heating 5® logue thereof para-position, wilh J * It is to gpi enw more precise f #rt things when exc<*a o! emhaa b wethylßftbaH „ dine and ikmslmw ,-^.Hli msthyicOiylinethtr.K methylethylfcetoße." « Jet Science, ' t , 183 done so little f„ W^II :'j • ?■!"*" <• «•*»?■ ion's opinion that It defeated the watcrwffa "The fight," he handed one * Jli Council. Thq vantage of the ecientit.. shrimpa, and of the economic from pure Beisßce.n XfV'flfl had not studioj Flesher hod, I gatto/sh, Jjffi have' been carried. to have scored. B«t t« §§| it seema to be übW.* ib« people who wrntefl have been able to 9 o« w tarians in the mlasfjiy, Sb 118 tory, but not the will bring to Sciem k »7«t*J|||

With Dr. Oplmiwj | $W d that "H is the uliiiuit frgyj Science to ixtonslnAU & J race." Soma tsia»tj|i{t jjJ admitting it, and trte tMft-j J ing the most gloomy future that they cm Q& it fail Pr. Schultzo ered a now region of thosjijVij eaJJg bio-sociology, hjitttfij science to load him tii KtJ that as women men thoy will bewnse gt sr lf J BI3X: " The time *iH yJ world will l)o liko s (rimt'lfc&.j •will bo dominated and Wifaklii select cprapiimity tf by side with tliis "The Press" on Auckland tslogsns paration which ihe jw.'s are making for -,hp ion. They aro giving 99 thing to <?u —uj.A jflfcstltsUj* * whisky and good things for jitlitffelj! Between the prtpheciea it the practice o£ fie we are left witl. i-oUiinjpi ward to oxcep(i»«i«cijS(y iffaj. rection of ladies in This will ( be fit froa gynpiQOcracy in }t«plf the non-scientist. Fw the scientist Kn women aro in tonlrol ways. hi,\ e been. Vi'tA &Wj of Lenin, that hardowA ato .corptio whos-j halilt fjf laafc had fatal no man who has lo«n gather from f?W»"U0