OBITER DICTA.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18569, 19 December 1925, Page 16

OBITER DICTA.

[By fc] An acquaintance of mine was a little indignant over the Rev. J. K. Archer's reaction to the Chaplin film. " "The theatre people," ho said, "ought really to have charged Mr Archer rent, or to have got at him somehow for breaking and entering or for false pretences. They should pay him back the money they charged him as a simple theatregoer, of course; but they surely have a pl&im upon him for his having used the film as • raw material for a Socialist sermon. But I suppose they were satisfied with the advertisement he gave it. ... I am not so sure, however, about this," headed, after a pause. "The picture people are a soulless race, no doubt, but it was hardly an advertisement. When Miss Matilda Jones, in a sweet poem, calls attention to the moon, one would not say she was giving the moon a free puff." I am far from wishing to say that Mr Archer is Miss Matilda Jones, or that Mr Chaplin is the moon, but I do think my friend was right. And lam sorry for Mr Archer, of whom I now believe, what formerly I used to doubt, that when he went to Buffalo and had his first sight of Niagara Falls, he said, " Great Scot! That reminds me: I left the bathtap running." "As he sat and watched the picture," Mr Archer told the audience, "he wondered if there was a serious desire at the back of Chaplin's head "; and while the cabin was rocking on the precipice Mr Archer was gloomily reflecting upon the film that he could write, entitled "Guilty Gold, or the Immorality of Received Economics." I hope to read on Monday that the Rev. J. J. North has also been to " The, Gold Rush," and has been fired by Charlie's Oceana Roll to composo another sermon on the Dancing EviL

While Mr Archer has been brooding over the philosophy of the Rt. Rev. C. Chaplin, Ph.D., Sir James Parr has been brooding over the film posters. One does not know what kind -of posters they use in Auckland, but one does know Sir James Parr, and. one knows how much discount should bo allowed upon his very severe adjectives concerning these things. One knows, that is to say, that there is nothing particularly wrong with the posters over and above the fact that they are posters; and that, of course, is wrong enough. But it is not because they are posters that Sir" James Parr unleashes those epithets the public so loves to hear, but because they are deleterious posters. This is very like the Detective and the Magistrate who this week were so indignant with a theft because it was " a very mean " onej" and worse, therefore, than a very reasonable and possibly meritorious theft. But life, like this small corner of the paper, is too short to allow one to linger over the stupidities one meets. Rather let me cheer up Sir James Parr. He said lie has " no voice in tho matter," but if he had, he would see that the hoardings were, stripped of ..the posters he complained of.' " I consider they are an evil," ho continued, "and should receive the attention of the proper authorities without delay." Let him not worry. Our pleasant land is full t)f "proper authorities," official and unofficial, who are sleeplessly looking out for subjects to which to give their attention.

Mr Austen Chamberlain has commanded that there must be no refutation of the obscene story that the Germans boiled down their dead. The less

said about it, the betW'''4£fflllpßß at least remark that it wOjfIBBB Germans very little. The ejSraall not havo travelled a ambiguity of the word >fifJ||B[f and one might have supiwerifSllll Germans would see the adnnfa2Plli relying upon something oUtertJbfffill own tongue to express They do not sec it at all TWrl| German Language League vbo^Jrag bnsiness is to extrude soeh -ft-SKS words as have got into Genua 228 The latest campaign is directed m-ShIM such words as «telenkoi»3i " Krematorium, w and patriotic <23 mans are expected to say uJfclH "femsprecber" and stitut," regardless of in the next war they will expos* fS| German army to the peril of vktmfm sentation. Yet they are far, afegSf in Germany, who will go the kuifcSi refraining from comnMuig «i2fflf upon the lunatics whose patriotieHraj ing has urged them to cry oat tm&m restoration of the old who were displaced by the "fanHsf founder of Christianity. In on the other hand, Christianity foJBj for one of the schemes of ealoriwßi form provides that the flv» daja!Sßf will be left over after making ten mouths of 36 days each ssadfflßf "named after Christ, QwSSm Stephenson (the inventor of %^BP motive), Fulton (the inventor^l^gffi steamship), and Henry Ford." tkffHf weak spot In this design tt tMsßt place has been found for the-ias|ni A correspondent who Vt-pME; spending some idle hours going ttwßl the pre-election files in the .fafffßl he might discover the canae/oFfSt Coates's victory last month eeaifjSi a largo quantity of fra^imt» B sMß| Labour and Liberal Liberal candidate for Rotoraa, o|f§9jl tember 10th, "forecasted thatii|fflj| : eral Party would prove the OT§iߧ a combine of the the Labour and, Reform Atmore, on September MjjjjyaHll everyone fair warning: /W could not hope to succeed «Me|UJ| majority over the other Fusion must eventuate" 'Mr.JffIHP who suffered defeat, Liberals might secure an '{mH majority, but even if they.'aHß| they would arrange as* JS|h Government. Concerning ever, he had no doubt flisf(|Wlfljfflfl I go back to Parliament, *?4JU» going back, ladies and fMjjnHJ (loud applause)." And Mr George Forbes be jctmW§|W| Cheviot, on October 3rd, suppose there would be wqrSHn verdict," but Mr Yciteb.disamMJi his chief. On October Bft W|gH chided this pessimism with fNfflH| ancc that "the National EtnaßH going to succeed- at the P h< m9H (ions." Mr Coulter/at October 13th, was form Party was in for*»/vfggr MmKI on November 4th." Nor were candidates The Labour had *inw.,tife ,f ,P"W| chance" of ,^ ; learn what "peopV Mpft they have spoken of tigffim An Auckland %*&&. *W$/ImKM troubled only by,th« ing how be. One does no> candidates to'declar*that>erlMM tain losers, but jJW&Y" tively knew what fw pen, so' that the zeal of ers to make themaejies prising. Perhaps t^[ they were backing ****^lj|^B