OBITER DICTA.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18722, 19 June 1926, Page 14

OBITER DICTA.

One does not usually rejoice over the beginning of that Thyestean banquet of claptrap known as the Parliamentary session. But I do, hoping—perhaps vainly—that if will mean the ending of the quarrels and debates !with which -our slightly less j-illiterate public men and public bodies have been allowed to fill in the long, long interval since that day when the National Party marched forth to meet its great surprise. At any rate the newspapers will keep their space for the politicians for a little while, and most of us will wish that Sir Joseph Ward will make up for the time he lost last Parliament. He has begun well, but who could be°-in ill who finds himself the Liberal Party, with none to dispute his title? Sir Joseph does not exaggerate, he states but the bare fact, when he says that he is the cook and the captain bold and the mate and the bosun and the whole crew. Nor can it not sweeten the thought that in Britain the Liberals are in the throes of civil war over the leadership; and perhaps, too, there is something not wholly displeasing to Sir Joseph in the excommunicate gloom of the old friends who thought they wele National and found they were only Njne, and Nameless at that. How easily one loses one's sense of values. Like many .other people,- I have been supposing that the most serious thing which the Empire has on hand is the. problem of Britain's mining industry. But this is because we have not been reading the Auckland newspapers, and have in consequence missed the guidance' of the Rev. J. J. North. It-would be a pity if, for want of information, the people down here were -to.remain, ignorant, of the fact, that the gravest • crisis. the nation has yet had to face : ;is the granting of a license to some hotel or other in Auckland. There is no doubt about this. Mr North " seconded the at' a meeting-rl was too terrified to read the motion itself—and "stated that it was .his opinion'-that the country stood at a critical juncture, and the way .the people took this affront of eight'days ago would deteraine the' standard; of I public-life in. ttis'country." I always 'say that in.these crises it is• best to i maintain the British attitude of calmness and'fortitude, and it assists to; calmness-to, reflect that for Mr North arid •■his kind' every juncture is<criti'calVndlhe landscape all abysses.. It is a-mistake to suppose that you" can; fill .your '.. life with thrills and sensations only througta, large expenditure on women,'wine,.and horses. ;The most feverish hedonist has a tame time begide;the really good man who scans: the evil or! and lets no: crisis, go-by without a, speech. 'And it. is 'an aid-. :to f is ,a; great. cofiifotfc—to know that these so , ..completely discharged their ? proper I work that they have so.ntuch. tiine to spend in -.guiding, us' from crisis- ; to crisis..;.' '' ■. ■■■ '.:'.■. '■■ -.' ■......■■■. ... . '.-. ; Justy -however, as the anti-hotel; people would despise-..the Rev. Jobn.i Roach Straton,,a Baptist minister. in ; New. Tork, so .Mr Straton would despise them. . For it 'is, not for ;hofei licenses/ but^jazz ; music, that .Mr

Straton deems the rapetyjUSS'' abuse to have been &&s*s&% ingtotheSan dent of The Press, jk J play jazz are ■ consume it are curb it" he said, ' let us outlaw this. ; music of the savage/- ',- spiritual debauchery,; tion. The jazz hound is dit, running Jaa:&!tfit| '■■. music." He said all with a grand opera much overcome by ;'• she had only : breath .; that jazz was not musical cocktail, several quarts for haps Mr Straton is wise that you cannot an educated democracy at the top of your not blame poor■ )-.. long but poorly developed with, and these its guides deafened. But one is less*readsliip pose that Mr ' SrxatenVia''-ty| i J|| he says'" music is one'of 'sesjr?ji|p the soul will enjoy that "the music of' beautiful in the sight 'of is hideous.'' I think it that the contrary is .the siii^i^m.:mpecting my of jazz, sorry for this, my own information next world is''no:BounjJer. ; Straton's. ..•: .ivj :■'s&s: One must be *TieQsopM^ f i& quite certain about itese.tluW;S Theosophists m& .are true, because,they to Mrs Annie, Besant..: It waS Blavatsky Vho revealed Besant,- but. one cannot. tra(»<s||| of revelation:<beyond indigestion, or at'anvorate bawS' sardines that caused it> ;The fjmjjj from the sardines has been; eifjmH cause this: Week wewere'toldkS» that the Theosophical- GonJtoMJa» 500 votes tor 3, Messiah a young friend of MklMmnamed KrishmunurtL A correSJXTOM of The flj that Krishnamurti will aotbe %|Mt ?jah, but the corporal - ! Messiah,' in much'the' "Haddocks' " Sitting'Oh a Gate,?.btttonlytjigwß of ■ the song. Mrs' BesMt U'Jjwß concenu^';th!ei.claims' but ifi the the final proof itiat Mr KrM«W was the real 'thing. He on December'2Bth " Tree," with theiwords:''" He' all eternal feppm^.!;rlG||(p«ffl|| us and He! ■ 'ußderstoodi. ; Trao : ■ unhappy, who aw ;ti|^|jp|t , S i i ■ c6mqs, to-'those' ; .wli^|&^f^JS k l : whoioHg' r ' Mrs *(§» mi- *ia- Voice '■« l'!,come : ' tec thosefwM|«^^t^^ •to;']fc!e : happiness, 'in; all refdrmj'and not to-tear iSOT^^^R I destroy,' but' to ~b uiia Besant, who;can see only 1 *|§||llß [ itf-ths'languago ; o£I)r. M^jgaßßms