OBITER DICTA.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19132, 15 October 1927, Page 16

OBITER DICTA.

(By K) "It has been a very dull week; there is nothing to write about." So I complained, but a helpful friend said, "Well, write down to the week; nobody will know the difference. As a matter of fact there is a subject: the failure of the lights in Parliament." There is nothing much in that, nothing remarkable about it except that Mr Coates wished to go on in the dark, while the others pretended that they could not talk except in the glare. I should have thought it remarkable that i nobody in the gallery took the opportunity to throw heavy, and if possible, , lethal things at the malefactors in ! the murk, were it not that the spirit of freedom and enterprise has disappeared from our land along with the sound doctrine that it is always suitable to v maim a politician. Our politicians are like the oreen fly: one hopes each spring that one. can get rid of them, but one never can. One can only curse them. But as Mr Witty said at the meeting of the Waimakariri River Trust, "blasting is not worth a rap." He leaned towards damming, but that is just as useless. The politicians will go on for' ever. This is how they are going on just now: Things were settling down when the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates suggested that the item under discussion should be allowed to go .through.' Mr J. A. Lee: We- have been threatened. Mr Coates: Oh, be reasonable! Mr M. J. Savage (Auckland West): Ministers should be reasonable. The Hoft. W. Nosworthy (Postmas-ter-General) : We have been reasonable. Mr Savage: The Postmaster-General has not shown much of it. Mr H. E. Holland talked of broken promises, but the Bubject was settled at last, and the House adjourned after passing 157 clauses in the Tariff schedule. Mr H. E. Holland described this as a profitable day, but the Government considered it insufficient. It' is difficult not to be a pessimist. The Bank of England by optimists, for its new building, to cost £5,000,000, will be built with the settled purpose of lasting 1000 years. Dean Inge, however, says there will be no England, and Comrade Holland says there will be no banks, by the year 2000 A.D., which is, as it were, next week. And a correspondent of The Press has been demonstrating I that only a fool will say that disease is declining. -He has counted the hospitals, pushing his, way through the hordes of doctors. It is doubtful, he says, if we show wisdom in saving the lives of infants. There were noPlunket nurses in Kelson's day, nothing but salt pork and. mildew, and yet we beat the French. The French, to be sure, had no dental clinics or eurythmie dancing classes, so that the victory of Nelson was not so conclusive a demonstration of the value of scurvy as I should like. As I should like, I say, for I have a strong inclination towards the opinion of the correspondent referred to. His questions are pertinent: "Why are we covered with hospitals? Why are millions spent on our health? Why such & number of doctors and nurses? We did not have them- in my grandfather's time. Why all this trouble with our teeth and our nervous system?" Whether one agrees with Dean Inge or with the,cheerier person wjbo owns the Bank of England' (a possession that would make anybody cheerful) one must agree that these questions are more to the point than, say, the question raised by Mr W. A. Veitch, M.P., as reported yesterday: "On Item 35D, 'Pipes, Piping, Tubes, Tubing (Except Coil Pipes)' Mr Veitch raised the question of giving protection to smaller sized pipes."

The reactionary correshhSSil regrets the doctor-less ttSfflß Plunket grandsire has al%B people 80 much serves something i n ni^^M\M from one of Mr articles. of human nature, Mr Lya'HNß stimulants, even if lants. Moreover— *^B They are generally imm'j ' i H thorongh-Bofng nature. I h ave never l «fcfi mi<t who was not genuinelTLiiw I have known many a„ opthri!»*B was falsely sweet. three cases out of four, »,«»£ Afl of contemporary vice». It Tr addiction to covering up in a world in which necessary to ordinary satetj^lll^H But Mr Lynd believes, for that men arc as good as not better, or rather that f as bad as men, if not 'WorseTroflH phant, for example. If fa his dreams, we might find. Freud's methods, that he is The robin thinks nothing ofl!$aB his parent. "As for the Jezebel was a saint compared tfkfß If the heroine of a sex play ed the female spider in her beSB the Censor would 6tcp in, «mJH!SMi Even the sheep is guilty of ttajyß pride and envy, as is shown by tbejyH of the bell-wether when its lJ?iii been taken away and given to tatH of the flock. Canaries have beealfiSß to be jealous of their own looking-glass. Rooks kill their JH crs as ruthlessly as Alva. Ttaffifiß living creature without -faulty jttSS except, perhaps, the earwig, BwJUflfl yon think ill of your neiAtowTßß probability is that there MQi&JHR good reasons for thinking ill 6t jm|B and his ass." So that we ttig&mß all, be worse than we aw. ' -^^i| Some difficult problems in the Auckland Presbytery'sffl|H| to ask the General apply for any further CTanWfflpHf Macartby Trust, some of whffijwßj are made out of breweries aMH The actual proposal was, no more grants should but that any sums should be refunded. The ; !rn BB would not agree to the seo*ttfc B the proposal. This was not M IBf if the money is "tainted" tj| |BH already received and exptli HB be doing grievous harm, I'll money was spent chiefly oi|| BB ing and clothing of the $1 118 must admire the consistent BB members of the Presbytery m BB purge the sin by equivalent of the ceived, bnt one can majority's reason for stout-stained bequests* able, I hope the reason lrii||i|B sound one that there is the Egyptians; but in thaVwaw|| not keep on spoiling one, I suppose, has the' queerness of ' gained by the honest and of accepting mo wJ|||lßf by the breach of one of tjjjJliPß mandments. What one I Presbytery to see is I "tainted money" in t little distinguishable the fetich-worshipper. iy§|j||B every Christian Church a; disagreeable heresy, inanimate material ™l||H| * by an evil spirit. Golf oars often seem to be, batayaMJWi perfectly good creatures. bytery were quite fuse to have anything J proceeds of the duty < " tt the totalisator taxes, the taint of these things SJBBiI to America. For every $ the tra|n it is using rived from these 6^™'l stf|Bß>i'i ■ ; '< '