OBITER DICTA.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19202, 7 January 1928, Page 12

OBITER DICTA.

[By K]

There appeared in The Tress one day this week a very curious story of some companionate divorce or other which inspired the "Daily Express" to discover that people—which is to say, English people—are sick of humbug, and prefer plain grilled truth. It is true, I am afraid. For S7 years 1 have seen the Old Year out nnd the Now Year in. eujoyiug the noise and sharing to the full the popular rejoicing over the ending of a thoroughly bad and dissolute and decrepit Old Year and the popular welcome to the new and better age. But this time the populace did not turn a hair. The newspapers did not print articles about it. There seemed to be a general agreement that Life is ODYAA and that the only difference between December 31st and January Ist is that one is 24 hours later than the, other. But what—so I fail to hear you ask—what of Mr Sidey and his summertime? As you do not ask it, T ask it myself. And the answer is, that owing to' Mr Sidey New Zealand began the New Year one hour earlier than any other country on earth. Ido not knowhow this happened, or whether it happened; I merely read about it in the meteorological news. Now, this means that Ave New Zealanders have actually had an extra hour of life fin's year already. Which I hope you all spent it usefully, as you ought fo of.

More usefully, I hope, than (he rest of the world lias been spending its time, for the world has been going on as usual. Yet a spirit of enquiry and adventure is abroad. The Press is worried about wheat, Mussolini is worried about his hair, which is growing thin like poor old D'Annunzio's, Dean Inge is just worried, like Mr Coates, Mr Archer is 'worried because he may not be able to tell the next Royal visitor that Cathedral square, like the hotel of the advertisement, is "replete with lavatories." But these are all Conservatives, worrying about the same old things. The new spirit of enquiry and worry is that which peeps out in such messages as made Wednesday's paper cheerful reading for me. The first was about Skjellerup's Comet, and related that some American astronomer thought that " Skjellerap" (the comet) may only be Divico, who appeared in 1846, basing his opinion upon pcrihelions and nodes and other fearful wildfowl. But other observations, he added, must be made before, the point can be thought settled. That is the kind of thing that is worrying the astronomers, although I doubt whether any - single reader of these notes has given it a thought. And then there is the picture of Mona Lisa. The Louvre authorities, by means of X-rays, have proved that the pigments are of the year 1500 A.D., which proves that the Mona Lisa stolen in 1911 was not by Leonardo da Vinci but by another artist o,f the same name. " The news," the cable message added, "is too good to be kept secret." Let us hope that

the astronomers will Soo n be ~' sleep as peacefully as At JM Louvre. But what we others <is iho meantime to consider U qZ, ? world cannot be thought of w J out when the pigments in Mon, and the asteroids, or asterisks, or »w ever they are, in Skjelfcrnp 5 Divico arc making pcoplc t «* beds. a "**

The enemies of progress, h amongst whom 1 am enrolled, be dismayed by s-uch signs as tU? Let them take comfort from such dk signs of the hardened nnd in Te " normalcy " of the world' as j! Maurice Jaeks's complaint drcn are growing up with the taM shadowy notions of what j(Zj means.'' What persuaded Mr j!!l of this disturbing truth was ha? scrvation of the fact that Bill driw his father to Shirley and beatal? 10 and S. and thou goes home m) tells mother that 250 better ftJ? have come out since "Mc and it Shadow," and that Adolphe Mcojont a relic. "But he is in completed norancc," Mr Jacks adds, "of fcJ beasts, and flowers." Since, is difficult to keep the conversation* the aepyornis, the whale, and tbiW celandine, the poor parents cannot h establish the old ascendancy of K days when Tennyson intoned to a lw flowing with milk and water. \\' t reassuring to hear the voice of fc Jacks deploring the degeneracy of & age; and it is completely contfm ing to hear Bishop Barnes t Birmingham warning England aboe the "largo families of unjti nnd the "headway mndo by pj, lific pcoplc of lower culture.". jj, world is not in much danger Triiflji can depend upon hearing from & highbrows that it' is going iioJdW to Hell.

There are many ways to Hell d course, as Miss Maude Hoyden had b go to America to find out. For tla talented lady smokes, and, cigarjtti in hand, accepted invitations to fo hire for the Methodist Episcopil Church "Women's Home Misaontn Society. It was not to be expeeitj that this Society, which united till the Ku Klux Klan and Mr VolsiaJ and Tennessee to excommunicate i man who interfered with the natehl growth of the gladiolus, would atop) the gospel from lips which had cmittH smoke-rings. Therefore the JLE.C.if; H.M.S. in Chicago told her that'Gtf does not smoke, even if Cal. Cdolidji does, and, that they wished to canal her lectures. Miss Koyden, unlike lit Isitt, can go without her pipo for jj| hours 30 minutes, and it really don not matter a button to her, as it explained, whether she sraokei ill America or not, but she feels oWipjl to blow a ring or two in order to Jet the disinfected female Christianity ei Chicago know that nicotine gott till religion. Not that it matters.",, Bui I am glad to know that Moagb oli Bill Bryan is ba grave, and so forth. At},',i happy New Year to everybody. ■■"An