WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 305, 19 September 1921, Page 4

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

NOTES AT RANDOM

(By

T.D.H.)

I am not prepared to agree with the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal, but the general opinion in football circles is that anyhow there is little to chooso between the Now Zealanders and South. Africans.

A dentist has lanced tho abscess on Mr. Lloyd George's tooth.—The next preliminary to an Irish settlement will be to reduce the swelling in Mr. De Valera’s head.

Tho latest joke in British political circles: they say that when tho Primo Minister of Great Britain goes to America his telegraphic address is to be: "George, Washington."

I had hoped to have Dr. Bumpus’s views on the third Test for this morning, but unfortunately the task of digging the Doctor out cf the clay face on the western side of the park is not expected to ba completed until after we go to press.

In a brief interview on Saturday the Doctor stated that, although he had been praying for a wet Saturday for three ,4 weeks, it was his intention after this to keep quiet and let Providence run the weather to suit itself.

While superintending the erection of the tackle for lifting Dr. Bumpus yesterday, Major Fitzurs© said that much, as the Doctor was against self-advertise-ment, still he hoped I would direct attention to the extreme accuracy of the Doctor's forecast of tho match. Exactly as the omens portended, the forces at work had neutralised each other, ana neither the greenness of the spring had predominated nor was there a corpse in black for a funeral. If the Government had had sense enough to appoint the Doctor to run the Weather Bureau the nublic would bo told with some reliability when it was necessary to put on a diving suit to go up to the Athletic Park.

Bv the war, Major Fitzurse says ho s not surprised .-t the result of the Insn. negotiations. As a macmurrisli he did not need t he that Mr. Valera would refuse to be trapped into peace. The trouble wit the English, the Major says, is that they never have the sense to see that what they will persist in calling the Irish problem is not a problem at all, but a state of nature. If the Irish had not got the English to squabble with Preland would be faced with the horrible alternative of civil war or building an expensive navy to go and have it out with someone else.

John Wesley onee assembled 30,000 Cornishmen at Gwennap lit fol » prayer meeting, hut so far as km it was a fine day. I should like W think that 30.000 New Zealanders would have attended in the rain at th e Ath letio Park on Saturday for a piaye meetin-, but I have my doubts. Besides a. football match Dempsey and Carnentier are about the only people I know of who would induce thousands of them to sit as they did °n for hours in the ram and mud some travelling 300 and 400 miles, and back in wet clothes all the way, too. Ono Maori who was dmng this, and remarkins; on his own amazing foolishness, vias told that his case was not ncaili as bad as that of tho Maori who went o the Rotorua match. His boss would not give him two days leave, so he had to wait until the night before the”?tchwhen he borrowed a horse and rode right and most of next morning to get there on time. Bolting a ”> p «t pie and q. bottle of lemonade by way of luncft he made.for the ground and secured a seat very tired 1 and very well pleased with himself. The wait for game to start was a long one, and the next thing ho knew was that he had been wakened bv a loud burst of cheering and on looking around he saw the crowd making their wav towards the gates. Poor Hori had slept all through the match he had ridden all night to see.

The Guest is in search of all sorts of things besides tho ice and the Antarctic. She is to hunt among other things for the lost Pacific island. of Tunaki, mentioned! in missionary history and native legend, but never seen. She will also try to settle the iwint whether, despite all the atlases, there really is such a place as Dougherty Island She takes a mail for Tristan d Acunha, lucky if its gets letters once in three year! Gough Island, 4000 feet high and eight miles lone, is to be paidl a second visit, for about the only recorded landing was by scientists m 1904. In South Trinidad, which is very much south of the other Trinidad, Sir Fmost Shackelton is to explore a. petrified’ forest of which ho had a glimpse once before. The undertaking, it seems wil bo a sort, of iu-Quest on lost and strayed islands.

4 paragraph in Saturdays issue rioted that Death had retired on superannuation I understand that this announceinent. following on tho declaration of a French scientist that Death is an unnecessary incident in human existence, has caused much perturbation in undertaking circle?

If an incident which occurred nt Athletic Park on Saturday be any criterion, the. age of chivalry is v.ot yet past. Just prior to the commencement of tho big match, 1 noticed n little boy with ono arm gathering empty bottles in a handbag. Ho was very wet and bediaggled, and one of the spectators who was evidently touched by the boy’s method of making a few pence, threw him a coin. The signal was taken up by others in tho vicinity, and for nearly an hour coins were literally showered at tho lad, ranging in value from a penny to half a crown. With such rapidity was the money contributed that tho delighted boy hadl to bo assisted by some of tho by-standers to gather the, coins in, and tho pocket of tho large overcoat ho was wearing proving too incommodious a coffer, it was found necessary to transfer the proceeds to a sugar-bag. His countenance alight with gratitude and pleasure, the boy bowed to the equally delighted crowd, and with his bag over his shoulder, and accompanied by a thoughtful member of tho detective staff, he made his way home to his mother. As tho boy left the ground a great number of spectators joined heartily in the singing of For He’s a Jollv Good Fellow.’ I always knew the football public of Wellington were good sports.'

THERE’S ROOM FOR MOST THINGS. There's room for most things: Tropic seas. Poll-parrots, beer, tho Vicar s teas, Juno nights, transparent Winter dawns, Tulips ablaze on Summer lawns, Queer jungle fruits of mammoth size, And gay Brazilian butterflies; Chalk cliffs built up of tiny shells, Delicate mist and faint bluebells, The sparrow’s brown, the peacock’s tail) Cathedrals; Florence Nightingale; Gaby Deslys; Paris, the small Village tucked snugly round 1 the Hail.— Yes, room for all if only each Will live content, nor strive to preach Its own perfection os the end Towards which the Universe should te/id.