WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 195, 15 May 1922, Page 4

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

NOTES AT RANDOM (By T.D.H ) The only definite impression to bo gathered from Genoa is that the conference is, or has been, in session, and may, or may not, sit again. Shootings and murders are said to be as common in .some Central American republics as in Ireland: the difference is that they accept the situation, and don’t waste money cabling the news abroad.

They aro rifling the churches in Russia—and may bo rifling the Poles presently.

Up at Apiti, back on the hills from Feilding, they are all very much interested in Miss Resina Buckman’s visit ,to New Zealand. In fact, for several months they have cherished the ambition of having Apiti’s new town hall opened by ,Aliss ■ Buckman. If this event is really to come off Apiti will have to bestir itself, for toe week before last, when I was up there, the building of'the town hall had not been begun—but possibly it does not take long to build a town hall of the dimensions required by Apiti. This little township on the Ruahine highlands claims Miss Buckman as its most distinguished daughter. With pride, any local resident ’of standing will point out the old Buckman homestead to the visitor. “Yes, sir,” he tells you, “on that there farm was raised the leading singer of the British Empire. ’Tis a gobd, sound stock we turn oul up here in Apiti. Sung before the King and Queen that Apiti girl did, and a treat for them to hear her!”

Still further back on .the tablelands I sat in the snug living-room of a mountain homestead, and heard the lady of the house recall how she had been responsible for the first public appearance of Miss Buckman as a vocalist by inviting her to sing at a school concert at the age of twelve or thereabouts. Later on a gentleman travelling the district with sewing machines listened to this Apiti girl, sing, and spread the fame of her voice to Palmerston, and the possibility of a musical career began to dawn. At least, that is how they tell toe story up in Apiti. and from what I could see of it, if Miss Buckman does leave tho hurly-burly behind and give n concert there it will be a red-letter day that will be talked of and discussed through the district for at least a generation.

Seventv-five years ago to-day Daniel • O’Connell died 'at Genoa on his wav to Rome. A hundred years ago he showed tho Irish what, agitation could do by organising millions of Irish Catholics into his league, and started the agitation habit, for which nobody in Ireland seems able to find any cure.

Literary Composition in a hurry was not the speciality of toe Galway constable who dispatched toe. following telegram' from .an outlying district to his sergeant:—“Motor. just passed at furious Tate in direction of town. Killed heifer, containing four gentlemen and two greyhounds, one of which is ,a clergyman.”

Alexander, toe Great wept for more worlds to conquer, but the legislators who set out on the Deceasod L Wife’s-Sister-quest are not so easily disconcerted'. With great regularity the Parliaments everywhere threw their Bills out each year, and then one after another in moments, of absentmindedness let* them slip through. Most of us wondered what the. promoters of the Bills would do without their legislative hobby, but it seems that they have onlv lust begun operations and intend to knock holes all through the tables of affinitv in the back of the Prayer Book. When they had finished ivith toe Deceased Wife’s Sister they took un the hardships of the Deceased Husband’s Brother, and according to a cable message on Saturday Mr. Athelstan Renda.il, the hero of toe piece, in Britain, is now busy arguing 'in support of uncles marrying tliqitr deceased nephew’s wives and aunts their deceased n ; ecos’ husband®. It would be rmkind to deprive our maiden aunts of any' matrimonial chance, but it seems a pity Mr. Rendall does not take up something more practical for a hobby—stamp collecting, for instance.

A nervous and devoted old lady was seeing her husband off on a sea voyage. "You will bo sure to. tell him what to do in case, of sea-sickness?” she begged his cabin steward, a dry old salt. “Ma’am,” he answered, “it ain’t necessary.”

There was a story in the “Town and Country” columns of The Dominion the other dnv —a story about a man who went rabbit-shooting. The man didn’t, shoot anv rabbits, so on his way home he bought a live rabbit from a small boj for lialf-a-crown. It is much better to come home from the hunt with something than with nothing, especially if there is a wife. and familv to feed, and more especially if the said wife and family would sooner you had stayed at home .and chopned firewood. Half-n-crown is a good deal to pay for a rabbit, but as an insurance against trouble it is dirt cheap. AVell. this man, having bought the rabbit, thought that he had better shoot it. A corpse is alwavs more convincing. But his reputation and bis half-crown being both at stake, he tied tho rabbit to a tree, stepped back a few paces and fired. 1 He missed the rabbit, but the shot cut tho string, and the rabbit got away.

Now, I don’t believe a word of that story. It is an amazing thing, but if you put a shot-gun or a fishing-rod into a man’s hands that man’s whole moral fibre becomes warped. He becomes a romancer. Not all nt once, mind you. He (begins, tentatively, with a little fib, something more like nn untruth than n lie. Peonle believe him. out of Irofinect for his social standing. Thon ho goes one better, and probably because he is.n deacon, on a vestry-man, or something in the YAI.C.A., ho gets awav with that too. After that-h's descent, is rapid. T remember a man tolling me that he h.nd made a rabbit got up into a. tree. Cross-examined, he admitted that it might have boon a manuka —in fact, ho believed, now he camo to think of it. that it was a manuka tree. But T couldn’t- shake him on the rnbbit part nf .it. He said that the rabbit was nibbling about in tho vicinity of tho manuka bush when ho let off his first barrel nt short range. Ho missed, hut the r n bbit was, so surnrised that it iunrnod’ about four foot into the air .and landed in the manuka bush. It was a first-class snorting romance, for it had inst enough probability—if von took off two foot from the inmn and reduced the height of the manuka bush‘a bit more, to carry it over. IT ENHURFS. “Friend, of my infinite dreams Little enough endures; Little howe’er it seems. It is yours, all yours. Fame hath a fleeting breath, Hone inav be frail or fond: But Love shall bo Love till death, And perhaps beyond” ?