POSTSCRIPTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 121, 23 May 1940, Page 10

POSTSCRIPTS

Chronicle and Comment

BY PERCY FLAGE

You miss, Melisande. Our war need is conscripts—not nondescripts. * * * Nicolai: Billboard seen in the city —"The Crisis and the Man." Surely this must be our Peter. *' * * Commentator: The freedom of the Press is the liberty to say what you think without thinking what you say. * * * Miss Errata: Quite right. It should be the "fifth column" —not the "fourth," and was so intended. * * * Anyhow, you cannot hope to'defeat the enemy twelve thousand miles away by sitting, down on your doorstep with a rifle across your knees.' * * . '■ * ..*. ■ Inquiry in a London weekly: "My fiance is due shortly for leave and rays, 'We'll spend it in the country.' Icn't it the limit of dreariness at this time of the year?" * # # SHOO! If we're attacked, we have this consolation, That we're a suburb of the British nation, And, fully armed with handles of a broom, We'll hurl the fierce invader to his doom. , THE NEW WORLD? Everyone is happy, Little birdies sing, Sopranos cease from screeching, And Crosbies do not Bing. " ' LEO. * * * OLD-TIME PLAYS. . H.P. writes: A correspondent asks who played "Skipped by the Light of the Moon." This very clever extravaganza, part pantomime, part burlesque, part variety show, was played at the Wellington Opera House (now the Regent) by a company headed by those two clever comedians, Gourlay and Walton. "The Land of the Moa," a crude melodrama, with an earthquake sensation, was played by the George Leitch company, aided by some local capital (which was swallowed up by the earthquake). It may interest some readers to learn that Harold Carr (whose real name was Tom McDermott, one who used to drive the horse tramcars in Wellington long ago)," and Cyril Keightley, were in the cast. "The Land of the Moa" was also played in the Old Opera House in Manners Street. G.H. and "Old-Timer" confirm H.P.s reference to the old plays mentioned. Thanks, everybody. * * ■■*•,■ "BY THE WAY." Say! I met Binks the other day. You mind Binks? Decent little ■ chap—yes, never interfered with nobody. You'd never catch him poking his nose in where 'tweren't wanted, like some as I could mention. Yes, he sold out to Jones, and went to live up Mud- . borough way. He tells me it ain't the place it was, since a "chap blew in from somewhere or other; one of; these preacher coves, called) himself ; a-j''Fol- tlower,., of KTehosophat,". wore • a '."frock coat and? a pitying' sort of smile''as if he knew for sure that you werfe all bound schooner-rigged for perdition, and that it was good to think that you was (and that he wasn't). You know the kind. Binks said that he liked the people and the place well enough when he went there first, but things are different now. The preacher chap dug in there, and now has'a church and a collection plate of his own. He tells the "Jehosophats" (and there's aplenty) that they are 0.X.. for crowns and harps later on if only they da as he tells them and believe in the way he interprets prophecies. Binks says the people in Mudborough are now mostly at loggerheads among themselves, especially on Sundays. Well. So long! , ■ M. SIRRON. #'" * * MORNING TEA MONOLOGUE. I'm not down-'earted, for I guessed Our Alleys would be 'ardly pressed _ By the foul Nasti jugglenaut, What is a diff'rent kind uv sort Than what they 'ad in the last war. But, dearie, as I said before, They made it 'ot for France them days An' Hingland, too. They 'ad a craze To get to Parries more than once, An 5 Lindendoff, 'c was no dunce. But did they get there? Did they break French 'carts when Verdant was at stake? All 'ist'ry knows they missed the bus, An' didden the ole Kaiser cuss An' scuttle orf to Dawn! Well, dear, Let's 'ope today's dark day will cleaj Like it did then, when all seemed lorst, At a most cripplin' 'eavy corst. Bill's tried to join the waterside, But so far 'c 'as been denied The right to work down on the wharf On Sundee, though 'c's gotta corf. •E wants to do 'c's bit to win The war. 'E doesn't care a pin Whether 'c gets ten bob an 'our On Sundees—'e 'as got the power An' strength—or less on Saturdee— 'Ell work to bring us victory. But some'ow 'c 'as 'ad no luck; 'E's pushin' still a little truck What 'c 'as 'ired aroun' the streets, Askin' 'ouse'olders who 'c : meets If they've got bottles for to sell, Or any large, big bones as well,^ • An' sometimes they are rude to lm— I say, what is a cherrybim? * # * UNTO THE FOURTH GENERATION. Tom L. Mills: The Rev. Maurice Pirani, who was inducted into the full priesthood of the Anglican Church on Trinity Sunday in St. Paul's ProCathedral by the Bishop of Wellington represents the' fourth generation of a family famous in the printing craft in journalism, and in politics in New Zealand. His great-grandfather, Mr H. C. Pirani, worked at the case and with his pen on the Golden West Coast of the South Island in the early days, and later migrated up to Napier, where he became editor of tne "Hawke's Bay Herald." Maurices grandfather. Mr. Fred Pirani, worked as a printer in Hokitika and on tne "Herald" in Wanganui. Early in his life he became a newspaper proprietor, owning in turn the Palmerston "Standard," the Hutt and Petone "Chronicle, and the Feilding "Star." He was M.H.B. for Palmerston in Seddonian days and occupied a foremost place in Education including the chairmanship ol the Wanganui Education Boarcu Maurice's father, Mr. Louis Pirani, acquired the Feilding "Star" from his father, and on the death of Mr Louis his widow became New Zealand s onlywoman newspaper managing director. On finishing his term at Wanganui Collegiate School, Maurice served in the various departments of the "Star." Then came the call to the Church, and he was so successful in his theological examinations that today he is the youngest priest in the Anglican Church mthe Dominion. He was born in Wellington. As his grandfather's, his fathers, and his mother's partners, I offer thf Rev. Maurice Pirani my sincerest o»** gratulations.