The Chronicle. PUBLISHED DAILY WEDNESDAY. JUNE 8. 1910. CUI BONO?

Horowhenua Chronicle, 8 June 1910, Page 2

The Chronicle. PUBLISHED DAILY WEDNESDAY. JUNE 8. 1910. CUI BONO?

An-item of .intelligence circulated throughout New Zealand last week stated- that "Mr Jas. Stint on. of AVestport, regained the piano endurance record, playing at W a ill i continuously for sixlv-'two hours ten minutes, whicli is five minutes ahead of tlie previous record." Philosophers -may well begin to doubt whether tihe world really progresses iiv these days, having regard to the many fatuous pursuits of notoriety that .are recorded mouth after month and year after year; strivings 'after showy inessentials that cast shade upon 'much more worthy but more prosaic pursuits and endeavours. Our own opinion, is 'that Mr James Stirton, after he had played continuously on the piano for sixty hours and ten minutes, should have been compelled to listen dumbly to the Scotch pipes, played by learners, for a .similar continuous period of time. Since the late Air Pa.nnell began in New Zealand the practice of continuous piano playing there has been a long succession of "better and best" attempts that- have "vexed the drowsy ear of night" for quite n lengthy period. What good does it .avail anybody when these somiendlcss chromatic co.ncnteiiation.s are fingered out so drowsily from the keyboad;? Even the "Blue Dan.nhe" . becomes monotonous when played through fifty times or so, and tlio same wiean'someness distinguishes "The "Watch on the RMlne" when it has .Basted long enough to be an eight-day-clotak.

The world, in fact is .suffering from a fever of energes and it is .subject lor wonderment in tlie.se days of alleged reformation by .skituto law. that nobody has introduce/.! into Parliament an Act to make compulsory tlie confining to utilitarian aveiwies of all endurance tests or demoustrations. , ILickensimitli wrestling with the wood heap would he a much more useful person to the world than «lio was when he spent his time endeavouring to overthrow other muscular giants to whom genuine work was a si ranger; and all the 'loin Burrowes and Tom Baxes who have ,swung Indian diib.s for a week or so without stopping;, -have put their energies info tiresome channels, though it is l>ut fair to add tint Max, at Icasf. has spent fhe greater part of liis life ill; useful work, with cliili swinging .sandwiched in as a sort of A'cry occasional muscular •:i.!t!-.n-i!iiin. Some cf the endurance 'tests are incidrnitally uselul because lII' the bodily development tdivy re(|iiire as conditions precedent to success, hut. they possess a predisposition lo over-reach the liia.ik of hen i'fi t.