NEWS AND NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 31 October 1927, Page 1

NEWS AND NOTES.

ENTER. ISLAND TELEPHONE. Since the inter-island telephone across Cook Strait was brought into use on August 20 in Auckland, the number of people taking advantage of the extended service had been considerably increased, with the result that the Department is now fully satisfied. Anticipation has been exceeded, and it is reported that conversations can lie carried in freely to points as far south as Dunedin. AVlien conditions arc Suitable,; connections are given with smaller bureaux. Opinion in the South is also that the inter-island system is giving every satisfaction, but it is stated that the Department does not. intend to connect up places from where inter-island messages cannot he heard clearly. So tar the service has been confined largely to business calls. With ample accommodation in the daytime, callers have an average wait of from ten to fifteen minutes, but at night. when the traffic is heavy, they may have to wait as long as an hour.

TISIE.S HAVE CHANCED. In the old days there were some of the South Sea islands where European visitors were greeted with a war dance and a display of clubs and spears, but times have changed. On an extended island cruise. H.M.S. Laburnum called at a. number of out-of-the-way places, and in nearly every instance the men of the Navy were challenged to play a game of cricket The members of the team front the warship found that the standard of play was very good, and they did not always win, perhaps for the reason that the devastating ball known as the “dead shooter' 1 is fairly common on Pacific atolls. Any clothing, apart from the loin cloth, the native players regard as superfluous, and they consider that a pair of trousers rather

cramps a lie’s style. Bare feet are used for stopping the balls, and leg guards are considered infra dig. On some of the islands a cricket match has been known to last a month, as there is no limit to the number on a side.

AVI IAT A. CHICK WANTS. One hundred thousand livable chicks—chicks from thrifty 2-10 egg strains—-in New Zealand before next Christmas will perish in pain and misery. Cannot we save these little innocents? asks the “New Zealand Smallholder.'’ To begin with. we seem not to realise that a baby chick is totally unlike a baby human. AA'o y.oddle a baby human. The chick does 'not need coddling. The baby human is a creature of the cradle, discovering its muscles unhurriedly in such a (plaint absurd little camouflage of exorcise. The bally chick, on the other hand, jumps to it. Let us see that we give it room to jump. Did you over see on a lawn or in a little hack yard—or a big yard, for that matter—a wondrous erection of hoards, battens, netting, sacks, and a box. one yard square all over all. representing a chicken farm? Inside these prison walls are sundry saucers that get upset anon, and the atmosphere around speaks of sourness. AVhat a chick wants is. as much as possible, the run of the world—the open spaces, things to creep under and spring over, endless expectations that, bring them clamouring poll mell. and now and then n sudden alarm to stampede from. As with grown-up humans, so with chickens—work, work is the great life-saver.

THE QUIET HOLIDAY. “The annual holiday has definitely established itselt as an integral part of modern life, hut it may easily he over-organised,” writes “A.L.” in the “Birmingham Post.” “AA’o half despise ourselves if we sit still in the open air, listening, say, to a hand of music; and, if so, is it not because 1 wo have not properly learned the value of ‘the pause?’ Tn an orchestral performance, as everybody knows •there is sometimes a moment- when all the music ceases; the musicians bend over their instrument, the conductor heats time with his baton, hut no sound emerges. AA'hat is this silence? Tt is, of course, planned as part of the music, and is as tolling ns any preceding or following crash and harmony. So in hours when we are still there are recuperative forces working within us. and their value lies in what preceded them and what comes after them. Yet how few ot us dare cultivate quietness.”

THE BOLD SURE STEP TO PEACE. “The problem of peace lias to he studied on the wide and complicated field of national psychology. and though that may make it more intricate than some of our pence movements may like to admit it does not make it insoluble. Now. the hold and sure step is for nations to outlaw war and take the necessary steps to do so. The nation that accepts war must always he able to persuade itself that it is to come out of the struggle with victory. Make that undeniably impossible and the world will have peace and the security which nations now instinctively sock in arms and alliances they will seek in a behaviour that can be approved by a judiciary. Once the nations have that security the arms necessary for their defensive or offensive action in the event of their having to defend themselves will disappear, and disarmament will come because no reason for armaments beyond police obligations will exist.” ~ Mr Ramsay Macdonald.

THE BISHOP ASKS WHY?' “Why should we not encourage our people, far more than we do. to have the spirit of enterprise and go out and serve their country abroad, rather than cling to the more cushy and comfortable home jobs?” says the Bishop of London in his hook, “Some World Problems.’’ “We must throw ourselves,’’ he continues, “in a way as a people we have never yet done into tae great experiment of the League of Nations. Humanly speaking, this great Christian effort is the only chance of averting another war.”