RANDOM REMARKS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 531, 8 January 1913, Page 5

RANDOM REMARKS.

By "Onlooker." The holidays are over and the change in the weather is accentuating the deplorable fact Still, nothing is an unmixed evil 'tis said, and the rain will lead to many optimistic remarks concerning • turnips. JThe material things of life are frequently and aptly represented by turnips and when people commence, to consider seriously the winter fodder it may be taken for granted that the holiday season has fled. To the ordinary' person the necessity of providing for the rainy days effectually operates against the holiday mood. People with permanently soured dispositions, chronic livers, or a general capacity for pessimism may regard such a circumstance with a gloomy satisfaction, but tha hoilday mood does muoh for mankind, and makes possible the work which tarns the wheels of progress. When a normal man has really worthy work to his satisfaction his "first thought is a holiday. When the hoilday has been accomplished satisfactorily his compelling thought is further work.

The foregoing remark does not refer to bowler?. The bowler lives for one object only, and as a national influence the grand and gloriouß occupation (I had almost called it "game") stands for British character. Waterloo may have been won on the playing fields of England, but long before Waterloo bowls took a prominent band in directing the affairs of more than one great nation. A game that can develop the fighting instinct that crumpled the Spanish Armada and trailed the flag of Spain in the dust may justly claim high rank among a nation's cherished idiosyncrasies. One only has to think of the great and grand traditions associated with bowls to realise that the exalted mien and the general air of "spurning the earth" adopted by the bowler is fully justified. '

Naturally such an important and progressive centre as Te Kuiti is noted Cor its bowlers, and the "attitudes struck on the local green are quite in keeping with the great traditions associated with the noble pastime. As yet there has been no Armada. conquered by the local heroes, but one can readily imagine that if the hated flag of an execrated enemy appeared on the broad reaches of the Mangaokewa doughty deeds would be done. In the present peaceful days, however, there is little scope for valour attaching to bowls, and it ia more as a social force that the mark is made by the modern game. Occasionally a vagrant soul overcome by the old-time fighting spirit developed by indulgence in bowls runs amuck, but reports of such outbreaks-are carefully suppressed in the inteiests of the game. In order to obviate such happenings locally the .originators of the Te Kuiti club wisely associated a croquet lawn with the bowling green. Non being a bowler I am ignorant as to whether the desired end was achieved.

Great activity is usually shown by the local bowlers during holiday season and journeys are made to distant places by club representatives with the object of adding lustre to the Te Kuiti record. That the race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong no doubt accounts for the fact that the local players usually return without the laurels,and journey by the night train. Recently Te Kuiti teams have been fighting valiantly on foreign soil to uphold the dignity of the King Country, but they've had no luck: The reason for -their ill success was carefully explained to me by- a member of the team, but his expressions were somewhat technical and I may have obtained a wrong impression. However, I gathered that in the most important games some of the players got "stymied" and others "dropped their bundles." Moreover, the bunker* were very severe and necessitated the use of the "googly." My informant may have been biassed, but he would not admit that the team suffered in any way from hospitality. Such common affliction is left for the footballer, and is carefully eschewed by the self-respecting bowlsr.