NOTES BY THE WAY

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXV, Issue 3373, 3 October 1931, Page 5

NOTES BY THE WAY

(By Rambler.) This gold standard business—what is it all about? The people of the United States and France might be able to answer better than we can in New. Zealand. It is something to know that Great Britain's credit, even if based on paper, is nearly as good as that of France and the United States, with their hoardings of gold. What a difference there is between the man who has beans and the .man who has been. At the start of Mark Twain's literary career his employer was faced with the problem of a scarcity of gold and even of the "green back," and the employees in the newspaper office had to be paid in kind by pumpkins, marrows, pigs, maize and firewood. It was a heavy task taking home Saturday's pay in those days, but in this country we still have the pound note, and can carry on without having to cart home swedes, turnips, potatoes or a sheep at the week-end. A Mark Twain story that will be appreciated by some of our local golf players:— Mark Twain refused to play golf himself, but he once consented to watch a friend play. The friend was rather a duffer. Teeing off, he sent clouds of earth flying in all directions. Then to hide his confusion, he said to his guest: "What do you think of our links here, Mr. Clemens?" "Best I ever tasted," said Mark Twain, as he wiped the dirt from, his lips with his handkerchief.

His Excellency the GovernorGeneral, Lord Bledisloe, was at least candid in his speech delivered at Te Kuiti on the occasion of his visit here on Monday. His Excellency stated that he was really on a health trip and his doctor had told him to do as little public speaking as possible. "These speeches do not do me any good, or for that matter anyone else," His Excellency stated, amidst laughter.

A correspondent in the Chronicle this week in a letter dealing inter alia with politics and the outlook in general says, "The gospel of Tiard and honest toil and the exercise of thrift' is obsolete and must be replaced with a gospel of 'more leisure and a higher standard of living for everyone." ' —Many people will agree with this view.

I haven't heard of the ex-Kaiser expressing an opinion on the cause of the world depression.

"The old established customs of society," remarked the patron of a Wellington hotel, as he sadly gazed at a prominent placard in the bar, which read after this fashion: "Wellington Licensed Victuallers' Association. Patrons are notified that bar attendants are strictly forbidden to 'shout' for customers. Failure to observe this rule will mean instant dismissal." "it is stated that patrons who hurriedly left this particular hotel for another only ran into the same inexorable placard. Another win for "home brew."

"KVAS kilowats, or Kangaroos, or whatever they are called," observed a member at yesterday's meeting of the Wairere Power Board when seeking to express himself in technical electrical terms.

A kiwi has been found wandering on private grounds in Auckland and sentenced to imprisonment for life in the zoo as an undesirable.

It is evident that the people of India vary much in their tastes. While Mr. Gandhi lives mostly on goat's milk and nuts, we read of some native woodcutters dying through eating a dead crocodile that had been buried for two days.

There are over 40 applications for permission to hold art unions. If we keep going long enough there will be no need to fear any depression for the individual even though the Rtate becomes bankrupt.

These Coalition Governments are not working out to schedule. In Britain the Conservatives want an early election; the Liberals don't, while the Labour Party can't make up its mind on the matter. In New Zealand the Reform-United Party Government won't have an election till the finances have been stabilised, which may mean years. With Mr. Holland's promise to restore the 10 per cent, cut, Labour wants to test the feeling of the people by an election.