Heard on the Train.

Manawatu Times, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 12751, 25 March 1914, Page 5

Heard on the Train.

I see Mr Massey intends to -visit London next year as New Zealand's representative. He must feel pretty sure of his seat and also of a majority in the House.

Evidently he doesn't expect to go back to the leg rope and gum boots to which Bob SempTe would relegate him.

Why do you call him "Bob" Semplef

Well, didn't he call the Prime Minister "Bill" Massey f

That was discourteous, but why imitate a bad example? Perhaps you remember that when Mr John Morley published a book in which throughout he spelt God with a small "g" the London Times in its critique referred to "m,. John morley," no capitals being used.

Do you believe in this hypnotic suggestion, which a doctor alleges haa cured rheumatic anthritist

My dear boy, the mind has a wonderful influence over, the body. You get half a dozen men in succession to tell another that he is not looking well, and even if he was in the pink of condition when he left home, he will be a fairly sick man by the time he reaches his office./ It is not long since a Wanganui doctor amputated a man's leg, without pain, as he had hypontically suggested to the patient that he would feel none, and I could tell you of many wonderful eases in Masterton, where a qualified medical practitioner has long used hypnotic suggestion as an aid to both surgery and medicine.

But don't the patients come completely under the power of the hypnotist?

There is no truth in that idea. No man can hypnotise anyone against his will, nor will a&/ suggestion be effective that is opposed to the moral sense of the subject.'

But this implies that the imagination has great power over the body. Well, look at the testimonials to Blank's Bread Pills for Pink People, and Quackenboss's Tonic for Tribulation. Do you suppose that these have any real merits! Do you remember the story of the traveller who met the Demon of the Plague on the way to Damasius and reproached the fiend for killing ten thousand in Aleppo, and was answered—"l only killed ten; the rest died of fright."

The Carnival Queen seems to have been a very valuable asset to the promoters of Wanganui's Festival. Out of receipts totalling £2OOO her election brought in £I2OO. Why don't they told Carnivals in other towns? I see Palmereton wants to raise money for the District Nurse.

I'm sorry to see that Mr McNab cannot contest Mataura seat at next election. He's a good strong man, no matter what side of politics he belongs to. I don't think he's very strongly wedded to either side, and you never can tell what the next turn of the political whirligig will reveal. He may find some more congenial companions next time, or may even form a party for himself. He is pretty sure of a seat somewhere if he stands, especially in the ' South. The trouble with our polities is that good men are frozen out, or if they get in find themselves on the wrong side. What a pity we have not adopted the system of an Elective Executive? It's rather rough that the Shipping Federation should propose to lay up steamers so that freight rates may be increased, just as one braneh has 1 reduced the freight charges on flax. But what can you do? Combines are getting a grip on most things, and they can do as they please. The only cure seems to be State intervention, and that is always risky. Well, Bellamy, who was a bit of a prophet, in his '' Looking Backward,' 7 predicted that "the time must come when the State would have to take over the Trusts and control the whole work of production and distribution. ' That would never work so long as you have party government, nor would it be desirable to destroy individualism. VIATOR.