THINGS IN GENERAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15518, 28 January 1914, Page 12

THINGS IN GENERAL.

HARXfeS$f& THE TRAVELLER.

There can lie no other country where, there are so many noises to the mil© of lailway travel as in New Zealand, and roost of Iho poises are quite unnecessary, ("hero is the "screeching of engines entering and leaving railway stations, for infUui". j u trains glide in and out '•f sl.iiK.i!, almost without sound. Another nuisance for which there, is not the tlighteM excuse is the hideous din of gongs at wayside stations. Most people have sufficient intelligence t<. ]-►*>!< for a refreshment, room if they wa.it one. and there is no reason why travellers should be subjected t.i nil the row that a restaurateur anxious in catch some stray iixjiences cares to inflict on thorn. These wayside noise* .Tie bad enough during the day, but when they are made at night, as sometimes happens, they aro intolerable. Another unnecessary nuisance on long journeys is tho constant checking of tickets. Why the, Kimo guard should find it necessary to wake one several times during the night to 800 the same ticket is a problem I have never solved, though I have asked) the guard rather pointedly on several occasions. With the growing volumo of traffic on tho .Main Trunk line it ought to be practicable to set aside a carriage or carriages in each class for through passengers from Auckland to Wellington. If this is not possible, guards might at least In instructed to follow the American system and give each passenger, after examining his ticket, a check showing his destination. This could bo worn in tho hat or coat or placed on tho window by the seat, and tho guard could come and examine it as often as he liked without necessarily waking tho passenger. It may not f>o possible to avoid taking more than twico as long to go from Auckland to Wellington as the samo distance would take in England, and it may not be possible to minimise the jolting of the train, but, lie waking of such passengers as can sn.it< h a few hours' sleep by tho repeated examination of tickets and by noises on (ho station platform is quite unnecessary and should not be tolerated. Aeroplaning for Health. Now that the Dominion has an aeroplane now possibilities in health-resorting aro opened up. Medical men toll us that the people of the chief centres of New Zealand,' living as they do at sea level, should occasionally have a change to bracing, mountain air. Tho Tourist Department has been trying to persuade us to climb Mount Ruapehu, or Mount Egmont, or Mount Cook, but that is hard work. How much easier to step into the monoplane behind Mr. Hammond and be whisked up a few thousand feet without the drudgery of walking. When Mr. Hammond made his first flight over the city he was 2000 ft up, or a fifth of the height of Mount Ruapehu,' and he was then keeping low so. /that, we might, sea him. I am euro tie air 2000 ft or 3000 ft above Auckland is sufficiently invigorating for most people without going higher. Even aboveLondon tho atmosphere is tolerably pure at that height* ( Some steeplejacks who were engaged recently re-gilding the cross above St. Paul's made the discovery that their appetites were sharper than when they were working on lower levels and they wer'o quite free from sneezes and shivers, which, when cno considers, is in London a rather, wonderful thing. If, then, the dome of St. Paul'a is such an excellent health resort, I am sure an aeroplane trip above Auckland every morning before breakfast would build up tho most delicate constitution. \ Winston Churchill's Record, Although one distinguished New Zealand politician has made an aeroplane flight, in the person of Sir Joseph Ward, his record will bear no comparison with that of Mr. Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty; 'who has been more in the air than any other Minister in any country in the world,. and , has . acquired a large store of theoretical knowledge. Mr. Churchill' has gone up in every type of machine owned by the navy and has taken all the riskn ordinarily taken by an officer. He spent last Parliamentary recess visiting the navy's new air stations and took every opportunity of making a flight. The Tango. Is the tango immodest? Tho critics of the dance certainly form a distinguished group. The Vatican has instituted a crusade against it as offensive to purity, King George and Queen Mary have disapproved of it, and the Kaiser has forbidden the dancing of the tango by officers in uniform. This weight of opinion certainly demands-respect and the Kaiser's action is significant, for the German Emperor is himtelf an expert dancer and insists on a high standard at State balls. At all those functions the court, dancing master occupies a place of vantage and any clumsiness or mistake brings to the delinquent a polite intimation that he must mend his steps or absent himself from dances at Court On the other hand, many people whose opinions are worth considering declare the tango to be graceful and not in the least indelicate, and complain that those who condemn the tango have not seen it done properly, and confuse it with the " bunny-hug" and "turkey trot." Probably there is something in this contention. That these dances were vulgar is beyond question, but the defenders of the real tango claim that it is the antithesis of these dances ..and is characterised by delicacy and dignity. There are 200 recognised steps in tho tango, though for ballroom purposes' 25 only are generally used. Ibis probable that the real tango, ■which comes from tho Argentine, is quite modost and decent, and that various burlesques and adaptations passing under its name have caused it to fall into disrepute. A dance with so many defined steps could hardly, in its original form, lend itself to riot or abandon. This is borne out by a lecturer before the French Institute of Paris, wlk> declared that the dances of ancient Greece had a strong resemblance to tho tango, and that girls could be seen dancing on pottery in the British Museum in much tho samo stylo as now. Psychology of Dancing. Tho psychology of dancing is interesting. In no- placo but a ballroom would ono be permitted to place his arm round the waisfc'of .tfio lady to whom he has just been introduced, and to keep the arm there after the musio stopped would bo out of bounds."; Dancing—and for that part mistletoe and ' Christmas partieswould seem'to/becupy the samo place.'in tho social world as vaccination does in medicine. You have smallpox artificially communicated to your arm to procure immunity from the disease, and you are permitted to hold a girl's waist while dancing to discover, I suppose, how unpleasant a sensation it really is. Kissing under the mistletoe is permitted on tlie understanding that thuro shall bo no kissing during the rest of tho year. Soma-. (

times, as in the case of tbo tango, the vaccine is not satisfactory and it has to be declared unfit for use. Our Amazing Prosperity. Wo talk of bad times and trade losses, but it is many years since Auckland really experienced a pinch. We had a strike towards the end of last year and vre drew long faces and commiserated each other. Yet the Exhibition is proving a financial success ; we had nearly £284,000 to spare for the totalisator during the Christmas holidays; and more Aucklandens are able to afford a trip to the Old Country this summer than ever before. We must have our little grumble, but it is really difficult to find an excuse. Visitors to our shores are surprised at the spending power of all classes of the community and are strongly impressed with our general prosperity. Scriptural Place-Names. We can boast a few Scriptural placenames in New Zealand, among them Paradise in the Cold Lakes district, Jerusalem on the Wanganui River, and several spots in the thermal region with names unpleasantly suggestive of brimstone. Probably, however, we are a long way behind England's tally of Scriptural adaptations. The Maine of Jericho figures six times on the ordnance map, Paradise five times, and Nineveh. Mount Zion, Mount Ararat, and Mount Ephraim three times each. In Bedfordshire there is a Calvary Wood, and in Dorsetshire a Jordan Hill, Hampshire Las a Land of Nod, Cambrrdgeshire a Noah's Ark, and Worcestershire a Moab's Wash Pot. Other Scriptural names scattered about England are Hebron, Joppa, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Gideon, and Herod. Tiie General.