LOCAL GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18197, 16 September 1922, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP.

BY MERCUTIO. The ungaJlant Legislative Council "has *gaiu made its protest against the advancing fide of feminism by rejecting the Bill to enable women to assume the proud title of J.P. Members of the Council said a few things on the subject, but nobody Mas so unkind ;. s tho English critic who. . discussing a proposition that there should be" women judges, mudo the following mordant comment :—"Because some judges are undeniably old women, that does not prove that, all old women aro fit to bo judges."

A glowing tribute to tho cirlhood of Australia, made at the expense of their brother.*, and a back-handed reproof to New Zealand maidenhood, with an implied compliment to tho young men of the Dominion, scorns nicely calculated to make the Rev. \V. Gray "Dixon equally unpopular in both countries. Ho is evidently a close observer of the manners and characteristics of the young. Should his observations on the subject cause a real stir, he may easily be the agent of much closer relationship'between the neighbouring countries. The young men of New Zealand should certainly post off to Australia to bask in the smiles of tho cultured, but apparently unappreciated, maidens whom that land" produces. Then the youth of the Commonwealth and the maidens of New Zealand might enter into an offensive and defensive* alliance against the criric- who has trounced thcm~ both alike. So tho bonds between would be closer drawn.

The wireless broad-casting system brings a new menace to this backsliding generation. A Loudon clergyman rigged up apparatus on the church roof, and spread his sermons 100 miles around. Now if the churches can persuade even a small percentage of the 80,000 sinners alleged to be in Auckland to install receiving sets, what a chance it will be for making it warm for them on Sunday morning. ' The long lie-in after tea and toast at ten o'clock will become a thing of terror. However., there could be no collection by wireless, which is some consolation.

The City Council is considering a proposal to make an island in Queen Street, on the spot where the Grey Statue stood. If they do so, they could call it Kawau— " but motorists would call it something else.

Ministerial consideration has been promised of a proposal that a dictionary of Maori place-names should be published, explanatory of their native meanings and historical "associations. Such a record would, no doubt, have a permanent value, but a simpler and in some respects more effective method of instruction has been adopted in' Takapuna. Several streets have been named in honour of sons of the district -who gave their lives in tho war. In each case, below the simple plate bearing the name of the street has been placed a memorial tablet explaining the significance of the name. This idea might be generally applied wherever streets have historical or memorial names, and every town might place on the facade of its municipal offices a tablet explaining the origin (or meaning) of its name, and recording a few of the outstanding events in its history, so that both strangers and succeeding generations might be informed.

A proper progression of events seems to have characterised the mishap to the Uemuera, accordingly to tho very interesting Story told by an Aucklander who was on board,--First, they sent out the S.O.S. Then they stood to the boats. After that they held a session for community singing, when they probably sang everything they knew, and a good many things they did noC know; finally, tho inevitable "Scotsman produced the pipes and treated them to ' a wee blaw." By that time all the Scots present were surely prepared to meet anything fate could offer. The rest of the passengers were probably resigned to their fate. If any rescue vessel was within earshot, one can imagine that those on board feared the worst.

The Prime Minister gave an inquiring member an assurance on Wednesday that arrangements had been made for the issue of a smaller, stronger, and cleaner banknote than those now in use. That is verygood news, for nobody has much affection for the germ-laden, crumpled, and often tattered, scraps of parser circulating in place of the good red gold that people used once to handle with so much nonchalance. So far, Mr. Massey has deserved well of us all. He has not gone quite far enough yet, all the same. What most folk would like to see would be more stability and less mobility in the banknotes coming within their grasp. It may be hard to part with a tried and trusty friend, but to part with a banknote is just the easiest thing in the .world today. By all means, let us have notes wh'ich are smaller, stronger, and cleaner. What New Zealand really wants is a banknote which comes more easily, stays longer, and leaves behind a more substantial memento of its fleeting presence.

Railway construction workers in Sydnev discovered a nugget of gold 15 feet below the surface in Hyde Park, lne municipal workmen in Auckland seem to suffer from persistent gold fe\er, too, but their quest seems to be mads for preference in the main streets, generally in the middle of the footpath. It is difficult to know whether they are animated by a "won't be happy till they get it feeling, or whether the discovery of gold :n one place would merely stimulate them to further endeavours. In the former event it might pav the suffering citizens to secrete a small pocket of gold in the way of an excavation gang, so that the diggers would then cease from troubling and the everlastingly disturbed footpaths be at rest.

II is an example of the eternal fitness Of things that a report on the electrical wiring ivstem of Wellington should have been "supplied bv Mr. M. Cable-possibly Mr. Metallic Cable. Mr. Cable, who is chief electrical engineer to the citv, has chosen his calling with a " due sense of its appropriateness in view of his patronymic How much Ims effective, for instance, if he had decided to become an expert in wireless telegraphy. In any case, from the sweeping indictment he has produced of the condition of (he system for the transmission of power, it is quite evident that in Mr. Cable Wellington possesses a live wire.

"I think T will trv it with a rifle bulht and perhaps will be more responsive," said a lecturer at the Ley a Institute this week, when a delicate piece of apparatus had failed to respond to more srentle methods. The remedy was drastie hut effective, although it may he hoped that it will not be too generally applied. Imagine a banister in the course of examining a difficult Witness Bavins: "I think I will try him with a rifle bullet and perhaps he will be more Ifcsponsive." Or a deputation to the Prime Miuister, a lover to his lass or a wife persuading a husband that she requires a new hat . . • • it is apparent that this method of persuasion has its limitations.

A scientist savs that America is drifting westward at the rate of seven inches a year. 1 his encroachment must stop. It cannot he permitted to continue lndehnatelv even if the force of the Monroe Doctrine is behind it. If it does, it will be only a matter of time before the world is deprived of the Pacific question as a subjocf for ar-ument, and. indeed, the ocean itself disappears. Life will be /mite unbearable, if continents are to be allowed to barge about tho world. Mr. Henry Ford might take some action in. the matter.