LOCAL GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18297, 13 January 1923, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP.

vz MKRCTmO,

The people of Auckland are sticklers for the open air in almost everything other than theiv tramcar3. It is curious that someone has not agitated before now that the municipal tramway service should provide for tho summer months something different from the closed cars of the present equipment. After all, it would only mean a return to a convenience that vpe had , before the electric system was adopted. In the days of the old horse-drawn cars it was the commonest thing to see the sporting crowds on Saturday afternoons and holidays setting out for the football and cricket grounds in cars that had no overhead covering at all —everything open to the free air of heaven, and with cross-seats which . somewhat resembled church pews. That was more seasonable and sensible than vehicles which are either unventilated chambers on the one hand, or swept by draughts on the other. The march of progress is not always in the direction of improvement. If there ia anything better over Jordan j than the cool delight of easy canvassed j feet on a trim lawn, and a toucher on th& kitty, with a double guard in front and a wise one in the background against the possibility of the rarest skill, then we may all welcome the Tall Horseman cordially in the end. The charm of bowls is that it is pre-eminently a game for the player. In most holiday championships it is recreation for a few and inaction for the many. With bowling it is active Joy for six hundred players and a liberal education for the onlooker. To such a one it is clear that in the most serious operations on the verdant rink there is none of the weakness that compels surgeons to make a book on the mistakes of the other fellow. True, there is often tension a3 old youths cluster around a serious case i some trouble apparently in a noble head. Ihen the emergence of a master from tho consultation and the contemplative walk to the mat. But not yet; another, and final, examination of the difficulty. The silence is broken by an encouraging*voice: You can-do it, Davy; just there, easy i through the port! You're coming—-you're IT a" too way, lad. You've done * -Inen anxiety and anticipation, wide, consternation, and-a British cheer. better than that ia this Someone recently discovered that a father or a grandfather had banked the • proceeds of two baleS of wool for his • benefit when ha was a child, the intervening years having multiplied the money by, a large figure—years of wool-gathering on somebody s part Now a soldier ha! found a cigarette case in which he placed five sovereigns when he was in China, a ,?°' V 1639 are kappy incidents; no doubt they give much more pleasure than a nice win by an outsider. Could someone please ascertain if a past government packed away some sovereigns or wool bales for the benefit of deserving posterity. Things are certainly brighter— we may havo another boom if they become k*® bright——but Mr. Massey would be gratified if a secret hoard could be unearthed. . Failing that' we will just have to go on milking the cows and do our best to save a little from the' tax-collector. ■■ If oi}o were to say that the Prima Minister had .bad luck at tho ,races he would be liable to bet. misunderstood. But so it was, for Mr. Massey lost his overcoat and ..there has been-=«, pathetic little advertisement appealing to the person who took the overcoat "by mistake'* to return it. It must hare been a mistake for he would be a hardened thief who would wear the Prime Minister's overcoat and expect to escape detection. Now had Mr. Massey lost his boots suspicion might have fallen on Mr. Wilford, who certainly has an ambition to stand in Mr. Massey's shoes. Sub who would have brass enough to wear the Prime Minister's overcoat? He would have to ha a bulky man, anvhow, to fill it. " • The series of country club race meetings to,be held at Ellerslie commences to-day. The city of course, will do its duty although there may be some sporting enthusiasts still "flying light" as a result of the Christmas carnival, who feel that it is possible to have too much of a good thing. No doubt in dn e course, the balance will bo adjusted when the Auckland club agrees to give the Bay of Islands or Dargaville, a day. By that time there will be railings round some of the country courses, justifying at least double the number of meetings. But meantime the permits might be pooled so that weekly meetings could bo held in the cities. Thus will the great industry be kept in a flourishing condition j and production increased. b The official revelation that admission ' The official revelation that • admission ' to the railway platform is to be secured 1 by a, simple application, supported by plausible explanations, may prove the. undoing of this ridiculous regulation. If ' a claim for a permit i 3 made by a friend of every intending traveller there will be > a daily queue as long as the holiday crush . for reserved seats. Of course, some sort j of evidence will bo necessary to convince • the officials are not unsophiscated ' —of a burdensome quantity of. luggage, or i of years or of children, but already the stationmaster has knowledge of venial deceptions, and honesty is not always proved by an engaging manner. Still if the applications are sufficiently numerous and insistent, we may yet see reason prevail, and the stationmaster himself throw open the barricade. • ' In the meantime the railway officials i might investigate the methods adopted 1 by the harbour authorities in respect of l passenger steamers. Similar restrictions i were enforced on the wharves and main- < tamed for some time, with the excuse that 1 conversation between passengers and | their friends would overwhelm spoken 1 orders by officers and thus interfere with < the working of the ship. These fears ' have proved groundless, and the contrast 1 between the character of the farewell scenes makes an ocean-going journey preferable to a railway trip. Instead of vain argument with a gatekeeper and angry i peering through bars, those who ; peed their friends overseas, pay their sixpence and have full enjoyment of the laughter and tears that make a leave-taking memorable. The crowds on the wharf do not ' jostle the harbourmaster nor scratch the • P a int ; on the Niagara. Neither would 1 they molest the stationmaster nor purloin i the guard's whistle. Instead of all this artificial austerity, why cannot we make ' the despatch of express trains as carefree and easy-tempered as the setting ' forth of a harbour ferry, which, after all" ' carries more passengers and makes no i fuss about it. ; Three civil servants spending part of ] the luncheon hour at the tepid baths had their money stolen. The theft is surpris- . ing in view of the fact that, the civil ser- , ants have repeatedly declared that they - have no money— than no money, in . fact. Civil servants who recklessly carry ] about money should take a care lest they ( •Poil the argument of their associations. I- «n. ~~~~ The Lower Hutt fire brigade is leading j * sporting life. For the sixth time in two Months it has extinguished an outbreak in t ■ Ita ow n station. But is this borate practise °°t a little too realistic. Like a prominent Politician of Hutt, no doubt the brigade « anxious for a little limelight, but it i wwt not consume itself in the process. J: 1 • " : ' :■