LOCAL GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18891, 13 December 1924, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP.

BT MEBCUTIO.

The kiwi lias become a fairly well-used fend well-recognised national emblem of jNfew Zealand. The badge of the fernjeaf has greater claim to oflicial status, but the kiwi has many adherents. He is tin interesting and picturesque little chap, fcnd his wife sets ai. example to all conscientious domestic fowls by laying an egg of enormous relative dimensions. But With all that the kiwi is not entirely a happy choice as an emblem. He is altogether too sluggish, retiring and nocturnal in his habits. On the evidence of a birdlover, whose views were published the father day, >Vv Zealanders ought to drop the kiwi and adopt the weka in his place. The weka does not suffer from undue knodesty or timidity. He is capable of Asserting himself whenever necessary and wherever he may bo, and for his weight js as good a fighter as could be found in the length and breadth (if the land, with the possible exception of the tui in mating season. It is tree his voice is not the most melodious in the world, and he does pot always smell nide, but you can't have everything. So what about, taking on the v»ka and leaving the kiwi to retire to the fastnesses he loves? There is this nbout it too: plenty of Iwrn New Zealanders would never know the difference if the substitution were made and nothing said.

It stirs the imagination, if one happens to be gifted'with that commodity, to piclure the scene at Ohinemutu last Meek, vhni the visiting Samoans were welcomed bv the Maoris of Rotoma. There •may be "arguments, as many as you like, about the exact origin of the Maoris, and the means bv which they reached their present island home. What is not open to dispute, because scientific, proof stands behind it, is that Maori and Samoan are Sioth descended from the same parent stock. Back in the mists of centuries past they went their separate ways. In language, in customs, and to some degree in appearance, differences have developed. iTft in the great essentials each remains true to type—the same type. Now, after the- long'span of years, representatives of the two branches of the race have met again. There is nothing marvellous in v that; It is in the agency producing the event that the marvel lies. The British peoples in process ot' Empire development, have played many strange parts. Here is anothei and a" new one. They have acted as go-between, to bring together in friendly conference, these two races who otherwise might never so have met. It j.s a strange world, and the twists and turns of destiny are even stranger.

It was a very touching ceremony enacted at Wembley, when 40 'lady visitors t>i the New Zealand section entered into a solemn bond to prefer Empire produced fcutter to the foreign article for the rest of their days. A most encouraging thing to find this happening. How much more inspiring it would have, been if only justone out of the 40 had been able to say rue always had bought New Zealand butter, and always would, irrespective of sudden good resolutions or the. educative influence of Wembley. As none of them did, it must be presumed none could. Therefore, in achieving the conversion, Wembley was fulfilling the function for which it was opened. It has not all been in vain when one thinks of the earnest 40 solemnly vowing under the eyes of the golden cow, irrespective of the tastes and prejudices of husbands and households, to to faithful to Empire butter until death— not Denmark —did them part.

A cow on a soldier's farm recently gave fcirth to three healthy vigorous calves. The kindly creature must have had ad vr.nce information about the improved prospects in the market for beef.

An immigrant who arrived by the Ruapehv: this week is the father of eight children. He said he intended to gain exfierience before starting out in New Zeaand on his own account. But surely the father of eight children has had a fair bit of experience already.

When some young fellows in the south were prosecuted for capturing a number of goslings, the property of an \nt« farmer, when they were on an eeling expedition, they pleaded that they thought the geese were v;ild. Unfortunately they found it was the farmer who was. The case might hava been worse, though. The culprits did not say they mistook the goslings for eels.

In an account of the many advantages brought to the farmer by the advent of electric power, it. is very justly observed that the substitution of i=.n electricallydriven pump for the old fashioned windmill is a decided boon. The thing was obvious. The windmill could pump water cr.iy when there was wind, and the farmers have been complaining for a long time of the difficulty of raising the wind.

A correspondent sends along the following tiny note: "'Mark Twain defined a Street as 'a place to dig holes in.' Have our City Fathers adopted this definition ?" If the ■• iter of the note will sinend the definition by substituting ''footpath" for "street"—even if Mark Twain himself would have said "sidewalk"—and "trenches" for "holes," the answer must l>o that whether the civic authorities have adopted the definition or Sot they are certainly acting upon it.

Rome of the Wellington bowlers who * ere in Auckland last week are reported to have had difficulty in persuading their wives to leave this fascinating city and return to their own .healthful—and windswept—home town. Well, it's a very graceful triSute to Auckland. Also it might suggest a bright scheme next time there is to be a trip North by bowlers from Wellington; might, that is to say. were it not that a)! bowlers enjoy the anost perfect domestic felicity. Otherwise tiiere might be some from Wellington who Could come to Auckland, bring their wives, and hope for the. best when the homeward journev fell due.

As the end of the year is at hand, the Reason for examinations is here. The *oke of the examiner is heard in the knd—or rather the voice cf the examinee. The examiner is a mysterious invisible person, who is represented by a fateful flip of paper, meaning so much and so little. The victim imagines him as a sort Of ' t;re, sitting aloof sharpening the pencil of fate with which the helpless, hopeless answer-paper is presently to be scored. It is a curious feeling which assails the candidate as the door of the examination Ix'oni swings open. The only thing reallv comparable with it is the linking sensation which develops as the dental attendant gently says " Will you con.o next, please?'' The modern tendency in education seems to be to eliminate the Written examination: at least the layman *»o tries to follow the proposals for accrediting systems and other similar doVices is driven so to conclude. Perhaps the time may come when the ordeal of a written test is no more, a:id specimens Ci examination papers, period twentieth century, will be carefully preserved in educational museums. It 'is hardly prob- £"!« a stuffed specimen -of an examiner wtlj be on show. It would be more appropriate, on second thoughts, to have B candidate so preserved, because so many W them, even to-day, are thoroughly and- completely stuffed with anassimilated erudition. Whether or no, the day when « is finally decided that examination tests, 6s now known, are no longer essential, will be to education as was the day to dentistry when local anaesthetics were discovered. Whether being freed from enduring pain is entirely beneficial to We moral fibre of this generation is argute; so is the question whether the PCSensitlsing of education will be wholly ''I the mental good of the future victim t* the tchooiing process.