LOCAL GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19169, 7 November 1925, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP.

BY MEBCUTIO.

When New Zealand woke up on Thursday morning and looked itself in the face, how did New Zealand feel ? A little dazed, a little sore and very jubilant, without a doubt. It is always the way after a stern contest which really conies to a decisive end. The footballer, who opens his eyes next, morning and wonders for a moment whether he helped to win the match by *35 to nothing, or whether he was put through the mangle fcvera! times, forwards ami backwards, will recognise the feeling exactly. And as the good things of a safe and certain tenure, secured by a majority which no one can blink at. has come the way of the Government, it can be congratulated, pincerely and whole-heartedly. Also it can be commiserated with just as thoroughly. Because having done this it has t> spend the next three years living up to it. That, of course, is quite another storv. Groat things are expected of Mr. Ooates and his trusty band. No doubt they will do great things. But ff, in any particular, they do not satisfy the free and independent elector of Waipapamauku, they won't be able to say, " We were willing, but the Opposition wouldn't let us." That is one excuse which is taken from them for good and all. So the next best thing is to buckle to and gft, on with the job. May good luck attend them. It's over now. The tumult and the shouting has died, and the elector won't hear again for quite a long time what a fine chap he is. and how the whole future of the race is in his hands when he enters the funny little box where he marks the paper in the right and proper manner. An election is a funny thing even if " it wasna' meant tae be." The free and independent voter is offered oceans to talk. He is flooded with statistics, and bom--1 arded with facts—and other statements. To-day he hears what a magnificent chap Mr. Snooks is, and how the whole safety, - prosperity and well-being of the country depends on the proper execution of his programme. Next day, probably from the same platform in the same hall, he is told that the proper execution of Mr. Snooks, or something approximating to it, is the only measure of safety for the electorate and the nation. Unless Mr. Pooks and his platform are supported the cows will not yield up their milk, the grass will die, volcanoes will break out all over the land and the teeth of the children will never receive attention. The marvellous thing is that out of the welter of statements and counter-statements, of assertion and denial, of charge and rebuttal, the elector very often grasps at some essential and returns a real verdict. Not always, it is true, but very often this happens. It_ says much for the acumen and common sense of the community. So New Zealand has to spend another Parliament without a womar. member, unless a by-election should happen to allow that deficiency to be made good. Quite apart from the political aspect of the contest in which the only candidate of the other sex to sco"e a win, it is a curious thing this shyness of a country which prides itself on its progressive character. In granting woman's suffrage it led the way. Nobody seemed to realise. at that time that the right to vote should carry also the right to sit, or at least to contest seats. It was not until 1619 that -the omission was corrected. And now, failing a dissolution, which scarcely seems indicated, the best part of ten years must have passed before a woman can possibly take a seat. New Zealand is not given to doing things by halves, but here is one that has thus been done in part, and not yet wholly. There is no explanation of it. An analysis of the votes polled for Labour in the city and suburban seats, as shown by the first returns, revealed that there was a gain of 1943. Is this a portent showing when Labour is likely first to come into office ? This Dominion of ours extends apace. Here we have just absorbed three more islands in the Pacific without any fuss or demonstration. The natives seemed to be pleased at their ruthless annexation, and so far as can be determined, it is nobody else's business. Seeing that the largest island of the three is about four miles long and three hundred yards wide, the people living on it will of necessity keep to the straight and narrow path. They'll fall off if they don't. If a tourist agency begins it will find it hard to arrange a round trip for sightseers. Also if any ! subdivision expert ever has the chance to cut the place up for sale, it will be pos- | sible for him to promise beach frontages i to almost everybody. But there will be one drawback to holding land in this ] place. If you want to raise a loan you can hardly offer broad acres as security. I | Further investigation of New Zealand's new dependency shows that it is pro- I posed to impose fines for future, breaches of the law, the penalty to be met by paying over mats and hats. The man who has been on the mat will have to provide a mat, and to cap it will have to produce a : hat. Very nice and appropriate, too. In a law case heard during the week the first cause ol complaint was that a farmer had been stung by bees belonging to somebody else. Well, it's something new to hear of a farmer being stung bv some thing or somebody, besides the vendor of a farm. It has been proposed that Australian and New Zealand swimmers should exchange visits now and then just to keep one another in good form and fettle. It is a very good idea too. When they havenothing better to do they might swim across and pay friendly calls. If it hadn t been for the, twinkle iti his eye. the Mayor of Auckland might have been accused of saying one of those " things which rnig'U have been put differently," when he was introducing Mr. Coates to that meeting at the Town jfall on Monday. Mr. Baiidori remarked that the Prime Minister had been carried into the hall. At a function he had attended earlier, lie was carried out. That function was the dinner tendered to their old commanding officer by the Auckland Battalion. Ihe North Shore boroughs are taking a long time over the delicate task of pool ing their refuse lor the purpose of it? destruction. There is no reproach implied. It is certainly a job that should be giveti euro and time. You rnav exist happily for quite a long time without a destructor, but when you have one-—-well, there it is. arid you can't get away from it, especially if you live next door, and don't want to sell your property. However, One must ask what is hap'.cuing to the refuse ail this time. Is it J .-ing destroyed unofficially and unscientuicallv or is it accumulating until the boroughs threaten to disappear beneath its bulk ? If so, a little more expedition is surely indicated. 'lt is a pity, too, that just a't this moment there is no incinerator available. There simply must be a large surplus of unused election literature about, no use at all for a long while to come, and even then likely to be very much out of date. Most of it is just dryenough to burn with a will, It would have done admirably for an official opening ceremony, except that there is no destructor to open. Let's hope there is one bv the time the next election is over.