GOLF IN HIGH PLACES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19720, 20 August 1927, Page 1 (Supplement)

GOLF IN HIGH PLACES.

SIGNIFICANT SUPREMACY.

BY MATANGA.

There is hope for Parliament. No longer can it bo charged with being out of touch with the people. It has given proof of its care for things that really matter. Even the frequent jibe that it wastes the- country's precious money in hours of empty talk will be robbed from henceforth of sting. To everybody who is anybody in this enlightened country it stands redeemed. Ifow has this come about ? The query seems superfluous. It has taken up golf. - ' Not in the idle way, to which it has been long accustomed, of an annual match among its members. Nor in mere heart-to-heart talks in the lobby about great doings on off days in four-balls at Miramar and Heretaunga. It has acquired its new and convincing reputation by use of golfing terms in its most portentous discussions. The Singapore base—the vital isues of Imperial defence and international relations, no less —has been debated with the aid of " brassies" and " niblicks" and " balls" and " bad lies." So now the nervous may sleep easy in their beds, and any who have feared for the good name of our politicians may take heart of grace. True, a Labour member appeared to be puzzled—" appeared" is excellent as a sample of graphic press comment—by Mr. Wilford's reference to a " bad lie," and appealed to the Speaker. This was, of course, only a matter of party tactics in the interchange of elegant courtesies. Good Mr. Speaker, ever a model of wisdom and propriety, was profoundly aware of his high duty, and did it with consummate skill. "If the honourable member will assure the House that he used the expression in its golfing sense j " After that, the puzzled expression was disarmed, and the whole House became deeply satisfied that it had made history in a great way. Its whole membership has considerably advanced its claim for re-election next year. Probably, on this account, Mr. Wilford will again be returned unopposed. Mr. Speaker's seat, both in the House and in the chair, is certainly very safe. It is even possible, should the necessity arise for doing so good a turn, that a party of Labour members may go to the help of the member for Ellesmere, and be graciously guilty of advocating his cause by the tactful miscalling of him " Bobby" Jones. Stranger things have happened. Promising Avenues of Statesmanship. In the Mother of Parliaments golf has full honour. The Earl of Balfour has initiated .many a noble lord into masterful ways of addressing a ball m a bunker, learned by himself in months of laborious care under the eye of a famous professional. Mr. Lloyd George, in the Commons, has delighted numbers of staid gentlemen. with accounts of his week-end exploits on the links. And there was that game in France, the talk of all Europe, when' he enjoyed 18 holes with a French diplomat, and afterwards" settled at the 19th a momentous AngloFrench difficulty. Mr. Ramsay MacDonald's feats and recitals are too wellknown to call for reminder. What promising avenues for statesmanship are opened by remembrances such as these! If only there had been at Apia an adequate use of its course by Sir George Richardson and Mr. Nelson to have finished all square once a week, and then to have played some of their shots again by word of mouth with each other, would surely have done everything needful to prevent misunderstanding; for rubber-cores are more important than cbpra, and a well-played approach better than all the petitions to distant Powers. But, there, it is no use crying over missed putts, to use the modern world's preferred version of an old adage. They took another way, and look at the dire consequences! Now, if only Mr. Nosworthv had taken his clubs to g am0 a -. But he didn't. Hence these tears! " Far and Sure." There is a long-consecrated golfing motto that might with advantage be incorporated in the principles of embassies, to say nothing of beam wireless—" Far and sure." America s forKettinß of it led to the unfortunate breakdown lately at Geneva. She went far, but off the" fairway. Far and sure! Far and sure! 'twos the cry of our failiers, . , 'Twas a cry which their forefathers hoard; 'Tis the cry of their sons when the rnusterAVhen gone may it still be the word. Far and sure! there is honour and hope in tho sound; n , Long over these Xiinks may it roil. It will—Oh. it will! for each face around Shows its magic is felt in each 6oul. Let it guide us in life; at the desk or the It b wHl shield us from folly's gay lure: Then, tho' rough be the course, and the winning-post far, _, We will carry 'the stakes —Oh, be sure. As in the great issues of practical life, so in the pleasant places of literature. Golf there, lends its charm and glory. Not to mention the transcendent lustre of the immortal Wodehouse —to do so would be to insult the intelligence of gentle readers —there is Sir Walter Scott; not so illustrious, may be, but still of some account. Not even in tho most icnowned of his Waverley books does lie rise to tho height of his feivid description of St.' Clair, whose presentment in oils adorns the Hall of the Royal Company of Archers. Not as an archer; oh, no! But in the then—and now—distinctive dress of an accomplished golfer, surmounted by a wonderful, round, blue Scots bonnet, and depicted driving a ball from the tee Literary Enthusiasm. Hear Sir Walter. " A man considerably above six feet, with dark-grey locks, a form upright, but gracefully so, thin-flanked and broad-shouldered, built it would seem for the business of war or tiie chase, a noble eye of chastened pride and undoubted authority, and features handsome and striking in their (reneral effect." At the description every nerve in every golfer tingles with longing to emulate, especially on the th.it upright yet graceful stance, that undoubted authority." So Sir Walter enthuses. ending in the telling of the awe St Clair's bearing, even m oils, inspired, recalling the legend of the great founder of the Douglas clan who so often achieved victory and was pointed out to the Scottish king in the awesome words, " Sholto Dhuglas "—behold the darkgrey man. Has any alleged pastime roused such literary enthusiasm as this ? But why enlarge on the innate grandeur of the pursuit ? Let it suffice to own the supremacy over all else it has, in the souls of artists and artisans, musicians and electricians, playwrights and wheelwrights, professors and practitioners, lawyers and sawyers, the pressman and the gasman, the broker and the broke. It has had honour in our House of Representatives, and surely honour could go no farther.