LOCAL GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19792, 12 November 1927, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP.

BX MERCOTIO.

The beginning of summer time —established this year by legislation—has aroused ell sorts of feeling in all sorts of people. A correspondent who has been inspired by the change to muse upon the nature of time, ends by suggesting that the chief engineer of the legislation was prompted to embark on his 18 years of effort by reading in the dictionary that a sidereal day is the most constant unit of time we possess. May be; but by transforming the day that folks must observe into a Sidey-real day—to use a term already growing threadbare—he has dispossessed the populace of that constant unit. But it does not matter. Whether wei rogulate our movements and our business by the rising and the going down of the sun, whether we adjust our clocks at the behest of Parliament, or whether we follow our own inclinations regardless of k .ie passing of minutes, hours, and days, no one of which may be recalled, the tide of time flows on; our destiny moves along and bears us with it or overwhelms us, the world swings pn through space, and abstracting an hour of daylight from working time to turn it into play makes not one iota of difference to the ultimate end of all things. But it is still scarcely safe to tell a dairy farmer so.

What does " Waitemata" mean ? No, you are wrong. " Tho finest harbour in the world bar Sydney, and finer, perhaps even than Sydney Harbour" is a nice satisfying answer to the patriot, but not the answer wanted. What does the word Waitemata" mean, or how can it be translated into English. A New Zealander living abroad wrote to the High Commissioner putting this question to him. The reply showed painstaking attempt had been made to find the answer, but the chief point of the letter was in the Bentence " according to Mr. Elsdon Best, an authority on the subject, the principal lesson learned in a. study of Maori topographical nomenclature is the high value of caution, and the futility of attempting to give the meaning of native pla names without precise information-" Quite so; the Maori himself, when asked to translate a place name, is often politely evasive, and small blame to him, too. Suppose a Maori asked you what Ponsonby meant; not why Ponsonby was called Ponsonby, but what Ponsonby meant, could yf* answer him ? However, the official in the High Commissioner's office, after quoting Mr. Elsdon Best in his own defence, said the nearest approach to the, meaning of Waitemata he himself could suggest was *' The waters not of the ocean," or "The restful waters," or " The face c f the ocean that is at rest." It' Waitemata really means all. or any of those, especially the lust, Maori must be a very economical language. If it can pack " lho face of the ocean that is at rest" into a little word like Waitemata, it is capable of an economy that verges on parsimony.

From the amount of moral indignation worked up at the mere suggestion of its introduction, the tin hare is not promised » dog's chance it this Country.

l'he modern miss is. noted for Jier quick wit, but probably it •was never better exemplified than on the Remuera Road the other day. The young lady in question had just alighted from a tramcar, and was walking across the road, when she was nearly run down by a hearse. Dodging aside, she looked up brightly at the undertaker and uttered just one word: ■*' Greedy."

From information kindly supplied to Mercutio, it appears that a suburban bowling and croquet club decided to erect a signboard at the entrance of its grounds, so that nobody should imagine it was a tin hare stadium or a market garden or a scoria pit, or anything like that. It was determined that the world should know the place as a bowling and croquet club. Here it may .be noted, in passing, that bowls and croquet very often live on adjacent grounds, just s.s tuataras and mutton birds frequently share the same burrow. Whether the croquet players ■want to be alongside the bowlers, or the bowlers alongside the croquet players, is a little difficult to determine. Perhaps the bowler feels that so long as an exciting croquet match is in progress, he is safe to go on bowling, or perhaps croquet players decide that while their lawns are placed so strategically, they can bo sure .that, the bowlers are, or a certain specified bowler is, really bowling. Anyway, the two are often associated. To return to the beginning, a signv/riter was engaged by the suburban club in question, and duly wrote a fiign which said " Blank Bowling and Crochet Club." It may have ibeen meant as ,n subtle rebuke to the ladies who left their homes to play croquet, but it certainly was a distinct slur cn the athleticism of modern woman.

Great enthusiasts, these scientists! Dr. Tillyard, whose hobby is entomology, has 'been in Australia pursuing it with ardour. 'Writing to a friend, he says ho is " hot an the trail of an insect" that promises to destroy ragwort, a noxious weed causing farmers more than a qualm of anxiety these days A great scene is conjured up by those wo'rds. One can imagine the learned doctor, eyes glued to the trail, moving with the certainty -and stealth o' an Indian, following, with trained eye, fthe faint traces that mean nothing to B- lesser man. Here a crumpled leaf, there a twig with a tiny scratch upon it, scineSvhore else a faint smudge, perhaps of the powdery dust characteristic of the insect's wings, shows that it has passed that way not iong before. So the tireless chase continues, until finally, the insect, run to earth, the doctor pounces upon it, ■binds it hand and foot, and carries it off in triumph, to be applied to the necessary work .of wiping out ragwort It is a picture wholly in keeeping with the hairraising stories ttoat used to be the delight of boyhood, before the cinema came along with a substitute that appeals to the eye more, even if it stimulates the imagination less. And all conjured up by the chance phase of a scientist engaged in a sober and important piece of research work, and not ashamed to be enthusiastic about it. Never mind; if iJr. Tiilvard reaches the end of the trail, nnd finds the insect of his dreams, he (Can afford to have the last laugh Bv the way, if he were tracking a certain 'New Zealand insect, he could easily find H by following his nose.

A judgment of Solomon! The Valuation Department has pronounced upon the question of .New Zealand flux in relation to the rating of land. J.ne value .of flax which has ueen planted is assessable as improvements, tiiat of flax which has come up of its own accord is included in the unimproved value. It is .enough to make self-sown flax wilt immediately. No doubt it is the only 'practicable way out of the difficulty, but it could be taken more seriously if it ■■were not so reminiscent of the ruling .given by a rustic railway porter when somebody desiring to ship some guineapigs and tortoises asked about freightrates After profound cogitation the porter delivered judgment: . , jiigs is pigs and must be paid lor as Rich; but tortoises is insecks and travels