NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20114, 27 November 1928, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

BRANCH RAILWAYS. Commenting on the proposed closing of tho Plymstock branch railway in South Devon—on which only about one-third of tho 1913 traffic 13 being carried—the Financial News remarked that thero will, no doubt, bo tho usual outcry which accompanies tho shutting down of a line or station, or even tho announcement of tho intention to do so. But tho public cannot havo it both ways. If a section of railway is closed bccauso an alternative means of transport is preferred by residents in tho locality concerned, it is unreasonable for them to protest at the discontinuance of facilities of which they niako insufficient use. Action in this case follows tho announcement that tho Great Southern Railways of Ireland are, for reasons of economy, about to take special steps in connection with certain branch lines. These aro in thrco sections of an aggregate length of 110 miles, tho most considerable portion being the 85 miles between Clonsilla and Ballinasloe. It is not proposed to close these sections, but to convert them from doublo into single track, which reverses tho customary procedure. Such "singling" is, however, by no means without precedent in Ireland, sinco it has been carried out on over half-a-dozen portions of the Great Southern system sinco 1918. In the present instances, it is proposed to provide improved signalling methods and additional siding accommodation, so that, even in their converted form tho lines should easily be able to handle all the traffic that is likely to be offered. There has hern strong opposition to tho scheme by local authorities and traders, backed by railway trade unionists, with the result that an official inquiry may tin. necessary. " FAKES." In a recent issuo the London Times discussed a suggestion that it would be interesting and useful to have nil exhibition of fakes in which the genuine pictures, coins, china and other objects of art might bo seen sido by side with their base, if clever, counterfeits. Such an exhibition could not fail to havo a wide appeal. It is in human nature, says the Times, to seek the curious and tho rare. Most of us cherish a secret conviction that we have an unusually keen scent for a good thing. Few young couples start married life without a spasm of curiohunting, ingenuously confident that they will find, and get, cheap, real antiques which have escaped the massed cleverness of their predecessors. The twin pillars of the faker's art are the natural de.sire for rarities and the itch, by no means confined to women and sales, to secure a " bargain " —to got something, if not for nothing, at least for a good deal less than it is worth to the man who knows. But interest, docs not stop short at the inanimate. A fake being that

which pretends falsely to he something other and better than itself, numberless examples aro to bo found in tho living world of men. But the peculiar privilege of the human fake is that he can become the genuine article. Between tho forged picture, the doctored furniture, or tho sham antiquo and tho real thing, the gulf, however narrowed by perverted ingenuity, is ultimately impassable. But man, tho crcaturo of process, has a way of becoming that which ho is not yet. That salvation is not for the man who, falling short, is not conscious of his defect, but is amiably satislied with himself arid all his doings. For the fake which does not know that it is a fako there is no hope. BEAUTY IN CRAFTSMANSHIP. Tho growing delight in craftsmanship was the subject of an address by Sir Michael Sadler, Master of University College, at tho opening of the Oxford Arts and Crafts Society. He said the characteristic art of tho English at present was gardening. No other people made so many lovely gardens. Tho growing love of beauty was a boon to England, for beauty was tho staff of life. Thcro was no reason why, if all worked together, they should not make modern England beautiful, not bv tho evasion of modern problems of industry and housing, or of road widening and motor traffic, but by bravo handling of these new materials for the beauty which was inseparable from the perfect, circumspect and unselfish adjustment of materials to human use and necessity. A gasometer rightly placed and wisely painted might be as impressive in tho landscape as tho wheat clovators at a Manitoba railway station or tho corn ricks on a Cotswold skyline. Might we not welcome, therefore, tha increasing love of beautiful craftsmanship, both on tho ground that artistic work with the hands brought mental relief, and after tho I overcoming of difficulties with tools and intractable materials a deep pleasure, and* because tho best hope of getting a strong, collective determination to make what was now ugly in England beautiful and to keep what was lovely unmarred lay in there being an increasing number of people keenly interested in beauty and always becoming more perceptivo of beauty in the surroundings and common things of life? The most signal victory which tho artistic craftspeople of England could win would bo in the field of popular taste, and in the mass production of things designed for common use, but exquisite in form and proportion.