LOCAL GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20252, 11 May 1929, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP.

BX &lEBCUTIO.

It is coming, it is coming, and does everybody realise it is coming ? What is coming ? Christmas of course, but that is not what is meant—current from Arapuni. At long last the power of the Waikato that ran to waste for so many generations will light the homes of Auckland—using Auckland in the sense of the province—warm the toes of Auckland, turn the wheels in Auckland's busy workshops, skim the milk on countless farms, do all the things it might have done long ago if only peoplo had known enough to Eiako it work, and had had the courage aiul imagination to arrange that it should. After all the marvels associated with damming the stream, building the powerhouse, erecting the transmission lines, installing the turbines, the transformers, the sub-stations and all the other remarkable things connected with the scheme have been veritably performed, an appreciative public will say " About time it did come too! Hero it is over a year late. Are our bills going to be any smaller, anyhow ?" That is the way the wonders of the scientific age are accepted by a wicked and perverse generation that does not bolievc anything on its own doorstep can bo marvellous. Look at wireless. You can't see it, but look at it all the same. A few years ago tho' sending of Morse signals over a few miles was one of the miracles til invention. Now the programmes arc rotten. That's human nature for you. Possibly tho programmes are rotten —this said without reference to any particular station or country, for the programmes everywhere are rotten to somebody. Admit it all and yet suggest to some grumbler that the very existence of any programme ought to make him humble in contemplating the wonders of nature and the achievements of science. He won't do it, but suggest it to him all tho same. It will bo the same with Arapuni, but that fact can be ignored once the current does come.

With the council elections over and the Transport Board's loan poll held, what is the public to do for excitement, where is it to look for light reading in the immediate future ? The literature issued in connection with both was so sparkling in style, so replete with touches of humour that it simply cannot cea'se without leaving a sense of loss behind it. Here it may be remarked that the word literature is applied with the utmost freedom to election outpourings, while there is a good deal of hesitation shown in applying it to other kinds of writing, which are supposed to exhibit certain qualities of style and inspiration before being dignified with such a title. Funny; isn't it? Anyway campaigning having ceased, it will be necessary to look elsewhere for entertainment. Optimists believe there will be no need to look further than the new City Council. Perhaps; only the future can tell. May be enough has been said already about the way that council was elected; not the ultimate choice, of course. It, necessarily, is above reproach. No; it is the ballot paper and the marking thereof that are meant. With a list like there was, it has been suggested the candidate wants 'to be returned should have the good sense to bo born to a name with an initial letter hear the beginning of the alphabet. The theory is that tho voter starts enthusiastically ■ and then grows tired before tho end of. the ballot paper is reached. That was plausible enough when one voted by putting a cross against the chosen names. Is it so likely under the system of removing with a blue pencil nnd much energy the names one does not like ? Argumentative people argue no. On the one side, it is pointed out that nobody whose name begins with a letter lower down the alphabet than P has been elected to the City Council. On the other, that out of four A's only one succeeded; yet out of 11 busy B's seven were returned. It is hard to say. The only situation one can picture is a voter starting full of enthusiasm, marking his paper conscientiously down to P, finding he still lias too many names left and scratching out all (he rest for luck. That may have happened, but nobody can say it did. I hen again, nobody can say it did not. Nobody knows what happened or is going to happen. '■ In fact, nobody knows anything.

There is a prospect of New Zealand sending a team of lady hockey players to South Africa next year. The -main idea is to take part in a proposed Empire tournament. Quite so. But while there, they might try to do what the All Blacks did not manage, win the rubber, and thus put mere man in his place once more.

Auckland is threatened with a surfeit cf motor-racing next summer, since there may bo three tracks in active use. Some people think this- means too much racing for the amount of public support offering. All of it, by the way, is .independent of ■what may happen on the nice smooth concrete tracks thoughtfully provided by the City Council and other local authorities.

There seems to have been a certain sroount of interest aroused in New Zealand by the cabled item about lions climbing trees. Not that it has any real practical application in this country since the few lions here are comfortably provided for in zoos and show no disposition to leave. Very foolish they would be if they did, for to exchange a sheltered existence, with meals served regularly and sleeping quarters provided, for a precarious livelihood picked up where it could be 7ound would show very bad judgment indeed. In spite of its remoteness of application, the subject received that attention always gladly given to anything bearing on .wild life or natural history. It is possibly evidence of the eternal child lingering in every adult that such things can exercise an unending fascination. Life holds few more enthralling sights than that of a couple of greybeards speculating on that old, old question, " Can tortoises sing in tunel'" or "Do buffaloes play bridge?" Anyway, the trend of evidence appears to be that lions do climb trees, always provided there are trees to climb. 'I his is the catch in the business, since the lion is much'more a plains dweller than a forest denizen, so his talent for tree climbing inu3l necessarily go to waste to a great extent, Still it is a great relief to have the question answered, and even away at this end of the world to know that lions do climb trees.

When the Gisborno School Committee "visiteel the school it controls —or controls as much as (he board or department let it—a member appointed himself examiner ®nd asked various children various questions. He received various replies, lie would. It would be interesting to know how many of tho answers were uttered in malice or ignored from the same motive. 3t- is not always easy to explore the mental processes of the' child, or the more mature schoolboy in older establishments. Remember Kipling's story of the gentleJnan who waved a Union Jack in the astonished faces of a gathering of schoolboys, and their reaction to his gesture. After much' puzzled cogitation they reached tho charitable explanation, " Per- |* a Ps lie was drunk." Anyway, the Gisjwne visitor escaped more lightly than the bishop who asked a class of children ..Who am I? " They, with recent recollections of their catechism, replied in 'Chorus, " You are a miserable sinner."