LOCAL GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20508, 8 March 1930, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP.

B* MKIICUTIO.

The delicate question, whether the powder-puff should bq used in public,, has been raised in no uncertain fashion by people who think it shouldn't. They believe that the nose should be lot to shine before men rather than that the modern young lady should apply tho corrective with the 7 sublime disregard for observation that so many of them have achieved. The lip-stick has been bracketed with the puff as an aid to beauty that should be used only in decent privacy. All, well! Is it a sign of progress or . retrogression that there should bo»this argument merely about the open display of these toilet accessories when people who do /tiot yet consider themselves old can remember a time when it would be asked seriously whether any really nice young wotnan would use them at all ? Whenever such a question is raised the ! inevitable, or almost inevitable, answer given is that, this is a broad-minded age. Perhaps it is, and broad-mindedness is supposed to bo an unalloyed virtue. Again perhaps it is. But when the. mind is so broad as to accept without question the spectacle of these intimate aids to beauty being applied with sublimo unconsciousness iu any and every circumstance, perhaps it has become so broad as to have been spread a bit thin. Still ' there is not much use arguing or protesting. Those who dislike the habit will probably have to go on enduring it. There ■ is only 1 one thing that may restrain tho over-enthusiastic powderers in public. Let them remember it destroys the illusion. When unsophisticated males discover tho why and wherefore of (hat peach bloom complexion, they aro likely to think tho less of it. That point should not be overlooked. A certain interesting possibility arises from thej announcement by Sir "Thomas Sidey that the police will keep an eye on the sale and purchase of fireworks, and will -seize any supplies when the law has not been observed. The legislation provides that seized explosives, confiscated by the police, may be disposed of, after six months, in such manner as the Commissioner of Police directs. What a resounding and blinding to-do there will be, on an early day or night in some merry month of May, when the police pay their, jocund tribute to tho stupendous sagacity of the Government. .Verily, it will then have its reward. | One of the Australian dairy farmers at ' .present in New Zealand, wishing to pay the country a compliment, repeated and endorsed a statement, by somebody else "that " New Zealanders have grass sense." In its' context it sounded excellent, but isolated, there is a suggestion of greenness .about it that seems unfortunate. Never , mind, though, it was well meant. A great many hard things have been laid about a certain report on unemployment; which makes it the more regretable that a great merit seems to have been overlooked. It has been duly noted that among the powers and privileges of the proposed board (here appears the —■' following: The board to have power to , s effect, to its powers and duties under the Act." Nobody has acknowledged that here at last is a departure from Government by 'Order-in-Council. ' ■ It is a pleasant thing that the Aorangi passengers who, perforce, spent a little iioliday. on Motuihi Island spoke so nicely when released about the way they were .treated while there. " How different from the home life of our own dear Qiieen" —at least, how different from what the folk who ■ went on to Sydney bad to say about quarantino conditions over there. The Motuihi party paid tributes—no doubt thoroughly well deserved tributes—to their treatment by the officers of the Health Department, the caretakers of the island, and the Union Company staff. They should have included the clerk of the weather too, for his benevolence surely had as much to do •with the success of the affair as anything. There are plenty of folk who would not mind being exposed to infection—so long as there was no danger of catching anything—if the result was a few days at Motuihi without'expense-in weather such ns the, Aorangi people experienced. Some might say they wouldn't mind how long they were kept there. Still you never know. A party of people who were kept Rt Motuihi for quite a long time once grew so tired of the place that they insisted on leaving, despite the anxiety of their hosts to keep them,there. And they went in the height of summer too; which proves one may have too much of a good thing. A 'Christchurch master baker who had been touring the world discovered somewhere in an Italian museum a range with a hot-water service, recovered from the buried city of Herculaneuni, destroyed by Vesuvius over 2000 years -ago. It was most interesting to Christchurch people, .because it was almost identical with one made in that city. This striking fact proves either - that, Herculaneurn was exceeding up-to-date 2000 years ago or that Christchurch to-day is just a little bit—no, on second thoughts, that sentence had better not be completed, especiellv jn Auckland. However, just to clis- . claim any idea of being parochial, pcrhapsy further research at Herculaneurn may reveal a Roman villa with a mortgage on it just like one on a bungalow at Epsom. Rotary is said to have brought Auckland and Wellington closer together. If faith can move mountains. Rotary can move cities; in moving Wellington, it can he said almost to have moved mountains too. Great is its power, and growing its inarm. The Three Kings Islands have been officially declared a sanctuary for native and imported game. A most necessary precaution this, giving a complete assurance against irresponsible people dropping in during Iho week-end and doing all kinds of damage. There is just this about it though, ihut adventurous yachtsmen or launchmen do occasionally get as far . as !he Three Kings on a northern cruise, so perhaps the proclamation is justified. 1 here is cue small consideration, that the yachtsmen and launchmen who venture on a cruise that can reach to the Three Kings are not. usually the type that would go about killing things with complete irresponsibility. To go so far afield in waters that are not always as calm or dependable as a millpond demands qualifies which do not flourish in the type that needs to he warned off by sanctuary .proclamations. Still, you never know, and if a gazette notice is going to help the native quail on the Three Kings to survive, when most of their kind have gone further than tho godwits that fly from Spirits Bay. hero is one who is in favour of it. This country is fortunate in having outlying islands that can serve as bird sanctuaries. The history of the native-birds is so unfortunate in so many ways that it is pleasant to have something on the other side. A respectable number of islands, headed by Little Barrier and Kapiti, givo promise that t>ome gentle feathered creatures which otherwise might-be lost to the world, like •the huia seems to have been, wHI survive, and some day may begin to multiply again. Doubtful, perhaps—but how much to be desired!