LOCAL GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20602, 28 June 1930, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP.

t BX SIKRCUXIO.

To say something about the deplorable event that happened at Duncdin last Saturday is presumably unavoidable. .When a New Zealand representative Rugby team it is impossible just now to write All Black, and this means using p lot more ink than would otherwise be needed—is beaten, the result brings a fens® of calamity compared with which an adverse trade balance or a rise in the bank rate is a mere nothing. At least, that is how a lot o£ people feel about it.

Yet, when you come to think of it, why should New Zealand expect to ■< beat a British team, anyway? The Morning Post found a good deal of satisfaction in thci event, as a little cabled comment ehows, and it is fully cntitlod to do so. (Tho paper embraced in the same discussion the result of the open golf championsnip, in which a chap named Smith or Jones or something foroign(Bounding like that reached tho final, and \ plso the exploits of a gentleman named liindnim on tho billiard table. Neither of theso instances was especially illustrative of British supremacy in sport. To jfull back on the result of tho test match .was, therefore, not only justifiable, it wHs natural. Tlien, to accept another Bido to tho Morning Post's comment, jwlien New Zealand takes tho field proposing to beat a British Rugby team, tho British team aforesaid, would be quite justified in saying: "Now then, young fellow, who started this game, anyway?" On theso grounds there is much Jess to rue in striking New Zealand's colours to Britain than in suffering defeat at. : tha hands of a mora Rugby upstart „ like South Africa or New South Wales. But it had better not happen too often; pll the sanio. It might become a habit.

Meanwhile a wonderful thing has happened, Somo of the directing minds which" rule Rugby football in Canterbury, are asking whether tho game is. not being taken too seriously in Zealand. For this sign of grace may duo thanks bo given. Several of them jtvere united in urging that clubs and players should trust each other more, get together more, and get more fun out of tho game. Tho greater trust and the greater fun can be accepted without any reservation at all. When it comfcs to getting, together more—well, if players get together too much new, thero is apt to bo work for the ambulance men on the sideline. As this suggestion was preceded by" a recommendation that "many of the rules hedging in and restricting the Rugby game' should be deleted, tho yista opened up is a wonderful one. The rules and the referee have- always combined to- limit the delightful freedom that might otherwise reign on the football field. Sometimes the presence of the /ball has helped to cramp the players' style. So away with, the lot of them! Catch as catch can rules with nothing barred, and a return to the joyous abandon of a simpler-age! That's the spirit. All the same the idea that the game need pot necessarily be such a serious business deserves to be taken seriously.

1 When a deputation of farmers interviewed the Prime Minister, suggesting p. petrol tax of one shilling a gallon to relieve rural land farm rates, Mr. Forbes made a reference to tho views of the automobile associations on the subject, which did not particularly please his hearers. So ho said ho was prepared to hear the farmers and to hear tho automobile as: sodationS. He might make a .spoiling event of it, and arrange to hear them both at the same time in the same place. Ho has had a fairly unexciting time since becoming Prime Minister.

A farmer protesting against the fireblight regulations summed up his objections by saying, " It is like passing a law that everyone is to be shot, and then shooting only those who deserve it." This sounds bad enough, but surely it.might he worse. They might.pass a law that everyone was to be shot, and then shoot only those who don't deserve it. That is extremely likely to happen when blanket legislation is put on the {Statute book.

When tho New Zealand delegates to tho Empire Press Conference were passing through Canada they, or some of them, met a mining magnate whoso wealth Was such that he could give away scrip producing £50,000 a year as a birthday present for his wife. Tho interesting point about this is that tho gentleman in question was onco in New Zealand, prospecting at Thames and Waihi. He did not make his immense fortune here. Ho had to go abroad to do it. Now, supposing, instead of venturing further, he had remained in New Zealand after ceasing to look for gold-bearing reefs, what would his future have been?. lie might have taken up land and started fanning. In that event ho would have gained great wealth just the same. Ask any farmer you know. ■ ■ v

A note from a southern province rejnarks that many of the beautiful trees there were grown from-seeds brought out by tho very early settlers. * .Attention was drawn to the fact because a beautiful tree had been felled. It would bo so. There aro many beautiful trees in this country grown from seeds scattered by the wind or carried by birds a thousand years ago. _ They aro cut down without that fact being mentioned or even realised. A man armed with an axe can destroy in an hour a gracious living thing that only centuries can produce. There may be a good, reason for doing it. Timber is ?■ necessity of life, and trees have often to give way so that grass can grow, sheep and cattle graze, wool and butter be sent overseas nnd motor-cars and petrol received in exchange. That is known as the advance of civilisation, or alternatively as raising the standard of living. Perhaps it is. Life is so complicated these days that it is dangerous to bo dogmatic about anything. But some pcoplo who are riot entirely convinced of tho essential beauty of motor-cars and petrol and other appurtenances of tho mechanical age can be allowed, perhaps, to wonder whether this business of slaughtering trees has not . been • carried on with 100 much enthusiasm. It. is permissible, 100. to doubt both whether tho material gains aro real compensation for the locality destroyed, and whether even from a strictly utilitarian standpoint the exchange is always a good one. But it is no use. Tho ring of the axe continues to sound, and tno trees persist in disappearing. • ' •

There was a timo when ability to keep a carriage' was a sign of gentility, or at least of affluence; it is not profitable to dwell too heavily on tho difference between the terms, for probably evon in those days the distinction was often hard to draw. Some peoplo may think that the present day equivalent is the power to buy a motor-car/ but this is not so. To bo in that desirable position only requires command of the amount paid as a deposit, and the ability to keep the grocer and others waiting patiently while you keep up the payments. If inability to keep a carriage in tho good old days meant indigence, to be without a car.now simply argues lack of enterprise. Tho Canterbury Cricket Association, however, finds itself lorced to dispense with a vehicle of another kind. It cannot have a coach for n ®xt season, and, disdaining all camouflage, boldly announces that this happens becauso it is too hard up to pay one. It is one of thoso stray pieces of candour .which aro refreshing iu an age of ingenious excuses.