LOCAL GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21100, 6 February 1932, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP.

by mebcctio,

war aco Hawke s Bay wag in On® ™ ® , , • '. {jiroes/ of earthquake disaster. « was a calamity beyond the full comrihansion of these who did not suffer ft vras verv near to the ordeal of for the folk who suffered and enanrfli immediately came in the of monev, motor ambulances and JJJJ" power. Bat all that New Zealand eould do, from the greatness of her was nothing to what the people e f H3W* B 3 to in As in the war so in the earthquake, the people girded their Vjjnj and met blow for blow. They ,«»w the things they gave their life . broken." and with broken tools set C ns to restore it. It was community calamity and individual disaster in which j,nn;an endurance was tried to the utter--flstj but the blood held true. At Napjgr ia those days were men who in toicanic wreckage and other realms had jjjjx stricken people sitting in dazement »long miles of roadway. Not so in Jfawka's Bay, where the average man, w bo always acts for the nation, stood B B to rescue, succour and restore. These jveraga pe6ple do not know to-day how pgafc was their achievement But time tell it all and one mast leave the Jelling to time. Let it suffice at the jcoment to' say that the Dominion still jhriUs with pride over the courage, resource and balance the stricken people 'displayed cne year ago. The aid they yecsived from naval and other sources I*3B more than timely, but the effectual Jjcal labours in the chaos meant everything when ." time wa3 measured by Jiearfc beats.'A magistrate has suggested that wives jfcf excitable temperament should not be for motor drives by their husbands, pna hopes that next week-end husbands fts a body will declare against the temperament of their wives. At least they might agrse to their sitting in the back seat. [Back seat driving is always a pest, of coarse, particularly when that division of jtha car is fitted with an extra hooter to enable the nervous wife to make quite jnre that no other driver within a mile •will fail to know that her car is on its {way at fully twenty miles an hour. But p, nervous wife in the back seat is complacency itself compared to a wife at Jiome with a husband and car absent. {Anyway, who is to guarantee that any (companion the husband might have will |iofc grab the wheel at a critical moment ? Mount, Coates has appeared alongside JMonnfc Forbes in the Two Thumb Range. jOne is awarß ot the fact that faith can move mountains, but it has not been jexarcised in this case. The mountain las been in its place all the time, but las been nameless because nnclimbed. jThe mountain, it is reported, is in a dominant position at the head of Separation Glacier- No political significance attaches to the nomenclature of this Spline region and the manner the mountains have arranged themselves. The amateur gardeners have ousted the jsngleia. The question of the day ia what is the largest cabbage. The latest entry is a forty-six pounder from Hamilton, Urith a spread of three feet six inches. ona gathers that the gardener had a great tussle with the monster before he finally mastered it with a hatchet blow Jn the jugular. This, of course, is nothing compared with the giant fruit of a member of the cucurbitaceous family that grew at Waikikamukau. Thi3 pumpkin grew on the slope of a hill near a spring. iWhen it was about six feet in diameter h broke away and had a violent career, daring which it knocked down a pine free and smashed a cow-shed. The dogs Held it at bay and it was finally pithed by a stray slaughterman with a crowbar. After all we cannot get away from the yernacular. We have the instance of the prisoner whom the judge thought he had Ren before. And the prisoner, without •- thought of destroying court decorum, said. " I can't place you." It seems to recall Bairnsfather and his man of the Labour Battalion who told the general, that his " mate " had dropped his cane. This sort of thins was not unknown in the N.Z.E.F. There was the classic occasion when the major suddenly met Private Fernleaf, who used to conquer him •t school. But that is enough about that «pisode; '* Bbrdie " would chuckle over it. Perhaps cne might tell of tne sergeant in the''desert who found among a batch of reinforcements the school master from whom he had received many a dozen. The master was then a trooper, but ■trange to relate the sergeant addressed the trooper as "Mister" when that parade was dismissed. And not without its meaning was the episode in a London hotel lounse when a captain did lieavy" to the lad he had taught at gchcol. The lad, it is said, put the captain to bed that night. Then there was the case of the padre, a great ana good man, who on one night followed the example of the soldiers in Flanders .in an earlier age. much to the "delight of an unshaven ruffian who onte belonged to his Scripture class. Heigh ho! How time flies, and what a wonclerfnl thing it is to get down to the bedlock of life. The trained Chinese soldier seem 3 to lie a warriGr of rare parts. However, he is an enigma to the man from Canton who does some of Auckland s collars. In *ery broken English he sought some information about war from a New Zealander who bears the mark of the last fray. It was a difficult conversation but the Digger thought he had succeeded in giving an idea of the sort of war that brings quick promotion. But the man from Canton saw it in a different light. '"No good," he. said. "Twelve o clock. 6'op the fight. Time for rice." And he Wade it quite clear that war and hunger •hould not hand in hand. The digger agreed with him. One's very dear maiden Aunt Agatha ,®anie to lurch on Anniversary Day. ®hghtlv Victorian in outlook and somewhat strict in her ideas of what is right anf l wrong but, nevertheless, a good •Port, she listened to the wireless with Respected interest. She said she liked ' n e jolly jazz tunes and was a little . Mrukd in watching the rowing races on Waikato per medium of the machine, "■hen luncheon began. The wireless kept talking and the intent ne?s of one of .Agatha's nephews did not come hef notice. He toyed with his ®®b and salad, with ears wide open, Aunt Agatha remarked: "This ust be a list of books and authors." it it proved to he otherwise. She . u ght she heard the name Begbie, but w ' lat followed was not .title of a book but the name of a Then the sporting nephew turned ft* and asked hin aunt how d&libaa were doing.