LOCAL GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21112, 20 February 1932, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP.

— —— BY MERCUTIO.

There was a time when mankind was always on tlio lookout for signs and portents indicating the future, and sometimes derived great comfort from them. In days of depression, for instance, a green sunset, or a shower of shooting stars, or an occultation might be interpreted to mean a revival of national prosperity, and the whole community be the better for the reassurance. Of course there was a catch in it, because when things were going fairly well it was always possible to find some warning of disaster to come, and to bo made thoroughly miserable thereby; as when " the sheeted dead did squeak and gibber in the streets of Rome." Such a phenomenon as that could scarcely mean a good harvest or a favourable yachting 6eason. [Anyway, if there is anything in portents, some notice ought to be taken of a thing that happened the other day not one hundred miles from Auckland. A meeting of ratepayers was held. It decided to thank the Government on two counts, for a rebate in rates and because of certain metal thrown on a clay road. So far as the reported proceedings show not a single complaint was recorded. Now what on earth' can you make of a thing Jike that in times like these ? It must mean something. If you consult history you will find that most extraordinary happenings like comets and displays of the aurora and thunder from a clear sky were held to portend disaster. Very few promises of good to come are recorded, apart from Pharaoh's vision of eeven fat years; and there was a catch in that too. So the temptation is to fear {the worst, if it ig not already upon the (world. The facts had better be forwarded to the Dominion meteorologist, as the only public official dealing in prophecy, to see what he can make of them. Ji he only foretold a wet week-end it would end the horrible suspense. With all t'he authority conferred by fcis position on the bench, a magistrate Jias said that commercial life is not the Natural sphere for women, and that a girl with inclinations that way would be jrnuch better off at home with her mother. •With all due respect to His Worship, it founds like a voice from a dim and distant past. Even before the war those Jwho maintained that women and girls [were out of place in commerce, who urged jthe ■" woman's place is the home" theory, were fighting a losing battle. The [war was generally supposed to be their .Waterloo, and nowadays when mere man jis sometimes beginning to wonder how tnuch longer commerce will retain any £lace for him at all, it does sound like ft dying echo to have the old familiar .words repeated. It's no use magistrates fcr anyone else trying to put the clock back in that fashion. To begin with the (modern girl would have to be remade (entirely, and to attempt that with one taaid, let alone an eager host of them, would make the few stunts one Hercules brought off seem very small potatoes ■indeed. Then there would be a whole Jjost of employers who find lady members of the staff useful as well as often ornamental- to convert. It simply couldn't be done. The home may be the natural Sphere and all that, but the modern custom of trying a few years in what the statistician calls gainful occupation before settling into a home seems to have come to stay. So what's the use of protesting ? (Only one horrible thought appears to Kiodify all this. Supposing the magistrate >s right ? Because one Merritt has b'roken, or is alleged to have broken, an undertaking given to the cricket authorities he will not now be eligible for representative teams. Merit will not be tlie deciding iactor in considering his claims. " I believe in concrete, if it were a practicable proposition, but at present concrete is not a practicable proposition." So .said the mayor of a northern town when the surfacing of certain roads was being discussed." In fact, concrete, in the circumstances, was merely an abstract jdea. They say over Sydney way thai the horse is coming back into favour because awhile the authorities trying to regulate transport take a great deal of notice of the motor-car, they pass by the horse and Cart, the ponv and trap, and the carnage Bnd pair. Will .the movement spread this .way? If so, the tramway poles having just been removed from the middle of Queen Street, it will be necessary almost immediately to plant hitching posts at the kerb. This will be rolling back the years .with a vengeance. Yet is there not something to be said for this return to the horse? You don't need to buy a new jnodel every year or so, and if shoes have to be fitted every now and then, it is a less costly business than providing a fresh of tyres or having the whole outfit repainted. What is more, you can't turn a motor-car out to pick up a bit of petrol by the roadside, but if the pound-keeper is not looking a horse can do quite useful foraging in this way. Yes, indeed, in times like these there is something to be Baid for the horse on the grounds of both first cost and upkeep. And when the inevitable day for scrapping arrives, a worn-out motor-car makes no appeal at all to the zoo people, whereas, grisly though the thought may be, a horse may Realise a few shillings. Statistics are queer things. There is »n impression that figures, like the camera, cannot lie. • Neither they can of them* selves, but both can be manipulated by adroit people to bury the truth so deeply that none may find it. Take the statistics just recently published, dealing with rural population and farm workers; but, for the reasons already suggested, don't take them too seriously. The running comment 011 them soon makes it apparent that from the gmss figures it is not so easy to determine how many people actually work on farms as it ought to be. The elimination of women engaged in domestic, rather than farming, work is relatively simple, though actually considering the number pf farmers' wives who prepare breakfast / as a relief from a spell in the milking shed or take a turn in the shed as a dive rsion during the preparation of breakfast, it is probably impossible to draw absolute distinctions even here. But when it comes to male farm population, what looks like/ a snag appears. Of tho total males living on farms, 63 per cent, are feturned as actually doing farm work. What a picture this suggests of drones, lying long in bed, idling in the sun, while the busy life of the farm proceeds, and generally playing the part of parasites to perfection! This would be no more remarkable than some past deductions made from farm statistics. The true explanation, no doubt, is that many farmers have ®ons at school, preparing to be farmers, ©r Prime Ministers, or great financiers, as farmers' sons have become in the past. The statistics don't say this, but the possibility Ijes behind thern —if the term lies is permissible in association with statistics.