LOCAL GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21153, 9 April 1932, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP.

BY SI ETiCUTIO.

Vulgarians remonstrating with people vlio appear to bo losing their tempers gome time's advise them not, to get their jrool oft", or alternatively to keep their wool on. The phrase has littlo to recommend it, ordinarily, except that there j n0 doubt about its meaning. At the present moment, however, it has another recommendation since it implies that weaving wool is a universal habit; and (here is a campaign forward to urge that kv wearing more wool, or using more wool, the community may do something (o help a great industry which is in the doldrums. In one way the time is a pood one tactically, for we are rapidly approaching the season when folks will jeadilv use two blankets where only one was used before. Since artificial silk and other substitutes have made littlo headway as a material for blankets this ought to help a, bit. But people don't, usually Jiave to buy the second blanket, unless they have been a bifc careless and tho moths have done their duty thoroughly during the warm months of summer. The mere taking of a blanket out of summer storage will not give wool prices the stimulus desired for them. It comes down then to the actual wearing of woollen garments; that is what " wool week" i; designed to encourage. Xew Zealanders ought to he. ready to giva wool a lift along, seeing how much it has done in the years of this country's career as a settled land to keep things poing. Let an example he taken from South Africa. Some months ago there was an intensive campaign in favour of abandoning the gold standard there, following the example of Britain. It was refisted—successfully. One argument used against the change was that South Africa, the greatest gold-exporting country of the world, should be no party to a movement ■that would lower the prestige of the precious metal. Very well; if that argument was good enough to help keep Couth Africa on the gold standard, its adaptation should make it weigh heavily jn favour of New Zealand returning to 'the wool standard and staying there. " Thar Lap is dead." It may bo an absolute distortion of values—the moralist will probably say that it was—but no words flashed over the cables just at present could have turned attention away from the humdrum round and the troubles of everv-da.y life like that little sentence did. Far from the land that gave him birth, the land to which he gave at least passing fame, far from the pleasant pastures on which he grew to maturity, to the strength, the speed and the endurance on which his mighty reputation was based, Phar Lap breathed his last just when he should have 'jcen going on from triumph to triumph, in the life of a human being that should _be classed as a tragedy. If the mourning over Phar Lap's exit is declared to be excessive, out of proportion, and out of reason, just count a few things in his lifetime to his credit. He was a champion of champions. Yet he indulged* in no temperamental outbursts, being uniformly placid and good-natured. He never haggled over terms, demanded appearance money, Irgued over moving picture rights, received exorbitant fees for signed articles on turf topics, defied any board of control, or quarrelled with bis manager, ventilating grievances in print or in the law courts. Of how many champions in the fields of sport where humans compete can all these things be said ? So, after that, a littlo genuine sorrow at the passing of Phar Lap when to all appearances at the height of his powers caji be pardoned. When asked on Monday if he was prepared to report progress on the financial policy the Cabinet was understood to be shaping, the Prime Minister said, " I would not like to pluck any flowers from the bouquet Mr. Stewart is presenting to the House this week." There was no need to do that. Tf he had deftly extracted the brick before the bouquet was thrown at the country, everyone would have been satisfied. It is not always wise to set out to scotch" a rumour bv denying it from the house tops, or from the floor of the House for that matter. Mr. McLeod was very annoyed over (he absurd rumours about Mr. Forbes and Mr. C'oates indulging in " fisticuffs" and said so. But ho probably <hd not realise that the majority of tho people had not encountered the rumour and that by mentioning it in Parliament gave it wings. Now of course hundreds of folk who disapprove of the politics of both gentlemen will say, " I wonder if there's anything in it? J would not be surprised. Where there's siVioke there's fire. There must have been something." And so it will not be surprising if at next election—- « the country lasts long enough for another election—they will be asked about tho '. scrap." To tell a. rumour of this sort just, about as unkind as asking for a }' p s or no answer to the question: Have you left off beating your wife,?" Of course, the New Zealanders who Went over to see the opening of the Sydney Bridge brought back a few stories about it. That was inevitable and should have been foreseen by those who watched them go. Anyway here is one of the imports. .An American and a Sydney man were contemplating this latest rnarvei of engineering—and financing. Said the American: " I see you've got a -Meccano set hereabouts." The Sydney man had no immediate retort, so he just En 'd " Oh, yes," and waited. Then the American continued, " ] hear you've got a great man in Sydney, too." " Yes," said the other again. " They tell me he's ft real big'man," persisted the American. Is ho as big as they say? " " Oh, said tho Sydney chap. " That's his coathanger over there " —with a careless thumb turned in the direction of the bridge, The \vimiers of a bowling tournament in lararaki having been offered a secondhand motor-car as a prize, modestly declined it in preference for something ampler. Just how much the renunciation really attributable to modesty and much to shrewdness cannot really be cecidod without knowing the car. But there remains the suspicion that theso triumphant bowlers knew what they were about. Having been given the option", and havirg exei'-ised it, they arc all right now. Ihe would-be donor of the car remains his problem. All he can do now is J 0 " give it as a wedding present to some 10 kless couple ivho will not be in a position to refuse it. -They say (hat when the floating dock Wellington entered on its commercial career—the ferry steamer Maori being the iirst paying customer —everything went Without a hitch. That can't be right, Siirely. .\]l may have gone smoothly ®nd well; but since sailor men are conCer ned in tho business, there was surely a half-hitch, a clove-hitch or some other °f those hitches in which seamen delight, Somewhere about the ship or the dock. t just shows how misleading an accepted phrase can sometimes be.