LOCAL GOSSIP

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21278, 3 September 1932, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP

BT MERCUTIO "With sports on the snow-fields in active progress at both the National Park and Mount Cook, that tricky word ski has been very prominent in the news. Only the pronunciation is tricky. Nobody could ask for an easier word to spell. Anyone in doubt cannot do better than remember Ihe formula for its correct pronunciation given some time since by a Punch writer of fame, Mr. A. P. Herbert. He said it should be pronounced " she " as in " For she's a jolly good fellow." cant anything simpler than that.

A very prominent railway official, who can remain naireless in spite of his established reputation as a man of sterling worth, has been at odds with the authorities about the speed at which a motor-car may travel. If he were to transfer his ambitions for speed to the trains he controls there would be nobody to object but many to applaud.

In commenting on the sparse attendance at the annual meeting of the Grammar School Old Boys' Association, the chairman said he did not blame members for failing to roll-up, because they were visually dry affairs. The obvious inference jthat/if wet meetings were arranged the attendance would be better is certainly not sustainable, for Grammar School old boys{ take them all round, are eminently sober and respectable members of the community. .

The comet at present visible in the skies to those who know where to look for it and have a telescope of sufficient power, has, it is announced, a period of some'nine years. When presently it goes away- it will not return to these ]?arts until the depression is over; at least one hopes so, and not altogether for the sake of the comet. Halley's comet should be fairly 'safe, by the way. It was here in 1910, and isn't due back until about .L 985.

The Minister of Internal Affairs cheerdescribes the department under his control as the variety show of the State. {There seems no end to the activities it is supposed to surpervise, or with which it comes in contact. Local body aftairs, acclimatisation societies, fishing, shooting, racing, trotting, art unions, cinema films, Maori antiquities, land agents, auctioneers and explosives—this is an apparently abridged list of the subjects, people and affairs with which it has to deal. Considering its comprehensiveness explosives is an appropriate finale. If one day's work involved handling all the things listed, it jwould be quite likely to end with an explosion. Such an omnium gatherum sort of department should certainly have, a Pooh Bah for its head; "but Mr. Hamilton is not a bit like that, really, even if he does fin<i time to be. Postmaster-General and/to hold a couple of temporary portfolios in addition to being Minister of Internal Affairs. He is a modest and an unassuming man. The only question is whether, after a period as the supreme buthority over so many things and people, he can remain modest and unassuming. [Really one trembles for Mr. Hamilton's future. .• ■ , /

A new race of collectors is appearing, those who acQamuiate as many varieties of matchbox as they can. Why not anyyay.? Matchboxes are just as reasonable as "many other things people collect.. They fake up a little more room than stamps, but they are not so fragile as birds' eggs, nor is'there the same flavour of cruelty about, obtaining them. Some people seem io incurable collectors of matches, from the readiness with which they ask anybody even complete strangers, for a match. If one of these absent-mindedly puts the box in his pocket after having extracted a match, there will be a new excuse for him; he's collecting them. The collecting habit is a curious one, it takes different people so differently. Some want to .collect what other people collect and have more of it than anyone else; some prefer to specialise in something that nobody else bothers to collect so as to be unique. Occasionally you meet the person who haa a violent objection to collecting anything at all; like the man who encouraged his son to take up astronomy as a< hobby on the ground that there was no'danger then of the house being littered with specimens. But there is one form of collecting that has an appeal for almost everyone; collecting coins—current coin of the /i-ealm.

Inspectors in an educational district a bit south of this have discovered the existence of what they seem to be proclaiming as a new principle in the teaching of English. _lt is to demonstrate what is good English to a pupil before demanding that he'shall write good English. Somewhere away back in the dim recesses of one's memory there moulders a fable which ended with the excellent moral, " Example Ss better than precept." It was meant for general application—even, possibly, to the iwritipg of English. Therefore, the new principle is scarcely so novel as the proclamation of it implies. Nor is the use of it entirely new. Ifc is many, many years since some ingenious pedagogue invented the saying, "A preposition is not a good word to end a sentence with," thus combining precept and horrible example as ingeniously as it has ever been done. But there is one point in the writing of English that might better be noted by those who have to teach it, and observe'd in all their daily doings, and that is the importance of the ear. Train the pupil's ear to recognise good English when he sees it— not • such an Irish statement as it seems—and all things about fluency with correctness, combined maybe with a glimmering of style will be added unto him.

To receive inquiries, many and various, Is one of the privileges of a newspaper office. It is, perhaps, one of the penalties pf a reputation for knowing everything. Possibly one of the most remarkable on tecdrd is that which has just come to hand. It runs: "Will you please tell jne the nationality of Harry Lauder ? I heard he is Welsh, and I am positive he is Scotch and was born and bred in Scotland." Such is fame! It is true there is many a Scottish comedian, self-styled, ha? smaller claim to affiliation with Scotland than the Celtic blood of a Welshman would confer. But not, oh not, Harry Lauder. It is true also that a valiant New Zealandcr once started an argument with Lauder himself about the proper meaning of a " Wee deoch an' doris," and asserted that he must be right because he came from Dunedin. And meant it too! All these things may be rue, but not the rumour that Harry Lauder is Welsh.

An acute observer in the South has discovered that mollyhawks clustering round fishing boats keep a discriminating eye on v? nature of the catch. If good markete ns.'i are being hauled in they take tio notice of the proceedings, but when something the fisherman will throw conemptuously back into the water is hooked they grow wildly excited. If a shark . t ." e bait these acute birds fly for . eir lives, but remain quite indifferent o the appearance of a porpoise. It is all Tery interesting and very entertaining and <3.uite 35 ea sy to believe as hundreds of --her nature stories. The only thing wanting is a statement of the birds' behaviour if the fishermen get involved with jS.-m! l3, ?' P r °bably they go into hysterics Without a moment's delay.