LOCAL GOSSIP

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21296, 24 September 1932, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP

BY MERCUTIO

Ts it really true that the winter of Vuv discontent is going to be turned into something different, a glorious summer of prosperity, happiness and contentment, before long ? The prophets say so. And as Ihe same prophets were crying woe, woo and lamentation not long ago, the changed tone in forecasting is at least significant, even if you are not disposed to take any Teal notice of what they are saying. If it is so, the possibility has several implications. It will not now be possible to discover whether the first five years of a tlppression are the worst; but not many will grieve about that. What will be learned soon enojigh is how far the lessons of these lean times have been laid to heart; and if a little bit of mild prophecy is c:esired, here is the answer—not at all.

Giver/ a return to reasonable prosperity tho world in general, and this country as much as any other part, will go on its careless way rejoicing, with precious little thought for the days of narrowed means and straitened circumstances. It always has been so and it always will be. That will be so in general, though there will also be individual exceptions. One other phenomenon thero will be. No matter how high the tide of prosperity may rise, let it even reach heights never experienced before,'there will be people to declare that the country is headed straight for ruin, if it is not there already. In bad times there is always somebody to say better days'are not far away. 111 good times the chap who is never so happy as when miserable is always ready to predict disaster in the offing. Each is entitled to his point of % T iew, but there is not much question which is the pleasanter companion.

Some discussion arose _in Court the other day about the number of people -who could be trusted to say which was the near and which the off side of a horse. Very likely in this motor age the knowledge is rarer than it used to be, though even in the days when the horse was supreme in transport it was not universal. "Witness the stories about the innocents who tried to mount on tho wrong side but with the proper foot, and go finished by facing the wrong way about; and it is really difficult to control a horse when facing the tail end. To return tt> the technical terms in dispute, it is quite' likely that a generation has grown up, in the towns at least, believing that off side belongs wholly to the ■language of football, and that the wealthy uncle who is on the near side is the only -circumstance to which the term applies. Very deplorable ignorance no doubt. But take the young folk of 25 years ago, and you would have puzzled them considerably if you had asked them if they had left the old buggy in neutral when parking it, or had ignorantly misapplied some other mechanical term. The young folk of to-day may not know many of the things an earlier generation did, but they have a different stock of knowledge. A good many, incidentally, know quite well how many beans make five.

In a little pleasantry to a southern gathering the Prime Minister referred, -with a.hint of regret in his tones, to tli6 good old days when the inan in his job •was able to grant all kinds of requests from public bodies for assistance. They all involved spending money, of course, and the objectives in view were always of genuine national importance. No public body ever makes a request for anything that isn't. A student of these things cannot fail to notice that feature, common to them all. But Mr. Forbes proceeded .that when a Prime Minister had plenty of public money to spend, and spent it, he was called a statesman. Now, when he has to turn down almost every request made, he is classed as merely a politician. It is something new to have Mr. Forbes in the role of a cynic, even if a mild and whimsical cynic, but it just shows what public office in hard times can do to a man. But he is not quite iaccurate, of course. Even in the most }avish of days, whether a public man was a statesman or a politician depended entirely on ,the prejudices and party affiliations of the individual. Spending money had nothing to do with it, The graceful, generous-minded public would put up demands for millions. If conceded a-quarter of what was asked, which meant about double of what was expected, those who happened to differ in politics from the donor would go off with their expressions of undying gratitude still hot on -their Jips, prepared to call him anything they could think of except a statesman. To be treated liko that is one of the rewards of public 4ife.

As a matter of fact, statesman as a term is exceedingly difficult to define. Generally speaking, perhaps, a statesman is a public man who is no longer living. Apart from that generalisation, it is usually easier to give one's conception by reference to individuals. Mr. So and So is a statesman and Mr. Somebody Else is not, and that is all there is to it. On the other hand, in these days of democracy and universal suffrage an elementary distinction can perhaps be drawn. One national leader, knowing what is for the public - good, gives the public what it wants. He is a politician. Another, also knowing what is for the public good, gives t lie public what he wants it to have, persuading it that he has given it what it wants'. He is an astute politician. Still .•mother,convinces the public that what is for its good is what it wants, and gives if just that. He is a statesman, and a rare bird, too.

The sardonic Mr. W. M. Hughes, who Jias been visiting England, suggests that n good deal of the " so-called Canterbury lamb" on sale there, if offered a proper -Australian greeting, would respond with a ghostly baa. It is well enough known that if -ill the lamb sold as Canterbury were in fact Canterbury, that province would have to extend as far as North Auckland. Nobody in this country objects, least of all, one would imagine, Canterbury. For after 'ill. it has become a trade name applicable 1o any good New Zealand lamb. It has become recognised by the trade, and any attempt to disturb it from a sense of provincial exclusiveness' would be merely fctupid. The suggestion coming from Mr. Hughes is rat,her different. He seems (o he objecting from the Australian viewpoint. That there might be a New Zealand objection 'does not appear to have occurred to him. People have been prosecuted for selling lamb from other countries as prime Canterbury, though it has not been Australian.' 1 On the other hand there is a measure of poetic justice in the situation Mr. Hughes outlines, always providing Australian lamb is good enough to pass as Canterbury. For, after all that has been said and .written about the triumphs abroad 'of the " gteat Australian horse Pilar Lap, there ought to be a little chance of retaliation somewhere and some time by this remarkably patient country New Zealand.