LOCAL GOSSIP

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21473, 22 April 1933, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP

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The Prime Minister says the problems ve are facing to-day are merely to test us, to find out what stamina we have. .What a relief, after having believed that the experiences of to-day were real, that a way out had to be found! But how long'' has Mr. Forbes known this great and encouraging truth? If a long time, why has he not let an oppressed community into the secret before and thus allayed a great deal of very natural unxiety? 'Further, had he not better elaborate this comforting theory a bit? Is it, for instance, applicable in detail tn all circumstances? It is rather important to know. Suppose a bank manager has sent a client a polite but ominous message, suggesting he had better do something about his overdraft and do it quickly. Is that to be taken literally, or is it simply a test for a business man to find out what stamina ho has? Hitherto one has been inclined to think it was meant to find out what cash he had, but the conclusion may be all wrong. Again, the Government of which Mr. Forbes is head—therefore, by a perfectly justifiable transfer of responsibility, Mr. Forbes himself—has indicated its intention of collecting certain taxes this year. Does he really mean to gather up that money and keep it? Or is it just a test to determine the stamina of the taxpayer? This statement by the Prime Minister, meant to be comforting, simply shrieks for further explanation. Finally, if this depression has been sent to find out what stamina we have, purely whoever wants to know knows by now So how about calling it olf?

With everybody looking for signs of recovery there may be some comfort for a few in the events of the holidays just past. They say—" they " being the indeterminate people who are always saying these things—that a renewal of free spending is principally needed to stimulate business and set tho wheels moving again. To that proposition you can, imagine a multitude replying in chorus; only give them somethink to spend and they will show you how spending is done. But the formula for recovery is aimed at the folk who, having money, do not spend it. There may be such people; in fact, there must be, because otherwise it would be no use appealing to them. Their existence must, therefore, be accepted as fact. .Very well then; the means of making some of them spend seems to have been discovered in the new totalisator system that allows a bet on both ways. The figures from Ellerslio for the Easter meeting prove it. If, then, there is anything in the idea that to set money moving is going to help, there should be great //results following the circulation at Ellerslie. In fact, it almost supports the theory of the ingenious gentleman whose cure for depression is a race meeting every daj-, with compulsory attendance.

This Easter season, in spite of the times, is stated to have been unusually productive of weddings. At least so the people who supply taxi-cabs say, and they 6ught to know. It seems to contradict the general impression that people in the grip of depression are afraid to make any sort of a move. Of course, on the other hand, the venturesome couples may have decided they couldn't be much worse anyway. . "

Somebody writing about the proposals to popularise cream, make it a daily item in New Zealand's diet list, and thus make life a bit creamier for the dairy farmer, says he hopes the arguments to that end will bear some fruit. Well, if they do, there'll be use for the cream right away. Add it to the fruit, and serve cold. The same commentator has a little to say about the fat content of the cream commonly sold. He is not satisfied with the guarantee of at least 25 per cent, fat and the term reduced cream moves him to anger rather than sorrow. In a sense he is right. Where is the cream of yester year, thick, almost primrose yellow, and creamy? It seems to have gone out of existence since the separator displaced the old-fashioned skimmer with the perforated plate and the curly handle to accommodate tho thumb. Probably this suggestion of an inferior machine product will please the technocrats, but the cream does not please everybody. Anyway, the correspondent ,who provoked these remarks believes thicker cream would stimulate the pubJic demand. Very likely he is right. cream and increased sales do not seem to go together somehow.

There has been held in Christchnrch to family gathering attended by five brothers whose ages aggregate three hundred years. If only those spans of 'life could be cumulative instead of concurrent, as they say in court circles, ,what a wealth of historical experience jthey would cover! Take three hundred years from this year of grace 1933, and .where are you? Back in 1633, seventeen years after the death of Shakespeare. JThink of that. The great British Empire only just begun to found itself. (Worse still, New Zealand not heard of jon tho other side of the world. They Tnust have been queer times. If these three hundred years could only be made the portion of one of the five, and he fcad retained his memory, he would have a few tales to tell. Further, considering ibow each generation decides the world las gone to the dogs in his time, what fi fine opinion this chap would have of the world to-day. Oh, well, perhaps he iftould be right.

Mr. Forbes reckons that farming is bne of the best of jobs. One can quite understand his point of view. Who really wants to be Prime Minister just Bow? Who wants to face the ordeal of Jiilping to run the country when everything they do is bound to bo wrong? .Of course the Cabinet is full of selffcaerificing farmers —another has just been added to the list—but they would far rather bo at home rising with the lark, milking cows, cutting scrub and cursing the Government. What a lot of fun they miss in not being able to tell their brethren at the saleyards that Hie country is going to perdition mainly because of the politicians. Some of them would be well advised to get back the land, where they will find true Self-expression.

A couple of instances of unusual hands encountered at bridge and at poker were given in this column the other week. It was perhaps inevitable that somebody should cap them, and somebody has. A correspondent tells Pf a six-handed game of poker in which one player had suffered persistently bad hick. At- last, in desperation, ho retained a king and ten of hearts in his hand and drew three from the pack. He was gifen the ace, queen, and knave ®f the same suit! In the peculiar language of tho poker addict, he bought three to a royal routine flush. Ihese things ought not to happen, but Mioy do. Seldom more than once in a lifetime though.

Tlip Acclimatisation Society, after Several attempts, has not succeeded well in introducing chukor. These Indian game birds might find New Zealand very irt'uch to their liking if they frould only survive the voyage, but 'hat is what they seldom do. So the Society is giving it up as a bad job; |*j to be thorouehlv vulear. chucking