LOCAL GOSSIP

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21882, 18 August 1934, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP

BY MEItCUTIO

The campaign to check the braking system and the headlights of all motor-cars is doubtless very necessary and desirable', even if it threatens to add a couple moro complications to the life of the most orthodox motorist, r Safety on the roads is a rery important thing. Nothing conducive to it ought to bo neglected. It is to be noted that if any car-owner challenged can produce certificates showing that he has recently had his brakes .tested and his headlights ad-justed—-or rather the brakes and headlights of his car so treated —the examination will be waived. This looks like a let-off, but is it really one? There seem to be a good many documents that it is necessary to produce 011 demand now, if trouble and investigation are to be avoided; two more are now added. It may be necessary soon to instal a small office, or at least a filing 6ystem in the car before venturing on the road, lest a traffic inspector be met by the way. Perhaps the authorities would consider abating a few of their demands if the motorists could produce a certificate of character, signed by two clergymen and a justice of the peace. They may have to do something like this; otherwise a few motorists may bo invested with a document signed by two doctors and a magistrate.

"It's pretty, but is it art?" The question is old, but the answer has not been given yet. That is true about most of the questions arising about the arts. A good many are being asked about the display of paintings that may be seen at present in Auckland. The one quoted at the outset is not exactly among the queries now being raised. A brief survey of the paintings around nhieh controvery rages suggests that it never could be. They may be open to almost every ■-other accusation, but nobody with his power of vision left would deride them as being pretty pretty. But anyway none of the questions will ever be answered, because when you ask " What is art?" who is there to answer? The man in the street doesn't pretend that he can. When you corner the expert, grasp him firmly by the lapels, see that it is impossible for him to iV*p away on this side or on that, and ask him the question bluntly and directly, does he give you an answer, simple, clear and concise, that anyone could understand? He doej not. If, then, you begin to deride something which he contends is wonderful and infinitely precious, he says, " Oh, you don't understand it." Which is probably true. Then, if you say, "Do you?" he will indignantly reply that he does. Take it a stage further by suggesting that he explain it, and he will probably retort that these things can't be explained, they have to be felt. Sometimes there is a temptation then to say that artistic appreciation must be something akin to a mild attack of seasickness. But it's better not to go so far. It leads to misunderstandings, and Eometimes positive estrangement. .

The appearance in the railway station enclosure of native trees in pots has been satisfactorily explained. The purpose is to beautify the place and to impress visitors from overseas, both very commendable objectives. It is thus made clear that the greenery will have no symbolic significance; it does not mean the railways are preparing to take to the tall timber in face of fierce competition. Nor should they, for they are making no bad fight of it.

A visitor from overseas has been telling New Zealand about the language complications in Canada which have arisen because of assorted immigration in the past". He said the situation surpassed that to be found in the United States. It may well be so; an American from the wide open spaces of the West, where men are men, and so forth, once explained that he spoke three languages: American, poker and profane. If that is the general position, incoming foreigners should quickly learn two out of the three current languages; especially the third.

Once again a winter racing season has produced its story of the horse which started almost from nowhere and ended as a national hero by victories in great jumping events. These tales are perennial. They used to centre round the horse taken "from the shafts of a, milk tart or the hansom cab to win the Liverpool Grand National. In this country they run to the life history of the horse that started as a farm hack, became a hunter and then worked^ its way Up to be winner of a Great Northern and a Grand National. Oh, well, it's all very nito and very appealing. There s not much democracy about racing as a rule, certainly about flat racing. .You never seem to hear of the poor but persevering horse that started without a pedigree and ended by winning the Derby; possibly ben use the conditions of entry for such classics make the rather difficult and would make the story dsid_edlv thin. It is only the great event's for jumpers that allow these romances to develop. Without any occasional story featuring ' 1' rom Grocer's Cart to Grand National the racing game would lose a reall.y turesque side to it. Anyway, it is all very appropriate, for if there is one event replete with sudden rises and crashing falls it is a steeplechase over a gruelling course.

The new issue of banknotes has induced at least a few people to disinter hoards of paper money and bring it in for exchange into the new medium. The hoarding instinct is always to be found in some people. In the days of real gold coin it was easier to understand. There was the risk of loss by robberv, of course, but apart from that, so long as the owner kept his faculties and remembered where his treasure-house was, all was safe. In those days distrust of banks and similar institutions may have been a foolish feeling, but it was logical and consistent. But the hoarding of banknotes is much moro difficult to understand. It can't very well bo attributed to distrust of banks, else why pu enough- faith in theni to regard tlioir notes as worth treasuring m this fashion? Actually the hoarding instinct undoubtedly lies much deeper and goes further back than any moro sentiment arising from tales told about hank failures. It belongs to the days that were before such blessed institutions as deposit accounts and the hke had been invented. People gathered their treasures, secreted them and ep watch and ward over the precious spot So the hoarding instinct that expiessed itself in .a store of mere .promises to pay—capable of being destroyed and hard t'o interpret in these days when gold is not current —must be pure ancestral memory.