LOCAL GOSSIP

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22142, 22 June 1935, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP

by MEBcrrrco

Officially to-day is the shortest day. In actual fact, it will depend a great deal on the -weather whether it turns out to Ik? so. If it is fine, the morning in the office Trill be inclined to drag, but the afternoon, on links or field or sideline, is liable to fiee on winged feet. Of course it can be too fine and so leave no excuse for those who hare lawns to cut, thus slowing down the tempo of even winter sunshine. . Finally it can be wet and wetter, until the shortest day is turned into the longest. Clocks can be very inadequate measurers of time.

Delivering judgment, in more senses than one perhaps, Mr. Justice Blair recently remarked that a company whose affairs he had been considering had undoubtedly , d.ied of financial anaemia. This is a distressing complaint, only too prevalent.nowadays. It is doubtful, however, whether it is any commoner than that cognate complaint financial amnesia—amnesia being the hard scientific term for loss of memory.

" I ha re been very much impressed with your wonderful way of managing townships and cities in New Zealand," says a visitor from Japan. Yet surely he was here before the recent municipal elections, and had the chance of hearing what was said about the way township; and cities were managed, by those who had not been doing the job in the naist but wished to in the future. If so, his coming to such a conclusion was much more wonderful than the management aforesaid.

There is always some cheerful optimist sbout to give us a lift along when things seem at their worst. For insance, a canary fancier in Wellington predicts an early spring because he finds his birds are turning their minds already to domestic affairs. If the assorted samples of weather the past week has yielded can be taken as a fair representation of what the rest of the winter is, likely to be, then the earlier the spring the better ; and those canaries can have a vote of thanks any time they like for holding out the hope of it. Actually, though, one would imagine more than a couple of canaries would be needed to have any effect on the deep depression originating in the Tasman that spread its malign influence over the countryside a few days ago. It is all very well for the poet to have said " If winter comes, can spring be far behind?" Suppose having come, winter decides to stay, what can spring do? There's nothing for it but to wait, and so mast everybody else who would sooner see spring than winter. However, this year, thanks to the canaries, hope can be foirtered early.

Last Monday morning the names and portraits of the 1935 All Blacks were published. Yon noticed that? Wonderful how widely and intelligently the papers are read nowadays,.isn'iit? Anyway, the selection, its merits and demerits, seems to have had a little attention in the days that have followed. To those • who examine these things from a viewpoint slightly differing from that of the Rugby enthusiast, there are some interesting features about the list. It contains at least a couple of Macs. Naturally it would. What Rugby team from this country has been short of that Highland prefix? That is the least surprising feature of the list. Then the AH Blacks; will take a Ball with them. Of course; how could they play the game otherwise ?... So N. J. Ball from Wellington fills the bill. There will be a Solomon to provide the wisdom and a Pepper to season the mixture Though expected to be an all-round combination, it will have at least one Corner. If those who select the teams for the various matches decide to put the best on the field every time, then Best will have a busy 'tour. So the curiosities of the names; might be extended; but it might be dangerous to suggest there is too much in a name. In one of the trial matches it was remarked that Holder's chief fault was that he was unable to hold the ball in the passing rushes. That "Bardly sounds like an endorsement of making too much of names. Therefore the subject may be dismissed with the reflection' that the good name of New Zealand football will be safe in the hands of Mr. Meredith and his merry men.

Export butter prices have been climbing steadily lately, which is the best of good news for everyone in the butter province.. No one is likely to grudge an extra penny or two retail, for everyone has been well enough schooled to know that dearer butter spells better /times in Auckland. At the same time it is surprising how fast butter disappears this cold weather. Even hot water cupboards take time to reach the frozen centre of a pat. Hence thrifty housewives will be pleased to learn that judges noted the improved "spreadability" of the champion butters at the Manawatu Show. This is a quality that should be developed, according to mothers who have to make a pound of butter go a long way in preparing school lunches in a hurry every morning. Actually the desirability of " is a nice point for argument. One remembers bow for- | tunes are said to be made out of mustard. If butter can easily be spread th.:niy, that may please the housewives, but cause such a shrinkage of consumption as to affect prices. In this, as in other things, farmers should think out how they can have it both ways.

Pumpkins glutted the City Markets this week. They could be bought for 2s the hundredweight. Such an item of news should be suppressed. It has lessened the. pride of a thousand amateur gardeners in the phenomenal crop they raised this summer and discounted the value of their efforts in their own eyes and (what is most galling) in the f eyes of their wives. Privately most of these backyard toilers had been growing a trifle bored with baked pumpkin, bu';_ could scarcely hear to depreciate their own harvest by admitting it. But How pumpkin, at 2s the hundredweight or less than a farthing a pound, has become less than unpalatable—it is positively nauseating. Such are the bitter economics of.pJeuty. Fortunately the changed disposition of mere man toward pumpkin hais softened the contemptuous remarks of the wives on a horticultural art that succeeds merely where everyone else has apparently succeeded so abundantly. If it. is a choice between scoring off a husband and having to i buy a change pf vegetables, every good knows her onions, and can revive jpiihusiasm ibr pumpkin, so long as she fete it free.