LOCAL GOSSIP

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22226, 28 September 1935, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP

BY MEItOUTIO

Meteorologically spring broke out on September 1; astronomically it started on Tuesday; or so it is said, though there seems some argument about it. Those who have celebrated these days bv getting in more wood and coal would liko to know when spring is actually to begin. The thing is getting serious. Daylight saving is almost on top of us and we do not want to spend the long light evenings over the lire. Burglars,'entering the premises of tin engineering firm, found apparatus for opening the safe, in tho shape of oxyacetvlene equipment, with all the fixings, thoughtfully provided. Naturally thev used it. The shop could scarcely he blamed. The plant had to be there, nnd it could not very well be locked in the safe every night. Anyway, the situation w<is not quite so nicely arranged as in a suburban household, visited with felonious intent a year or two ago. An intruder, entering by the kitchen window, found several tradesmen's accounts, with tho money to pay them in the morning, lying on a plate. He took the money and left the bills. When morning disclosed the affair, the householder reproachfully asked his better part why she hadn't put a sprig of parsley on the plate just to complete the thing. -

All the white-coated traffic inspector now wants is a hood to turn him into n, real Klu Klux Klanner. Why not do it and so be sure that he who imbibes and drives a car will never do so again? "I saw a terrible thine in white with arms that pointed, and 10, I was afraid."

Parliament extended its "working" hours this week. It does not follow that more work will bo done. The idea is really to provide members with a lung-opener in preparation for the elections. The trouble is that those nho need this form of exercise least take most advantage of the opportunity. The silent members continue to be silent, and very ofteu are returned by tho electors, no doubt out of gratitude.

Half a, dozen of the All Blacks —that is, half a dozen of the members of the New Zealand Rugby Football team — have become casualties for tho time being through injuries, and owing to colds many more have not been scoring 100 not out. In fact they have had a job to get round in bogey. One hopes that the Americans will hurry up with their Pacific air service or that the Tasman link will be covered very soon bo that the Dominion will be able to export a squad of replacing players. It would bo simply horrible if we could not properly demonstrate the proposition that three-four-one equals the toughest mob of for ,vards the other side can muster. As an emergency measure the Government should instruct Sir James Utitr to get into training, because ho might bo needed yet. He has been known to throw his weight about in many a contest.

It was a'great day for gardening last Saturday, but somehow many of the gardening fraternity did not manage to get along frith it very well. Ihe trouble began with Mr. Gordon Hutter as soon as most reached home. He described the Avondalo races so nicely. A,iter a hasty gulp of lunch the gardeners rushed out to garden after leaving speciiic instructions that they should be called the moment IYA tuned into Avondale again. So thero was rushing in and out and all the time the ground kept on looking very rough* and unprofitable. But that was not all. At three o'clock in came the Rugby and that delayed tho beans so long that none was planted by bath time. Of course the bath did not feel half so good as it does after a. proper bout with the stuff that gives us nearly all our food. So between one thing and another it-seems that t.o shall have to suppress Mr. Hutter, to say nothing of the telephone that will tempt a man to express in terms of money his faith in the . horse that always comes third.

He that exj>ecteth little shall not bo disappointed—but lio may bo out of date'. The Dairy Board, for instance, issues a neat littlo card enabling farmers to ascertain, without working it out, what is the butter fat equivalent when butier is selling at a particular price in London. In the latest card the maximum price was set at 110s a cwt., presumably the most that could possibly be hoped for. Now the price has run up beyond that figure and the dairy farmer has another grievance. But if he cannot discover the equivalent to him of prices higher than 110s, his wife and daughters, with the help of a little imagination and a vast deal of hope, can work out what it may and should mean to them.

The president of the Dental Association has bean impressing on his colleagues, the need for closer cooperation between dentists and doctors. Some of us had the impression that an unholy combination existed already, that the two professions worked hand in hand, or from scalpel "o forceps and vice versa. If a patient is suffering from almost anything at all, from •rheumatism to indigestion, the doctor fends him to the dentist to have his teeth out. Tho trouble continues and the patient is sent back to tho doctor to have his tonsils out. If there is to o® more co-operation, it will finally be a easo of lights out for tho layman.

, The Auditor-General has been remarking sorrowfully,, and not for the nrst time, that some local bodies have been acquiring larger overdrafts than "ley sb.oulu, arid that the law designed thin is proving inadequate. criticism is clearly woll-meant, being framed in the interests of the unfortunate ratepayers, on whom "rnst fall the burden if finances go awry. They, of course, will be properly grateful. They would appreciate it even Joore, perhaps, it the Auditor-General would only, suggest some way by which a ratepayer as distinct trorn a local bodv could stretch his overdraft a little beyond a limit laid down, not by auv statpte, but by an oven ni °re inflexible authority.

British workers are refusing to make hoots for Italian soldiers. One remembers having read that London merchants once put pressuro on the Banks °f Genoa, in consequence of which the filing of the Spanish Armada was delayed, Italy having then a finger in that piece ,oV piety. So there is precedent for private " economic sanctions."