LOCAL GOSSIP

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22819, 28 August 1937, Page 4 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP

The Latest All Blacks - THERE arc evidently some wrinkles in football that even the Springboks and our All Blacks have not yet mastered. According to a correspondent's statement, published in the Herald, when the game was recently introduced among New Guinea natives much concern was caused to the authorities by the many casualties. After half an hour's play at Rabaul a dozen injured players were lying on the field. It was discovered that many players were armed with knives, razor blades, broken bottles and sharp-pointed sticks. No mention is made of a bstll, but probably the players, in their eagerness to get on with the game, forgot about it. Then, also it is not stated what happened to the referee. He probably would be armed with a machine-gun. The "Sitstillery" Microbe The "sit still," "stand still," "stayin" or "stay-out" microbe seems to be an »11-perva(ling germ. The latest instance, according to authorities on bird life, is afforded by small parties or godwits, who seeing no fun in yearly flights to Siberia and back, stay at home throughout the winter and take things leisurely. No doubt the Godwits' Union and the Federated Migratory Birds' Associations will have something to sav about this, if the habit is not checked the gafinets and even our old friend, the shining cuckoo, may also bo found breaking the rules of the game. It is necessary to take a firm stand against this "sitstillery habit as someone has termed it. Golf Without Tears The vogue of indoor golf lessons is reliably reported to be growing fast. Tho professionals declare it has many advantages over learning on the open course, protection from tho weather and from the imagined—wholly imagined —grins of spectators, and relief from the necessity of retrieving balls that the tyro has actually hit being among the number. It should be emphasised again that the fancied amusement of the onlooker is generally the pure product of a sensitive imagination. Nobody who has been through it himself has any tendency to deride the early efforts of tho earnest beginner. He knows only too well the feeling of hopeless despair at that stage. Anyway, tho indoor lesson lias another advantage—no lost balls. True, the pupil who liits a ball far enough for it to be lost generally feels there are compensations, but it presently becomes irksome as well as monotonous. Yes the indoor lesson has its points; also its drawbacks. Remember the rabbit who, having a practice swing exclaimed: "If daisy heads were golf balls, I'd be the open champion!" There may be something of the same reaction when the friendly net disappears and the open fairway stretches ahead. /

Young New Zealand's Hose The health stamps about to be issued are dedicated to so good a cause that anv comment other than the most favourable is in danger of seeming ungracious. But, good cause notwithstanding, the question simply has to be asked. Was it essential that the youth on the.mountain-top should have his stockings down and around his ankles? It is apt to be typical of young New Zealand, as every parent with ideas on youthfulness and smartness of appearance knows only too well. But that was hardly a good reason for having the average youngjnan's casualnoss thus blazoned and proclaimed, to stare people in the face from the albums of

By MERCUTIO

philatelists all the world over. Maybe this detail in the figure has its symbolic value, showing that New Zealand should pull ui) its socks in the matter of health and preventive medicine. If so, the idea could have been conveyed more gracefully. And even if the motive is to make a silent protest against tight-gartering as bad for the circulation and conducive of varicose veins, the point will bo wasted on a great many observers. A Festive Grandmother She is very frail and very old, but grandmother is unexpectedly modern in some of her ideas. A grandson called to tako her for a drive in his car, and after packing cushions round the old lady, lie proceeded along the smoothest road he could find at a speed certainly not in excess of 15 miles an hour. The hood was down —it was one of those rare days of which Auckland recently enjoyed a number —and grandmother, with her daughter in the back seat, was apparently dozing in the sun. The driver was suddenly jabbed in the back by the ferrule of a parasol, jyid grandmother demanded, rather tartly: "Young man, is this the best speed this vehicle can do?'.'

Putting Steam Into the School The proposal to use water from two hot springs to heat the Rotorua primary school has been given the seal of official approval. People have often wondered why more use is not made of Rotorua's many bubbling springs for similar purposes. It is a long time since anything has been heard of harnessing the steam to generate power, but such schemes have been suggested. It' is for scientists and engineers and other profound, erudite l'oik to prove that the difficulties in the way are insuperable. They are usually rather good at that kind of thing, especially when a layman hits on what seems to him a particularly bright idea. But they will surely raise no technical objection to the waters being used to make it hot for the pupils. Probably the new educationists will produce the protests. Old-fashioned ideas about warming children are anathema to them.

Training Up to Date New Zealand's supremacy in sport is being seriously challenged, and there is grave danger, unless we adopt modern training methods, that in the near future we will lose our proud position on the llugby field. Footbaljers in England are now undergoing injections and swallowing capsules derived from animal glands with the idea of making them big and sturdy and with the fearlessness of the animal. If this experiment proves a success and the idea spreads to other countries, our Rugby officials will soon have to import a score of elephants, a baker's dozen of lions and tigers, and a bevy of monkeys to bolster up the All Blacks of future years. New Electoral Boundaries. As the next elections will not take place until long after the new boundaries are definitely settled and known prospective candidates at av rely on avoiding mistakes similar to that made by an aspirant to Parliamentary honours in one of the Auckland country districts 50 years ago, when the altered boundaries were not announced until the eve of the polls. He had his eye on a certain township—it is called Arrahville in the storv —and he noted that a ball was to be held there on a certain date. Although no member of his family had been seen there for years, they turned up in force at the dance, it being supposed that the township was in the electorate in question. It later became known that it was in another district, and thus the cost of travelling and ball tickets and all the inquiries regarding the health of sundry babies and maiden aunts went for nought. It was unsafe to mention Arrahville in one household at least, for a month of Sundays.