The Time that Passes

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7853, 15 July 1911, Page 11

The Time that Passes

By Selwvn Rider. Upon a. time, the Mule arose To make a. speech That should discomfit all his foes ' A„rl all meek Gout* and Co-ling* teach Kc u> respect the Mule’.* bright wit, .So to admire the things that he did. That i/ll live creatures should cry, "It Jg plain this is the Mule wove needed. The Mule said, "I shall make it plain That warmth in Spring Is sent hv me. and that soft nun That makes things sprout like anything li> all due to my Policy. I'd like, while I have time, to mention That if you want the Moon, trust mo; IT! give the matter my attention/’ The M'Tc said. "If the Waterfowl W : 1I take the chair. I’m F-afo: for I can have my growl While ho sits gagged and he'plcsa there. Though nc may in y rage and strain. 1 have him really by the throttle. Perchance, to case his bitter pain. I’ll gently pass the waiter-bottle.’ 7 The fateful night came on; tho hall Waa full of things That cluck or rack c, leap or crawl, Or like mere roosters flap their wings. The Male stood up. A tearing cry Half split tho roof. In vain he pleaded. Each sheep and Tomtit winked an eye. The sickened Bullocks all stampeded. Up rose tho watchful Water Bird, And wrd, "I think Thin uproar is a shade -absurd; I hope you’ve not been near the ink.” A Stallion, interrupting, cried, "Who’s this Intruder misbegotten ? Why shou.d wo hear his snorting? I’d Bo hanged first! The suggestion is rotten! Kyah bin Bizi. | REGRET that the obscurity of tho old I Arabian author prevents my offering you any further translation of this poem; which at tho outset caught my eye as somewhat appropriate to something that had happened somewhere sometime maybe. Unhappily, in the succeeding stanzas tho author becomes infuriated (as it were) by a souse of the importance of events whose very nature tho world has long forgotten. His lines ring with op.thcts unmeasured, all iu the most admired Arabian manner. There is talk of blows given and exchanged. Mention, too, of the fury of tomtits. Apparently the name "tomtit** was then applied to some awesome or formidable boast now extinct. There is a manilcstly absurd account of a duel to the death between a water-bird and a mule. A water b.rd having a bill useless in attack, and Ineffective claws covered with no worse venom than mud, I am unable to take tho suggestion of any such duel seriously. It is true that a mule ‘i« notoriously unskilled in fight; but I fear me that the whole passage is vague, and I will not venture farther on it. I offer you my apologies for even commencing tc-i translate a poem wh.ch on fuller scrutiny burns out so oddly* Rain.

It seems tliat I also shall soon be F. K. S., like the rest of the fellows. I have made the truly remarkable discovery that Wellington rain will penetrate anytldng. I, put an empty tin box,, tightly Closed and apparently watec-tignt, outside my house on a recent wet night, and in the morning it was full of water. The ram out my way is often so fine and thick that the wheeling gulls stop Hying, and swim in it. Mo so-called waterproof will keep it out for a minute. 1 bought my wile the thing you call an oilskin, and when she went out and war caught in a shower, she came back wet to the bones, with the colour-pattern of the lining of the coat vivid.y transferred to her blouse. Tno rain out tnere will pert clear thu -gn solid leather as easily as miik win run through musiin. 1 have hoard of one of those hatless chaps out in my region. He was caugnt in a snower just the utner day, and he is now suffering rather bad,y trom water on the brain. His mends weep, but his wife says she can delect no change in him. These wives are such optimists. The penetration of the rain has become so terribly bad during these last tew mouths, out tnero wlitre i live, that three declared prohibitiomsts have sworn to mo that it is tneir hxed and inviolably intention to vote lor restoration next December. One man who lives guile near my place is hlting his motor car with side-pontoons I and aojustaiile paddies, so that he can get home when the roads are being famed on. The iauy next door but two. east has bougut a liiebeit aud puts it on! every morning in case sho snouid get outi of her deptn wneu she gees to bring in 1 the mils.. A few yards away, there is a house that owns a cat that was very handsome up till Sunday last. On Monday, puss wont recklessly out into the ram, which promptly washed off all His [ Cur, his tiuhy stun, his natural hirsute 1 adurmueut; aud. now he is cunousiy! timid and pale, witn a skin Into a new-; born buoys. lx .you want to know what' ram is, you just eomo aud live out my; way. It rams so hard them sometimes; that the mussels all get drowned at low j tide, and there is alien a bad smell within a week that the corporation people' have to wade in and scatter chloride of lime. The lime has one curious euect. It turns ail the congers white. ■ Thun the other fish get inghtluuy scared of those snaky gnosts uuu leap out oa to tho beach m suoais, there to perish miserably in the ram. The ram lulls so heavily sometimes that the suiihco fish get stunned and wounued aud boat about in scores. Then the ffshermen out our way go out and pick them up and swear they caught them on lines. With bitter sorrow i have discovered the fishermen out my way don't always speak the truth. 1 halo tnese chaps who must bej for ever drawing tho long bow

Tramway Troubles. A lot of easy sympathy will go to tho. various municipalities affected by tho Government's proposed now tramways regmatiuns; but easy sympathy may ux>on occasion be , mispracoU. Speaking particularly now oi Wellington, there can be no pretence of doubt mat over-crowd-ing has become a very serious nuisance,] «uiu that the service on some lines is inadequate to the requirements during hours of pressure. I’eop.e who are unfortunate enough to live m the .Miramar | region under tuo new order oi things are l esptcial sufferers in this regard. They | have a very poor service of trams, and! these are regiuarly crowded in the city by people only journeying as far as Courtenay Place or Kilbirnie. Tho result is that sometimes ladies living in the more distant suburbs are unable to got aboard the tram at all, and so have to put up with tho inconvenience of a long wait in town. The condition is at its Wei's!; in bad weather, when tho un-i pleasantness and inconvenience of delay may easily become a serious menace to health. That, then, is (he fact to bo borne in mind: that whatever indignation may bo roused, and whatever reckless

-I and mistaken nonsense may be taiked ! (often enough by people who should.know i better) about “g-gantic steals'’ and all | the rest of it, the evil of overcrowding , is a gross and constant evil. In Wclliugi ton there is no apparent limit to the } number of people a car may carry. Ovcrj crowding is often carried to disgusting I and indecent lengths. Obviously, though j the municipal authorities will do nothing, i something must bo done. The overcrowding of cars to distant suburbs can bo got over without much difficulty, if the tramway authorities did what tramway people elsewhere have had to do, and put on through-trams on the long j routes. Municipal trams are not intend-] cd to bo money-making concerns. Their j primary purpose is to serve the conveni-j ence of the public. It is a simply pre- ; ■ posterous argument that unless cars are I dangerously overcrowded the system cannot be made to pay. In Auckland, ■ \vhdre the cars are owned and in some sort controlled by a private company, i overcrowding is not permitted; when ,a, oar has its full complement of passengers, the conductor will not allow another to got aboard. That is the proper system, whether tho enterprise is private or municipal; and when a municipal body says that if cannot pay expenses if it adheres to decent rules under which private enterprise works profitably, tho municipal body makes a lamentable confession of weakness. The idea that tramfares are exceedingly low in Wellington is erroneous. They are moderate and reasonable on most lines, but on some lines they are exorbitant on certain days., Further, they are not consistent. The penny section from Lambtou Station on ono line to Courtenay Tlace, and on another lino to Veitch and Allan s; but. on a (bird line it only reaches to the corner at Willis and Manners streets. In such circumstances as aro hero indicated any effusive or hasty condemnation of pro-i posals far reform is unwarranted.