GRAPHIC NOTINGS

Otago Witness, Issue 3832, 23 August 1927, Page 5

GRAPHIC NOTINGS

By

LENS.

(Specially Written for the Otago Witness.)

A new diversion has appeared, which, according to reports, is “ catching on.” It is called the mechanical hare, and in England, it seems, a certain great club is thinking of linking it up if only to have some kind of voice in its control. The mechanical hare calls for a suit-Rle course and a number of greyhounds •> do the chasing, the “ sport ” lying in the fact that, being worked by a motor under the control of an official of very vigilant character, it is never caught, nor, short of an accident, can be. The hounds may ruu ever so much faster than they would after a real hare, but all is in vain, for from the moment they are released from their cage to the finish the hare is kept ahead, and the distance being gone, click! it disappears as though by magic through an opening with a trap door. The attendant crowds go to see the hounds, and the hounds only, to bet on their “ fancy,” the bookmakers plying their stentorian trade as though at a horse race, and thousands o' pounds being staked on each event. With respect to the hounds it is explained 'bat they are trained, and that there are hounds and hounds, some of them being clever, and a few very much so. It is the clever hound that wins, but then sometimes he is a “ dark horse,” an unsuspected animal who cuts a legitimate corner, and beats the favourite by a head, a neck, or even a length, in which connection an English official wonders what will happen if the unexpected should occur, and some overclever hound manage to catch the hare. He expresses the belief that, digusted at the deception, he will never condescend to run again.

This provides an opening for a question : Is it really necessary for a hound to catch the hare for that to take place? The same instinct that allows him to respond to the trainer may induce him to feci that there is something wrong, in which case he may baulk, and ' ' is more, “ contaminate ” his comrades. Enthusiasts s:’ that the new diversion has? come to stay, but a cautious man will not be too sure. With company after company forming it seems clear enough that a good many have that kind of faith, but a “ Scot ” would like to hear from an expert on the matter in orde to know the risk of a hound retiring through his disappointments, or refusing to take his place through that kind of w'j.'.vm that comes through association and transmission.

This becomes rather interesting. Pretty well everyone knows that it is not too easy to catch cither a beast or a bird

a second time, and not so easy to catch any beast or bird as it used to be. Though it is not a nice animal to select, take the rat. If once nipped he will be additionally wary, but then he has a kind of preknowledge to start with. Tow often the trap is found in the morning with the bait gone, and yet the slightest touch and down will come the spring I How did the rat get to know? The belief is that animals have some way of communicating with their kind, and it seems certain that generation after generation they become wiser as to what concerns them.

As to birds, let any farmer speak, especially one living in those places where there are cockatoos. Unless it is a legend, when the crops are as they want them to be, then a sentry will be placed in a convenient tree to watch while the others have their meal. Where is the bird which is game for the shooting that does not know a gun when he sees it? The dog is not to be denied his share of intelligence. If the hound that chases the mechanical hare really thinks it a real one time will show. It will be the opinion of some that it will end as shown in the sketch. A course is given, but there is a hound in the panel and what he suggests may he the real finish. Some day ” Some Day,” when released from the cage, may look round and -sk: “What’s the use?” and as surely as this is general enough that will be the end of the mechanical hare, and it will pass through the opening provided for it never -i take the course again. Now for a little confession. What has been said is as deceptive in its way as the diversion it has dealt with. For 'it has been used as a “peg ” to say that there are mechanical hares in sight at every turn—political ones and sometimes even national and social ones in as far as we use that word for classes (ami commercial ones) in a number -f departments, all of them more or less economic, in that the course is generally of that complexion. In using this new diversion in this way a leaf is being taken out of the book of Spurgeon, or it may be Talmage—preachers who had the gift of turning everything to account. One such mechanical hare is the industrial, when the hare has two names that are interchangeable. When we start chasing it with prices it is wages, and when with wages then prices, and how much in vain with the I limitations defied is shown by the course —that ever-widening “vicious circle” —inside which cause and effect “lay the odds.” and outside which stand the laughing wood gods we sometimes read about here and there.

As usual a far field is taken rather than a near one. Prices, which are only wages under another name, are found to be a little too high, and so wages, which are only prices differently expressed, demand and get a so-many per cent, -iso, wh’ch, lo and behold! prices are raised to meet, leaving things, in a way, just where they were. Then it all happens again, and yet again, the mechanical hare simply travelling a wider course with each fresh attempt to run it down. Those who are wise enough for the purpose sometimes ask where it is all going to end. Who can say? One thing wo can be quite sure about it this—it is a very old problem, which may help to explain why the man who killed Alfred the Great’s sheep got so many shillings a week, whereas the man who kills ono. nowadays gets so many pounds, ami why Alfred the Great’s sheep was old for sixpence, whereas the one nowadays sometimes brings that per lb. What makes the present so pronounced as compared with the years just before the Great War is the precipitation. The Great War enhanced prices, ami as a consequence wages, and taking from that far-off field it has been so ever since. The mechanical hare, having been set going, there appears to be no way of stopping it. A very grave problem is wrapped up in what we see, and it is all the graver because no one seems to ’ ave any solution for it. But there will be a solution! all the same —-the one provided by time. As the poet says: “ Time wastes huge rocks with little water drops,” and so it does. The rock may defy the mallet, the steam hammer, anything and everything, but time deals with it, ami time is always with the inescapable adjustment. Ini this connection I turned to iEsop in the hope of finding a fable to suit, but unfortunately he was too early. If only we could revive him, and put a pen in his hand, what a masterpiece would result ! We can see him back Hth the bare remark, his wise old face screwed up, and his mouth turned in a half-smile. We can see him writing, and writing, and writing, all to turn out his greatest fable —“The Mechanical Hare and th Disappointed Hounds.” We can see him starting his sentences and finishing them, and Iris paragraphs likewise, and underlining certain lines for the printer to use italics to make them a little more impressive. We can see him running the mechanical hare down, and then doing, as ho always did, finishing everything off with a “moral.” And we can see him rising with his task done, and ending with a sigh.