AT THE TEA TABLE.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLV, Issue 12086, 25 June 1920, Page 5

AT THE TEA TABLE.

SOME TOPICAL TALKS

“The need of New South Wales for financial assistance seems to have had a very bad effect ou the money market,” remax’kod the Critic, ‘‘lts politicians apparently do not care how much they pay for the use o money so long as they can get hold of enough to keep their supporters sweet. What a farce it is to call Australia a Common we-Ith when it owes hundreds of millions to the pawnbrokers and its public men plead for another loan at any price. As a Great Jjoan Land it has far excelled New Zealand, tfiongh we, too. cannot esat a stone”

Australia has got into difficulties because the Labour Unions hav been controlling the politicians,” said tho bags. ‘‘they are always ’ hungry, and as they do not pay any direct taxation loan liability does ot trouble them. They know that hearing the burden will hsv. 6 be performed by the classes who . * lavß fixed stakes in the country. The st' 1 ? 6 filing is going on in New 7 Zealam. • for even though Labour Unionise’ 1 has not" yet captured Governme.bt it is influencing it, and just at prefOUt if is being aided by the monopolists who want to snatch more profits o'n Hie false plea of developing local industries. Australia has been borrowing f r years ior the sole purpose of making work for work’s sake, the people havingbeen fooled into believing that the first necessity is employment, and that so long as men can be set to work there is no necessity to consider whether the work is useless or too costly.”

“I notice,” said the Critic, “that Mrs Snowden, wife of the well known Socialist who visited New Zealand tome years ago, has returned to England from Kussia witfa changed ideas. The Socialists were watching the Soviet experiment with great interest, hut she found that Kussia had nothing to teach Western civilisation. She might have known this without taking a trip to that country where adventurers are ruling the nueduoated and adopting measures the futility and danger cf which have frequently' been demon-, strated.”

“It is a pity some of our own extremists could not be sent to Kussia to experience the effects of Soviet rule,” said the Cyme ‘‘lt would he a twofold blessing, not only because they might thou be convinced of their own stupidity, bat because in the meantime our own country would be freed of a dangerous element. ”

‘T think it is ftime the Bnpire realised that the state of affairs in Ireland is really equivalent to civil war,” remarked the Critic. ‘‘lt is an insurrection that has been so far successful as to create a state of anarchy. It is obvious that a position has been created that renders it absolutely necessary to reach a final decision on the question of whether law and order shall be maintained or the land shall be governed by a faction.”

‘‘The trouble is.” said the Cynic, ‘‘that there are two factious, bitterly opposed to each other, and it seems impossible to reconcile them. The country is distracted by the results of sectarian strife and the position ought to convey a warning to ub not to divide our people, but strive to maintain peace and exhibit toleration. We must of course, preserve our liberties, but tiiat is no reason why we should deny liberty to others, so long as they do not. interfere with or threaten ours.”

“The big talking shop opened yesterday,” remarked the Politician, “but it will be a week or two before members set to work in earnest to perform their duties, one of the chief of which will of oourse.be to vote themselves increased pay. They form the luckiest ot labour unions, for they are not required to have their claims beard by an Arbitration Court. They are the sole judges of their own worth. ”

“But it is net a question of what they are worth,” said the Spinster. “They also are affected by the increased cost of living.” “It it was a question of worth,” said the Cynic, “most of them wonld receive nothing. Moreover, if they are so poverty-stricken as to be dependent on the State for charitable aid in another form, they have no moral right to be representatives. A dependent member is a danger to the interests of the people, because his vote may at any time be influenced by personal considerations, and neither his action or his opinions can be independent.” “The Yankees pride themselves oo doing things thoroughly,” remarked the Cynic. “If you find a modest one you will not hear her mention the legs even of a table. It is sard that the ultra-modest will not have needles in her room, nor walk over a potato field, because needles and, potatoes have eyes. They always go to extremes and the ‘golden mean’ is unknown among them. I was amused the other day by some verses written by an American rhymester who amplified the assertion in a Prohibition circular tuat ‘even the names of intoxicants shonld be omitted from our literature.’ He warbled in the following strains:— Begin with Dickens, Oh, my dear, His pen was much too handy In praise of pots of bitter And tumblersful of . And Bobbie Burns: We must curtail His lines that grow too frisky With talk of ‘reaming swats’ of ■ YAnd gablets ‘fa’ of .. No tale in praise of any inn, Of cellar, vault, or garrett, May say a word of Holland Or even table Our writers now shall all be dumb, On things that once were merry; No talk shall be of steaming Nor glass of golden . So, too, the Book of Books must be No longer quite divine; It tells how one in Galilee Changed water into No heights, no depths, beneath our sky. « But all one perfect level, Oor country shall be hot and dry, And saintly as the , ’ ” A JAYE PENNE.