In Town And Out

Southland Times, Issue 23332, 16 October 1937, Page 8

In Town And Out

Modern Weddings

“Marriage used to be regarded as holy matrimony, but you have only to look at the faces of the people taking part in many church weddings to see that for them it is not a sacred ceremony,” said the Rev. D. J. Davies, of Wellington, in a sermon in St. Mary’s Cathedral, Auckland. “Weddings are apt to be regarded only as social functions, and too often as nothing more than an opportunity for vulgar display. No wonder marriages celebrated in such a mood end in the Divorce Court.” Contingent to Visit Sydney One thousand two hundred applications have been received from returned soldiers in all parts of New Zealand for inclusion in the ex-servicemen’s contingent which is to visit Sydney in April next year for the 150th anniversary of the founding of the capital of New South Wales, according to advice received by the secretary of the Invercargill Returned Soldiers’ Association (Mr J. S. Filippini). “The original aHocation was for 490 berths on a boat, . Mr Filippini told The Southland Times, “but the applications have so far exceeded expectations that negotiations are now under way to secure an additional boat to take the men to Sydney. Proud of his Gorse Bush New Zealanders usually spend little lime in praising the merits or beauty of gorse plants. But when the Rev. L. A. North, of Christchurch, was visiting England recently he was shown, in one particularly good private garden, a special plot put aside for the growth of a gorse bush, states The Press. “Do you know that in a short time that bush will be a mass of gold?” _ the owner asked Mr North, and the visitor could do nothing but counter with the question, “Do you know that in NewZealand that plant comes under the Noxious Weeds Act?” England had an advantage in one way, however, said Mr North. It had many beautiful species of wild flowers growing in profusion, and he could wish, after seeing England’s spring, that the Dominion had more wild flowers. 500 Miles By Cycle By the time C. A. Robinson, of Invercargill, has taken part in the “Round the Gorges” 100 miles cycle race at Christchurch today he will have done nearly 500 miles of cycling in three days. Robinson, who is a member of the Invercargill Cycling Club, left Invercargill by cycle early on Thursday morning for Christchurch, where he will take part in the first of the Empire Games trials, the “Round the Gorges” race, to decide the team which will represent New Zealand in the cycling section at the Empire Games in Sydney in February. He reached Dunedin on Thursday afternoon, and yesterday set out for Christchurch, a distance of 230 miles. He was expected to reach Christchurch last night. The actual distance from Invercargill to Christchurch is 370 miles, so that at the end of today’s race Robinson will ■ have covered at least 470 miles on his bicycle. Truth and Politics “Science represents human cooperation at its maximum, and war, of course, represents non-co-operation at its maximum,” said Dr R. R. D. Milhgan to the Canterbury branch of the Economics Society. He said that at Geneva he had been impressed by the evidence of non-co-operation on the political side of the League of Nations. “Somehow they cannot quite tell the truth,” he said, “as scientists at least try to tell the truth. I could not find any speeches, especially of the great Powers, in which there were not many chaotic and contradictory things said. He gave an instance in which France had asked the League to provide 300,000 francs for settling Saar refugees. This had been discussed with great heat and at great length—but it appeared that the real issue (not mentioned) concerned certain South American states. “That’s politics, I suppose, ’ said Dr Milligan. “It will be a long time before politics becomes science.

Night Life in the Dominion The lack of night life in New Zealand was criticized by a Dutch tourist, Mr H. G. Nauta, in an interview with a representative of The Press, Christchurch, at Westport. “You have some of the finest scenery in the world, but you must remember that tourists cannot live on scenery alone,” said Mr Nauta. “People on holiday like gaiety,” he said, “and they will not stay as long in a country without it as they otherwise would. In the North Island I met an English tourist and his son, who had planned a long tour throughout the Dominion, but they found their first few evenings so dull that they decided to cut their visit short and move on to a country where there was more night life.” Mr Nauta said that surely the main centres could support night clubs or similar forms of entertainment. He also thought that it should be possible for big hotels to have dance floors. Even in Sydney and the other big cities of Australia there was almost the same lack of evening entertainment.