A DIARY OF TO-DAY.

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 8, 27 December 1928, Page 4

A DIARY OF TO-DAY.

BY BYSTANDER,

German statesmen say that they j must show a strong front cn the ' reparations question. They always had plenty of that commodity. XX X X A great many animals laugh, says a scientist. And, of course, a gieat many people give them good reason to. A Balmation, who first saw the light in a town called Vrgcrc had everybody puzzled regarding, its pronunciation at a bankruptcy meeting at Auckland last week. He wa s able to get his tongue around it allright, but (the others, including the Official Assignee, found it easier to viite than say. lit recalls the Russian town we heard so much of in war time— Prezemyst—the efforts to pronounce which caused as much trouble as those of English tourists trying to say Ngongotaha when they pass that station on the way |to Rotorua. .... -».i XX X X

The Bay of Islands election, in which the big ncise of the Northland, (fol. Allen Beil, was defeated by Capt. Eushworth, is to be fought out before an Election Court' probably will be declared “all off.” It is a very easy thing Ito upset an election in New Zealand, but it veiy rare for the person who does the upsetting to be returned at the subsequent by-election- —if one is ordered. In fact, there does not) appear to bea single case of it. This is the second time in which a contest in the Bay of Islands has been upset, the -.previous occasion being when Mi (now the Hon.) Vernon Reed was unseated. x xx x Dame Nellie Melba whose efforts at stirring a Christmas cake in London were cabled to New Zealand at so much per word, has been given some more publicity. This time she bas stated in an interview that she hopes to find “another Melba,’’ but she does not say whether the new star is to be the possessor of a wonderful voice or of the faculty which goes to make up a good advertising agent. Melba has never hidden her light under a bushel, and even if she had not been gifted with “the voice” she would still have made a fortune in the publicity business. As an American onc e said: “Barnum had nothing on her.” XX X X With the Stratford races less than a week away, .probably the man most in the public eye is Mr Sidney Pitt, President cf the Racing Club. He has, guarded Ithe destinies of the club for several years now, and has had a big share in getting it to it s present prosperous state. Of course he has had the assistance of a good committee ,but in every concern, it is the President who sets the pace and shoulders most of the responsibility, a s well as putting in a let of hard work. Just now Mr Pitt’s chief desire is an extra racing permit, and although it. has not materialised up to now, it is not because of anything he has left undone. He is one of those who keep pegging away, x and there is little doubt he will keep on pegging until Stratford gets another day’s racing. Men like him always win cut. XX X X In their enrolment applications milder the Electoral Act, four members cf the present Parliament 1 put down “Member of Parliament” in the Occupation column, which leads one to whisper “Yes, but what do ithey do?” ’.You see in these days being a member of Parliament cannot be regarded as a steady job, and as many of them have found out, they are as likely to be unemployed as ordinary mortals. Some members, of course, do not do anything else, but 1 just in case th e electors become difficult .they would save their faces by describing themselves as plumbers, -journalists, or something like that, jeven if all they did in their selected jobs was to mend a bathroom tap ;iow and again or write an occasional paragraph about themselves. Of 'course a politician could always put ’down his occupation as “gentleman s because all politicians are gentlemen. The Governor-General always calls them that in the Speech from the Throne.