CURRENT COMMENT

Taranaki Daily News, 5 October 1929, Page 17 (Supplement)

CURRENT COMMENT

OTHER POINTS OF VIEW

(By,

“M.O.S.")

A collection of valuable •antiques- was. displayed recently in a Stratford hall. In New Plymouth it is-merely necessary /to walk aloifg the Esplanade on a sunny afternoon. '..;■ ’ • - .• ' : .* .■ - * ■./* • . Interviewed /regarding their' favourite melodics, several young . men in Taranaki recently stated that they preferred that quaint, old Negro spirituelle: • “Steal away, steal away.” . /• ■ .«■- • ’ r ’ That-a tall ■ chimney when it took fire Ibent with the heat and,'when the fire' • , was extinguished, gradually straightened td' tho perpendicular,' is reported in a i: message fi dm Paris. That was a very ■ obliging chimney. It may offer a hint ; i ■ to builders of American skyscrapers who an American visitor says, build . their chimneys with hinges so that the , , tops may be let down to allow the moon to pass. ' '' ■ '■ •' ■ ■ * • ■ -#..., . * .. .. /.-■,. . ; “Radio,’’ Said the Minister of Health ; , in Hawera recently, beating his rhetorical .wings in a fine flight of poetic '/fancy at the opening of the hospital . < wireless plant, “radio suggests new i /• realms of beauty, new oceans of joy.” • ; Paftiehts may- be- reassured, 1 however. Football matches and race meetings will : .not bo altogether omitted. « ' ' * # * ■: At the close of the present session of the Queensland Parliament, the bedrooms in Parliament House in Brisbane will not be available for members., states a message from. Australia. It does seem tliat bedrooms themselves/are' an extravagance. In New Zealand members manage[very well without them. * * Wanted: A county council whichmight say to the New. Plymouth Aero Club: “While, not fully sympathising with your aims, we shall be pleased to. ■ offer you some financial assistance.” »#* ' # Meanwhile, in Auckland, Dr. H. J. Hughes has been saying , p .iblicly that disease is spread by kissing. But marriage—after all, you can hardly call it a disease. One feels that the doctor, if he really had. to say anything whatever might have just termed it an affliction,and let it go at that. On the other hand, the measures of the man in Auckland. who sat his wife on a hot stove because she had not cooked his tea are considered somewhat extreme. Men in lodgings point out that the treatment should be reserved for landladies, not so much because they have not cooked the meal, as ■because they have. Apart from this, it is. painful but true that keen students of the vernacular have welcomed the 'Auckland man’s action on the grounds that to the list of forceful phrases headed, “the biter bit,” it is now possible to add “the cook cooked.” , . * • * While most of us have been .thoughtlessly wasting our time in shops and offices,, a number of serious-minded people have been giving evidence before the M td Z Committee Of the House of Representatives., It sounds curiously like « card index scheme so that the Prime Minister can take out and put away his committees when he desires. The evidence relates to the Vaile petition for the resumption of tlie Taupo line, [and lately, Mr. Eustace Lane, a. farmer, has been startling the committee with the sinister but refreshingly notcl suggestion that, with railway access, Taupo would constitute the finest defence centre in New Zealand. Beginning his sentence with the scarcely profound observation, that to-day the country is at peace, Mr. Land ended it with the warning that war was'imminent. '.'«=■ * * * ’Mr. Kyle was rude enough to hope that Mr. Lane was not trying to curry favour ’ with the chairman of the committee, Colonel t McDonald, but Mr. Makitanara asked if Mr. Lane suggested that a foreign army was going to fight us in New Zealand. To this Mr. Lane replied, With all the fervour of a bride at the altar, “I do.” • # j# ■ # This is all very disturbing to quiet, everyday people like ourselves who have no splendid ideas. War to us, for. example, is not the simple, whole-hearted recreation that it is to the- Chinese. Personally, one favours peace at any price, even the price of- a railway. And if we really must have one in the case of war, Heaven (or Sir Joseph) grant that it may be the South Island main trunk! Then at least one might get as far as ■Stewart Island. Moreover, before anything definite is done, it does seem only - fair that the A to L Committee should Jbo consulted, too. # *■ # # But, to put aside levity for the moment, let us consider the wickedness of a party of fifty American judges and barristers who, according to an exchange, ' sat in the body of the Court of Criminal Appeal in London recently, studying the methods of the three English judges Lord Hewart, Mr. Justice Avory and Mr. Justice Branson. Shade of Senator Borah! And afterwards, when the short session was over, Judge Hefner of Oklahoma started to his feet and addressed their lordships: “You chaps,” he said, “have got us beat. The gowns and wigs sure look fine. We gotta change out there!” * e # * Now. apart from the fact that we shall probably shortly have a song entitled “Out There In Oklahoma,” this hasty speech is nothing short of treason. It is .very doubtful whether Senator Borah knows that this section of his legislature is away bowing down to graven images. For some time now his pithy remarks have not radiated from the cable page. But when he does find out, it is more doubtful still whether this flighty, irresponsible party of American judges and lawyers will be allowed to return, even to Oklahoma. Personally, one thinks that they will now be prohibited as undesirable aliens. At the very least, a high protective tariff will be placed on i t* British legal methods that they are : ■ bringing back with them. i