CURRENT COMMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 December 1929, Page 17 (Supplement)

CURRENT COMMENT.

OTHER POINTS ' OF' VIEW.

(By

M.O.S.)

: We are approaching the death of the ©ld year aiid ; -the birth-of a new year. This is the‘time -when wo. forget all the fine promises we have made and broken and draw up. another list of good resolutions to suffer a similar fate.

.Having consulted Old Moore, we are in R ; position to state that the' following remarkable Events may occur in 1930:— ■ r* Parliament 'may do more work for the, country than for the Government Printer. . The Hon. Mr. Atmore may decide on a new education policy. The ratepayers ,of the- Opunake district may decide that they should have a. harbour, and the harbour board that they should not, ‘ .i," - The International Rugby Board of Control may admit Dominion reprepresentatives td its counsels. . Australian coalminers may decide to work a" whole year without strik- . ' in S- ■ ? : 7 - * ’ • I ~ * ■" J * Mention of. work reminds one of some Remarks .by the mayor of Wellington the other day! ' “There isr too much of the 'go alow’ policy becoming prevalent in our midst,” hc said. “If New Zealand is to be great it must be largely by the means of the hard work we are putting into it.” The mayor proceeded to .urge everyone'to work very hard. Apparently he was not aware that work is a glutinous, ungrateful creature that must be kept in its place. Rew people have, ever received any gratitude from" him for paying him too much attention, except, perhaps, the privilege of having a nervous breakdown, or the privilege of spending one’s last days in' a workhouse. Certainly some men have grown rich through work, bub usually they get others to do it for them. One finds himself thinking this way at this holiday season of the year.

No-one -has .discussed the question of ■work more admirably than Jerome K. Jerome. “It always docs seem to me that I am doing more work than I ighould,” he wrote. “It is not. that' I object to the work, mind you; I like work; it fascinates me; I can sit and look nt it for hours. 1 love .to keep it by me. the idea of getting rid ot it nearly breaks my heart. You cannot give me., too much work. To accumulate work has almost become a passion with me; my study is so full of it now that .there is hardly an inch of room for any more; and I shall have to throw out a win™ soon. And I am careful of my work,°too. Why, some of the work I have by mo now has been in my possession for years and years, and there isn’t a fingermark on it. I take a great pride in my work; I take it down now and then and dust it. No mam keeps his work in a better state of preservation than I do. But though I ■' crave for work, I still like to be fair; I do not ask for more than my proper phare ~ . ” * ft * • ■ “Three days after my husband was killed I was drawn like a magnet to the . speedway . ./. . There was m y husband ’■ waiting with his own racing model. He smiled and nodded to me to mount the • < pillion . . ' . We completed the course together, he talking and laughing through- ■ out until reaching the paddock gate. He then drove off. gradually being transformed into a ball of mist. . . ." And to think that for years we have Men blaming our traffic inspectors because they failed to stop the noises .that make tho night hideous- and sleep impossible! The only way out of the difficulty seems to be to make the inspectors take out licenses as mediums and thus give them some power over these two-wheeled banshee roadsters. •Jhen it might be said— The raucous, hideous Spirits of the Night, Those vicious, noisonrt: banshees niatle to fright, Now wander quietly down a tarsealed way I . In silent homage to th’ Spirit of tho ’’ Day. * ft ft * Putting all jokes aside, however, this spirit business io becoming really alarming. A motorist can’t open his mouth ■these days without becoming possessed, first by some spirit of misfortune, then by a policeman and later, by a prison ;(seo recent reports of Magistrate’s Court proceedings). Even the sun, wo' ftre told, is rather disturbed owing to . numerous spots. Fortunately, he has not taken to motoring yet, or we earthlings might find ouraelvcs in a very cometose condition. ft ft ft ft It wafl once said there wore, only two kinds of pedestrians—the quick and the dead. There may be some slow motorists, but if so they are dead, too. ft ft # ft A rather substantial spirit has lately leen holding seances in an underground temple in the Tyrolese mountains, jfhere, wo are told, modern Knights of the Holy Grail, each wearing a golden jbrofls on tho breast and securing adimiasion by tho password “Lohengrin,” paid reverence to a crystal chalice illuminated by a hidden light. Meanwhile (jount Oscar Barhardt, clad in glittering armour, chanted the litany. The police could not get in until they had doped the savage wolf-hounds on guard. It all sounds very romantic, like a Monte Cristo adventure, until one learns that tho Count is alleged to have received £20,000 from his followers in isix months and that he admitted he I yvas born in tho flesh. He had al jnission to prepare souls for heaven, he feaid. And many of his followers still 1 believed in him, even after he had been , charged with fraud. I * # ft • ’ This would seem to be a better investment —for the Count —than Q.D. and H.P., .or even'oil shares. I