CURRENT COMMENT

Taranaki Daily News, 17 January 1931, Page 1 (Supplement)

CURRENT COMMENT

OTHER POINTS OF VIEW

(By

M.O.S.)

To roam or not to roam; that is the question. The Englishman’s home is his castle, but the Taranakian’s home is •his Waterloo —that is, if he is a good cricketer. He has been accused, of “skimming the cream oil' the season’s programme” by playing in all the nice matches in his home town'and. not being available for the nasty matches in ■other towns. Verily he who skimmeth 'the cream shall go one stage further and shall himself be separated—in this ■case from the Taranaki representative ■eleven.

Mention of cricket reminds us that the Taranaki selectors have henceforth to explain in writing to the association why so-and-so is included in the representative eleven. The Man on the Terrace, who so far has not been included in any of the selections, talking to Mr. •Iceberg in Devon Street yesterday, was ■cruel and vicious, enough to ask whether the selectors knew themselves why they ■had included some of the players who ■have taken the field in. recent Taranaki •teams.

“One Man Tram,” says a bold notice ■displayed on several of the trams now running on the Fitzroy-Breakwater route in New Plymouth. This is distinctly misleading, for we are sure we saw three men inside one of those ■pathetic derelicts of transport one day last week, to say nothing of two children and a couple of parcels.

But the ■ New Plymouth motormenednduciors, piloting their empty juggernauts in lonely grandeur along the shining pathway from Fitzroy to the .Breakwater, are not the only people who enjoy the liberty and' freedom that is universally associated with lack of company in the wide open spaces. Mod-' ern parents are very often heard to ■bewail the modem spirit in their offspring, but at least they have to admit that liberty has now definitely come into its own. Any suspicion of tyranny raises an immediate outcry, and America should have innumerable supporters ,of her attitude to Liberia, where ■slaving as not yet a thing of the past.

; Many of these upholders of freedom will no doubt be quick to applaud Councillor Cox, of Manchester, who protested against the Sunday Observance Act of 1677. This Act requires attendance at a place of worship on the Sabbath; but we might find it uApleasant, as we lie in bed on Sunday morning (because it has been such a tiring week) or as we play tennis in the evening (for it is a pity to miss such glorious weather), to reflect that we are liable to chastisement by the law as well as by our interfering consciences.- Like Mr. Cox we might feel tempted “to offer privately ■prayers for those narrow-minded people, whose idea of freedom is that it isn’t freedom unless they dictate it.” ••* < ’

Jack Dempsey still finds that a hefty •punch,is the best cure for some evils, 'While refereeing a wrestling match recently, he became involved in an argument with one of the fighters, and in ' the heat of the moment removed his shirt and knocked the offender out. •Women fans round the ringside tore the ishirt into small p'ieces that they might •treasure as ipementoes. It seems to be almost- an age of violence, and even 'murder. Hardly a day passes without some diabolical new form of murder is invented. Some of the methods, such as razor-slashing or ' playing cricket against a, fast bowler on Western Park, are mercifully quick. Others again, such as dairy farming or listening to some of our Taranaki after-dinner speakers, are painfully slow, but never* itheless just as sure. One new form of murder is rapidly being perfected. Recently there has been noticed the beginnings of an art that might be called “plane” murder. Bathers in Auckland 'have been seriously annoyed by I an •aviator flying low over the water. Any man who has mown lawns knows the delicious thrill of seeing a dandelion decapitated. Already pedestrians have to ‘look to right, to left, behind and in front. Soon it will be above too. « * * *

Regulation of air traffic is going to be a big problem in the future. Landins places offer no serious difficulty, and ■the keep to the left rule or its equivalent is good enough. But what of parking? Already, on the continent, heliocopters are in great demand. Parking aeroplanes, as a matter of fact, is no more to be encouraged than parking motor-cars. Dark nights, moonlit nights, wet nights, fine nights, there are a, startling number of parked cars to be observed in the by-ways of Taranaki. Further, it appears that the police have no powers in this matter/ The law has not the entree into closed cars, and a certain Parisian gendarme was very rudely received by the owner of the car whose door he opened. Couples will he glad to learn that any car with blinds drawn and the' doors .shut .is legally a “domicile.” and as such an inviolable sanctuary for the occupiers thereof. • « # * But at present we hear of aeroplanes chiefly in connection with deaths, heroes and search parties. A little more consideration on the part of some of these aerial wanderers might lead to some decrease, in the daily influx of tales of heroic fortitude. Australia at least has . recovered her vagrant fliers. Whether they are worth the £'sooo she spent to get them back is another matter. The . public may be ready enough to canonise those who make intrepid and unexpected flights, but need they pay for their mishaps? No doubt, however, the prodigals; are in this case tired of their wanderlust. A fortnight on water and two malted tablets per day is no diet for a growing boy. #•# ♦ * Had Nanette been there, they might have lived on “just nothing but kisses,” as the song has it. People are apt to mourn the good old days. But Nanette has proved that the modern has eome good qualities still. Every man «he met fell in love with her, so she gained their hearts and put her hands in their pockets. The first 31 engagements were successful, but the thirtysecond man must have had a drop of the Highlands in his veins, for he was suspicious. Nanette’s career as a parasite has landed her in the police court. {Perhaps she will become engaged to the ■gaoler. It is rumoured that she is preparing a volume for publication entitled “It” or How to Catch Them.