CURRENT COMMENT

Taranaki Daily News, 23 June 1934, Page 13 (Supplement)

CURRENT COMMENT

OTHER POINTS OF VIEW

(By

M.O.S.)

“Cream of Rugby”—Newspaper headline. A 15 test, one presumes.

“Is a dead body a person?” asked counsel for an undertaker in a traffic case before an Auckland court last Week. The printer’s devil, who mysteriously disappeared last night, and- was subsequently found at his grandparent’s golden wedding celebration was very definite on the subject. “No,” he declared, “but plenty of persons are dead bodies.”

On the subject of the “devil.” William was very upset by a paragraph which appeared in the Daily News last ■week. Readers, he asserts, were not informed the correct pronunciation of the mysterious name B-r-o-u-g-h. about which the paragraph was written. “One gathers,” he writes in a feeling letter to the editor signed “Pro Bono Publico,” “that if this man Brough pronounces his name either Brow or Bro, no one will ever suspect him of being a high-brough as would be the case if Brough pronounced his name Bruff.” You don’t quite see the point of that ? Neither do we.

At the festival of St. Nicola di Bona celebrated at Rome recently, Cardinal Granito di Belmonte blessed the sea. We understand on reliable authority from a New Plymouth resident who crossed from Sydney last week that • several hundred of his fellow passengers - also blessed it—from the bottom of thenhearts. * * * * Critiqueueue. (Being the imaginary report of an' imaginary concert). Pullimin the. celebrated Czecho-Slo-vakian harpist ravished a New Plymouth audience last night with his sympathetic, soulful and superbly masterful 'rendering of the Bathetique Concerto in D flat minor (Op. 310 No. 116). One felt that M. Pullimin not only understood his instrument; he played it. This may not have been true; on the other hand it may be. Taste has much to do with such matters. But there can be no doubt that fourteen of the audience, who had vivid memories of the occasion on which Hoppitup, the celebrated Austro, Tyrolean maestro, performed the same concerto in a. zither arrangement by Signor di Gondola Colorado in 1866, expressed vague and troubled disappointment at M. Pullimin’s interpretation of the Zippofski Prognathous Fantasia in A sharp major (Op. .99, No. 13). One was left with the dreadful feeling that Pullimin’s left index finger had not that passionate tactual exactitude which transfers to the tone of the instrument an emotional je-ne-sais-quoi calculated to sooth the savagest breast. Likewise he lacked eternality in the tertiary F minor theme with the second, fourth and last finger of the right hand. One felt that his fingers were too appallingly active in the arpeggio and eon molto fortissimo phases of the fourth movement. The supporting artist was punk. ' (N.B. The critic is leaving town by the next Trans-Tasman air mail). *

Bradman returning to Australia—to ■- gee Jean Batten ? # * * *

Larwood—the man who put the i in Voice.

Is Taranaki losing its dash ? The Hon. Adam Hamilton concluded a visit to Taranaki towns this week, and was not accorded one riotous demonstration.

Perhaps Taranaki has taken the i out of riot.

Anent the same subject, it is said that a certain Ministerial secretary. recently saw something hurtling towards him through the heated air of Palmerston North. Deeming expedition the better part of discretion, he promptly dodged hahind a post, and thus missed contact with a ripe piece of liver. * # * *

Palmerston certainly put the i in riot # # * * And talking about the Minister of Employment—in his capacity as Minister of the Tourist and Publicity Department he told a reporter at Hawera that in effect, “everything in the garden was lovely.” Unfortunately, however, there are some people in Taranaki who think the department has overlooked the “last, loneliest, loveliest” flower—a flower, in fact, that blooms in the desert air of uneonsidered scenery.

In fact, it is even- said the department is trying to take the ego out of Egmont.

In a Davis Cup match at Paris, Merlin defeated Crawford. What else could one expect against a wizard ? Crawford simply succumbed to passes and the mystic numerals 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2. Hokey Pokey, Abra Cadabra! # * * * It is understood that the aid of the Statute of Limitations has been invoked

by the Minister of Education as a sound defence against claims by the plaintiffs 'in the school entrance age dispute. He has proved that the five-year-old problem is really 60 years old. The action is to be struck out, at least in the meantime, with costs against the Teachers’ f nstitute. #** . # Nasty Poetry About Nazis. <With Apologies to Gretchen). Papen von Papen, • You did put some pep in Your talk of the nasty regime. You hit poor old Hitler A verbotten settler And now Hindenberg’s refereeing. •Papen von Papen You used to be shapin’ For leadership of the Steelhelms.... « # # * (Ass der meder iss nod vurking properly und der meder-reader iss avay, I haf to apologisse vor nod compleeding diss ebig boem....Der edidor said id did nod madder anyvay. My spelling vos vurss dan my verss). # * * Currency Problems. “Something must be done,” states Mr. A. M. Samuel, M.P. Very true. But the “something” is always us. Why not try a change of subject ? # * *■ # The Song of the Hour: “Oh where, oh where can my Little Boy Go ?” Dedicated by the parents of the five-year-olds to the Minister of Education. # # ■ * * The Taranaki Boxing Association had to postpone its tournament last week on account of many of the boxers having colds. Quite right too. A hearty sneeze would not be the best of counters to a well directed upper cut.

Mussolini and Hitler spent last weekend in conference. Probably it was to settle the question as to whether they should dictate to themselves or to the rest of the world.