REFLECTIONS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 16816, 14 August 1920, Page 6

REFLECTIONS.

MR, TURVEYDROP AND TERPSICHORE. BOROUGH BY-LAWS. THE NEEDY KNIFE-GRINDER.

(By “John Doo.”)

There will probably shortly be vacancies in the Supremo Court Bench to be filled. The Chief Judgeship of Samoa has been given to a stipendiary magistrate, recently a solicitor in New Plymouth. Why should not the At-torney-General, who has the appointment in his hands, appoint a magistrate to the Supreme Court Bench, following tho example of England, where a County Court Judge has been appointed to the Supremo Court? Tho stipendiary magistrates’ position and salaries are being improved and the status of their Bench would bo further improved by such an appointment. A render informs me that tho origin of the phrase “Teach your grandmother to suck eggs” is' like Topsy’s wrop in mystery, and just growed. Another reader would remind me—delicately assuming that 1 knew it—that tho Latin equivalent is “Sus Minervnm,” A very old Latin dictionary, which once belonged to a forbear of a New Plymouth resident who was a Bishop in England, informs me that the phrase was “Sus Minervnm docct,” a sow Leaches Minerva: tins goddess was tho representative of wisdom and knowledge, and of tho knowledge of the arts. These old phrases are curious often in their origin. “To set tho Thames on firo” has really no reference to the river, but is a corruption of “terns,” a roller used in grinding corn. But I would like further information about grandmother’s eggs. * * ik

No, I don't think Mr. Turveydrop would have approved in the least, had ho been present at the dancing display at tho Coronation Hall 1 his week. Ho would, with a good deal of justice, havo said that it wasn’t dancing, whether it was acrobatics or gymnastics or not. And in any case it would be difficult to take Vino’s partner.—-and what of 50 partners?—in one’s arms bodily apd swing her round in tire air, which apparently is a part in tho “Jazz’’ dance, if the said parties were wearing a voluminous crinoline. And certainly the crinoline, oven if it had certain defects, was very graceful: one has soon this in displays of the old graceful dances performed by good dancers on the .stage dressed as our grandmothers were. Tho jazz, tho tango, the fox trot are symptoms; like “Tho Heavenly Twins,” they aro signs of tho times, not destined to survive long.

Talking to a prominent golfer, ho and I agreed that a good way of making money for the Pari; funds—the motto of tlie committee being “It’s your money we want”—at tiio Coronation Hall would have been a putting tournament. The large hall would allow ample room for a cither turfed with real grass, or with matting, whore golfers and non-golfers too, could aud would have paid many shillings for the fun of putting nine holes. *-

Even if we do not take I’affniro Mannix quite as seriously ns tho central actor himself yet it is connected with serious business—and now the cinema man has come along and converted things into a “pose” ! Wo road: “Dr., Mannix, wearing episcopal robes, posed for a cinema in the garden of Nazareth House. Ho walked backward and forward with a stately hearing,” Xo wonder the .gods on Higli Olympus laugh with Homeric laughter at us poor mortals.

But'the name “Xazarcth” may well induce other reflections, especially in contrast to posing for cinema pictures and stately hearing. The average man to-day is critical of tho Church and ecclesiastics, hut far less critically disposed towards tho Founder and Head, and cannot help, when he thinks of the carpenter's shop, contrasting the lowliness of Nazareth and tho practical goodness associated with it, with such things as ho reads of to-day, as for instance tho solemn conclave of bishous end other dignitaries in England during the crisis of a great war, with all tho moral and religious issues raised thereby, when it was solemnly considered and resolved that King Charles I. was n. martyr, and tho date of his death should bo a. Bed Letter Day. Ami in Now Zealand he sees another Church engaged in a fierce dispute as 1e whether infant-baptism is valid or invalid accompanied by all the anathemas of theological controversy and threats of expulsion. And now ho sees columns of cable news where what is called ; n them “Tho sacred office of an archbishop” scorns to he ovcr-conceined wilh secular and political affairs and differences, and descending to poso for a cinema in the robes of a sacred officecan wo wonder that many men seem to hold aloof from churches, aqd mal\o social amelioration and political aims and economic betterment their religion? For that is what a large number of advanced “Labour” men do today, sometimes with all the zeal and with not more or better based information than tho youngest religious devotee.

The Borough Council might do a small service by prohibiting the use of confetti in public, so that it becomes a nuisance, untidy and unsightly, on the public pavements. The use of confetti anyway is old-fhshioned and out of date, and it never was an agreeable practice. There was some signification, old a'nd hallowed by origin and tradition, for the tin-owing of rice at weddings; there is none for throwing little pieces of cheap coloured paper. And the council might look up their by-laws regarding noisy and speedy motors, especially motor bikes. 1 presume wo have some one whose duty it is to keep a watchful eye in these offenders ; hut prosecutions never seem to occur. The young mon who use motor tikes, presumably poor machines, that make a hideous noise especially late at night, arid who tear along roads like Devon Street East at 40 and more miles an hour, need strong legal disciplining. There is no need to have noisy .motors, as many of them are, comparatively, quiet: those who ride these noisy machines at a very fast pace show- a complete absence of any decent feeling or breeding or manners. And in addition they are breaking the law. * ♦ «

Some reference to bleak blasts reminds me of the onco famous satire by George Canning, the famous Foreign Secretary, written at a time when the democratic movement was beginning and Tom Paine was being read. It is written ip a well-known classical metre;

Humanity—we have him with us to-day, and tho travelling Knife-Grinder, who ■was common enough at Home some years ago, before carborundum wheels and other inventions ousted him. Friend of Humanity : “Needy knife-grinder! whither are you going? Rough is tie.- road, your wheel is out of order. Bleak hlowotho blast; your hat has got a hole in it: So have your breeches. “Tell me, knife-grinder, how you came to grind knives? Did some rich man tyrannically uso you ? Was it tho squire? or parson of tho parish ? Or the attorney? (Have you not road the “Rights of Blau” by Tom Paine?) Drops of compassion tremble on my eyelids, Ready to fall as soon as you have told your Pitiful story.” Knife-grinder; “Story! God bless you! I have none to tell, sir. Only last night, a-drinking at ThtChequers, This poor old hat and breeches, as you see, were Torn in a scuffle. “Constable came up for to take me into Custody; they took me before the - Justice; Justice Oldmixon put me in the parish Stocks for a^vagrant. “I should be glad to drink your Honour’s health in J A pot of beer, if yon will give me sixpence ; But for my part, I never lovo to meddle With politics, sir.” Friend of Humanity: “I give then sixpence! I will see thee damned first— Wretch, whom no sense of wrongs can rouse to vengeance— Sordid, unfeeling, reprobate, degrade.. 1 . Spiritless l outcast. ” (Kicks tho knife-grinder, overturns his wheel, and exit in a transport of Republican enthusiasm and universal philanthropy.)