HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12647, 3 June 1919, Page 4

HERE AND THERE.

Tlie New Zealand Rugby Union. h** rosolml, by 23 votes to 21 to abolish wmg forwards. A proposal to abolish charging at free kicks and kicks at goal was defeated on the chairman’s casting vote. In the course of an article on snobs n 1 a bpndon paper, the writer says: ‘‘The silk-stockinged female is probably the \ worst exponent of snobbery I cun think of. She is courting death, and piussing on to tho next generation a heritage of ailments or disease just because it is considered to be smart or symbolical of good breeding to show the ankle and part of the leg in a easing of silk instead of warm wool. Yet some of these charming sinners have slices that leak, and lunch on a bun. Poor little snobs!” Speaking in Hastings, last Thursday evening Mr F. Pirani said that, if any persons said that education in New Zealand was better than that in the Old Country, he would, say that they knew nothing about it. ' " ' . On tho subject of the small bird pest, which was discussed at the Farmers’ Union Conference in Southland, Mr William Ford said that tho grey owl was doing a great deal in the Warepa district to remove the pest (says the “Southland Times.”) If this natural enemy of tho small birds was encouraged the farmers would rid themselves of a very great pest without resorting to poison grains of any description. .A certain number of small birds were essential to the farmer, continued Mr Ford, as they kept grubs and insects in check. This aspect of the question should not be overlooked. . Berlin Spartaoists, in tho adoption of their uncouth name, need not he credited with a deep knowledge of Roman history. Hie name was made familiar to Germany after-the. on ty serious revolutionary epoch in their modern history by Herr Kinkel, who iu 1849 started his journal, “ Spartacus.” He probably borrowed his title from a German poem of that name' which was already popular. This ballad told the story of tho Roman gladiator who iu 73 8.0. gathered the malcontents of the empire together on the slopes of Vesuvius, and burst from its oaves upon the astonished capitalists, on the plain beneath. Kinkel, who popularised the now dreaded > name, is said to have . been at one time a professor of Herman literature in London. The two most notable persons in tho Tower of London during the Great War were Roger Casement, the Irish traitor, and Lieutenant Jjodi, of the German navy. Casement was removed from the Tower to Brixton Gaolfl and after trial was hanged at Pentonville. Lodi, with a passport stolen by the Gerinan Foreign Office from an American in Berlin, who had handed it in to be vised, went to England in August or (September, 1914, to spy for the German Government. He was a brave man who took his life in hands to serve his country, and met his death with becoming fortitude. He was tried by court-martial,'and shot in the Tower. Several other spies have been shot in the Tower during the war, but all were miserable specimens, mostly neutrals out for what money they could DlCilco, x - When giving evidence in a case heard «■ m the Wellington Magistrate’s Court recently, a witness stated that dead horses were takeu to a farm not far from the city. Pigs and poultry wero fed on them, and the bacon and poultry were afterwards sold on the Wellington market. “ Only a tow veterans in the Commons wear their hats; almost all tho new men sit hare-headed,” says tho “ British Weekly ” Parliamentary correspondent. ‘‘Perhaps the numerous members who in the last generation wore their hats in the House did not know that the custom of keeping covered was a symbol that they were part of the sovereign authority of the realm. Tho increasing!jr businesslike character of the Commons, the growing number of men who take an active part in the business of the House and remain in its precincts during a‘ large portion of the sitting, has tended to change' the habit- The decline of the ancient habit is due also to the change of fashion. A large number of members wear bowler hats, and these have not been considered appropriate to the House itself.” The water in Lake Rotorua at present is lower, some old Maoris say, than it has ever been at this season. The long continuance of fine weather has been to some extent beneficial, to'the town of Rotorua, as it has contributed to prevent a falling off in the number of visitors, which has been much larger-than is usual at the time of the year. During its sitting in Wellington this week the Land Board dealt with 109 applications for advances^to. purchase dwellings, seventy-five applications for advances buy farms, and nine,applications by soldiers for the Crown to buy land for them. “The trouble with New Zealand youths, to my mind, is that more home control is required,” remarked Mr J. S- Barton, S.M., at the Gisborne Police Court. “The amount of theft and other offences of a like typo is extraordinary in this place.” _An interesting, light is thrown on history as a subject of instruction in secondary schools hy a study of the recent matriculation examination results in that subject (says an exchange). There were 1342 candidates who took history for the examination, and no fewer than 758 failed to secure the 40 per cent of marks required for a pass. The percentage of failures was therefore 561 per cent. In one examination centre in the Auckland province there were 39 who sat for history, and no fewer than 28 of them failed in tho subject. In two adjacent South Island centres IS out of 19 candidates. failed in history. “ Remember, a good boxer makes q good soldier. I' have never known a good boxer who has not been a good soldier.”--Major Sweetzer at tho presentation of prizes after the boxing tournament at Treutham Camp last Wednesday. The spokesman of a deputation to a Taranaki board of factory directors urged, in support of a forward move in tho direction of sugar of milk manufacture, that pioneering urns not altogether a thing of tho past (reports an exchange). , It had only changed its nature. Pioneers were wanted to-day in adventuring on new lines, and they had to take risks. With everything the had to buy advanced to double or treble its former price he had to seek new methods of increasing his teoeipts. In London there still are 7037 men end 6 77 1 women of enemy nationality. A fight for tho British film market appears to bo imminent (states a London paper). The American share in this, apparently,, is not to be limited to the production and marketing of films, but is to be extended to the actual running of picture theatres oh an elaborate scale, if plans which are said ■to have large sums of money behind them are carried into effect. Tho most ambitious scheme of the kind which is being talked of in Filmland is that of an organisation which proposes to run its own films in its own circuit of theatres. Meanwhile, Mr Harry Aitken, a lending figure on tho. commercial side of film enterprise, has gone to England, and is said to be surveying the ground preparatory to initiating picture production schemes iu Great Britain or on the Continent. Mr Sidney Olcott, who produced “ Mrom Manger to Cross,” is also in London, with the, intention, it is understood, of producing films in England, and Mr Sheehan, president of the Fox Film Company, is credited with similar intentions. At the same time, British producers are making rapid progress, and vigorous and well-directed efforts are promised to place the genuinely native production at the front.