HERE AND THERE

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19848, 17 January 1920, Page 8

HERE AND THERE

The latest sensation in New York is a truly astonishing super-movio-house entitled “ The Capitol.” - Situated on Broadway, it has cost 6J million dollars, seats 6300 people, and has a foyer 180 feet long. The daily receipts for two de luxe performances cannot be less than £IOOO. The decorations are the last word in rich heavy curtains and deep gold, with .thick carpets, low cushioned armchairs and frescoes. The programme, lasting 3i hours, includes vaudeville, classical music, topical and scenic films, and the usual five-reel picture. As a building, the Metropolitan Opera House itself does not compare with the Capitol. A statement to the effect that the use of the telephone to enable an invalid, confined to his house, to listen to the concert given at Hamilton the other day by the New South Wacs Orchestra, was the first occasion on which the experiment was tried in New Zealand, is hardy correct (says a northern paper). The Maoris living between the Bay of Islands and Hokianga hit on the idea several years ago. They got the telephone craze-—probably from seeing private wires run on to several ot the farmers’ places—and although many of them hadn’t a decent coat to wear, a good deal of money was raked together, posts were hauled from the bush, and a very creditable Hue was erected. As a result nearly every village m the neighbourhood was connected' up with the system, and when the toy was new the batteries were kept working overtime ringing bells (this alone was ai keen delight), and vibrating yards of excited Maori conversation through space. It happened that one village on the circuit owned a gramophone—which was then not quite so common as it is to-day—and 'the great event in the daily round was in the evenings when every telephone was switched in, the gramophone was started, and every earpiece had glued to it a dusky ear, which was changed as rapidly as the owner could bo torn from possession of tho instrument by the next impatient member of tho audience. A good story' of fighting on tho NorthWest Frontier of India is told by a returned New Zealander, an Indian Army officer, who served in that region during tho. later period of the war. Some time in 1916 the ever turbulent Mahsud tribe, haying seen photographs of the tanks which were first employed in the Battle of tho Somme on September 15 of that year, thought they would he up-to-date, and, manufacturing a tank themselves, would emplay the latest thing in modem warfare in their next campaign. They built a tank all right —constructed one out of old sheet iron; but the trouble was that, being incapable of self-propulsion—the hill tribesmen were not engineers enough for that—it had to bo carried 11 Forty men were employed for the job. using long poles. This “tank,’’ which literally walked on human logs, was transported to within a mile of Wana Fort, when it came under rifle-fire. Almost instantaneously the " tank ” came to an abrupt halt. It immediately lost its human legs, which, with remarkably unanimity, beat a hasty retreat to the rear. The parting was evidently permanent, fop the “logs” never'returned to claim the body, which lies there to this day—a monument of the beginning and the end of what was really “a great idea-” Tho Manawatu “ Bally Times ” relates that a local wag with a handful of coppers wiled away an hour on a garden seat in tho Polmerstofi Square on New Year’s morning by offering the toys a penny each for correct answers to Bible history. He awards the place of honour os typical of our town-bred youth to this; “ Who was Judas Iscariot ?” “ Well, I’m blowed if I know, Mister; he must a been an Ostralian. Ho ain’t been runnin’ in New Zealand for several seasons, anyhow 11” Major General Robin, whoso term of appointment as general officer commanding affairs military in Now Zealand has expired, has for more than thirty years been identified with Defence matters, first as an officer in tho Otago Hussars (one of tho crack mounted regiments in New Zealand), then ns major commanding tho New Zealand contingent in South Africa, where his leadership and general administration gained for him the highest praise from the late Earl Roberts and Lord Kitchener, General French, lan Hamilton, and Hutton, and from tho present Field-Alarshal Sir Douglas Haig, then chief of staff to General French. Time after time Major-Gen-eral Robin pressed tho authorities to allow him to again proceed on active service, but while his age was well over tho limit, it was also recognised that an experienced head was essential in New Zealand to supervise tho multifarious duties in connection with recruiting, training, equipping and dispatching regularly Now Zealand’s contribution in men in the great war recently ended. Major-General Robin’s record_ has been a good one—ho has :n----deorl given of bis best. He is now temporarily relieving Colonel R. W. Tate in the administration "of Samoa, and on tho expiration of his term in that office will retire into private life. There is life in the Old Country yet, and it is good to hear how quickly ana thoroughly some British firms have adapted themselves to new peace-time work._ “Prior to May of this year,” the director of ono North-Country firm said recently, “We were engaged entirely on armaments; now we are turning out kinematograpli projectors, binoculars, motor-cycle engines, and lots of other interesting and useful things. During tho war we developed the manufacture of optical glass, so that wo are no longer dependent on other sources of supply. Indeed, in tho case of the things I have cited we can produce them all from tho raw material—for example, finished lenses and prisms of the finest qualities enter our works in the form of sand." , i There are probably not 10,000 pureblooded Hawaiians living to-day, says Irofessor Vaugliau MacCau'rbey, of tbo College of Hawaii., in tho •< Journal of Heredity.” In 1778 tliero were about 300,000; in 1823 there were only 1*2,000; in 1833, 130.000; in. 1&39 44,000; in 1900, 80,000; in 1910, 26,000! Professor MncCaughcy says a. large number of these listed in recent censuses ns purebloodod Hawaiians arc really half-breeds. This rapid disappearance of “ ono of the finest physical types known in tho history of the human race” is duo to the' introduction by white men of alcohol, plague, measles, leprosy, tuberculosis, pneumonia, and tho most terrible of blood diseases, none of these having been known in _Hawaii before the advent of the white manTho boast is made that practically every school in Victoria has its shrubbery and garden. During recent years groat strides have been made with the development of school adornments, and the nature lessons and loam of flowers instilled in the minds of children are not likely to bo forgotten in after years. Victorians will always bo a flower-loving community. School garden work is conducted on an organised plan laid down by tho school horticultural society. In many cases school grounds are tho most attractive in a township. Every child takes a pride in the work. Tho members of the horticultural society, which has its own nursery at Oakleigh, embraces nearl” 1500 schools. Every year half a million seedlings and about 30.000 packets of seed are distributed. ’ Instruction by means of summer schools and gardening classes is also given. The society through Flower Days has raised £122,928 for repatriation and other patriotic funds. Mr 0. K. Isaacs who formed the society in 1910. has recently returned from active son-ice, uud after his investigations in England and on the continent ho is convinced that Victorian gardens compare very favourably with those of the Old World.