HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17863, 3 June 1926, Page 8

HERE AND THERE.

AN EYE FOR EVERYTHING. A Venerable Rammer. There is still in existence an ancient hammer dated 1573, which has been in use in the Parish of St Clement Danes for nearly 250 years, and another, nearly as old, dated 1598. These hammers, mounted with silver, and bearing upon them the Tudor rose, with the letters “E.R.” ,and the anchor of St Clement Danes, were used to keep order at the time of the feast, and are still used for the same purpose. Caw Instead of Sanitation. Sixty-five per cent of a large number of homes investigated in New York were found to have inside sanita - tion arrangements, and 59 per cent of them had bath-tubs, 70 per cent of these families had automobiles, and 68 per cent of them were equipped with telephones. The research covered 445,987 homes scattered through 237 communities. In 40 per cent of the homes it was found that there were no stationary washbowls, and water had to be carried in and out, and 25 per cent of them were not even equipped with kitchen sinks. Eighty-seven per cent of the homes had electric light, and 73 per cent were equipped with electric irons. Radios were found in 17.6 per cent of the homes, pianos in 46 per cent and phonographs in 50 per cent. How Babies are Carried. Methods of carrying babies the world over are about as varied as the customs of dress among both men and women. The American Indian mother carries her papoose in a wooden basket made by the father and ornamented by the grandmother. However, the infant never stays in the basket or cradle when not travelling. At home they usually roll around on a bed of skins or grass to develop their muscles. The Eskimo baby has the best place of all when it comes to having a soft place to sleep and ride in. The mother makes a bag of baby reindeer skin and lines it with fur. In this she places the baby, then stuffs it, feet first, into the hood at the back of her fur garments. From its warm depths the little baby eyes peer out over her shoulder. The Pool of Life. Those who do not believe in socialism were frankly told by .Mr Baldwin at the annual dinner of the Polytechnic that they have a larger duty than merely demonstrating the fallacies of that programme. Mr Baldwin said he agreed that civilisation was not going to be helped to progress by the mere fact of the levelling down of incomes and of conditions. But if that was so, was it not all the more incumbent on them to see that they at any ratu should realise that they could only maintain that position if they put back into the pool of life as much as they got out of it? If they believed that, it was their bounden duty to help the progress of the nation and of the race by trying to level up and trying to secure that the advantages they had enjoyed in their youth should become as far as possible and as quickly as possible the common possession of the whole people. Only in so far as they succeeded in doing that could they justify in the slightest degree the good fortune which had been given to them. Z2 Si S'* Getting on With the Job. “The promptitude which divines quick paths through difficulties or past obstacles is a rare endowment. It is the gift of a Caesar or a Napoleon, but not everybody’s,” says the “Daily Chronicle.’’ “Yet there is another kind of promptitude which almost anyone can acquire, and which makes an incalculable difference to ordinary lives. It is simply the habit of doing at once whatever is the next thing to do. It is common enough to acquire the opposite habit—-that of constantly yielding to diversions of the moment instead of getting on with the job. How often does one notice that those who are worst at rising in the morning are the people whom bedtime, when it comes, find aimlessly reluctant to go to bed ! The same process, repeating itself through the day, implies a perpetual rusting of time and missing of opportunities and is tantamount to a shortening of life. ‘Procrastination’ only means protracting the fault from one day to another; and scarcely anything is more fatal to usefulness or success. Here as elsewhere the foundations of a sound habit cannot be laid too early. ‘Children.’ says a sage old writer, ‘should be told to do nothing but what is reasonable; but they should be taught to do what they are told at once.’ He adds, truly enough that ‘the habit will stand them in stead all their lives.’ ”

The Bank of England Garden. At the back of the Bank of England in London there has stood for almost two centuries a beautiful garden; but its days are numbered, for when the rebuiding operations at the bank are completed the historic garden court will have vanished. In 1732 the bank was moved from the Poultry to Threadneeedle Street, to a site previously occupied by the house and garden of the bank’s first governor. As time went on more accommodation became necessary, and in 1765 the bank bought the rectory and garden of the neighbouring Church of St Christopher. In the Gordon Riots, in 1780, the bank was attacked by the mob. and the authorities, fearing that in the event of another attack the church tower might become a dangerous fortress, had the church demolished. The churchyard remained, and after the bones were removed from the old graves, and it was planted with trees, shrubs, and flowers, it was re-named the “Garden Court.” and became a pleasant oasis of rest and shade in the midst of the city.