The Christchurch Star PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd. TUESDAY, JUNE 12, 1934. MAN. THE SELF-STARTER.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20329, 12 June 1934, Page 6

The Christchurch Star PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd. TUESDAY, JUNE 12, 1934. MAN. THE SELF-STARTER.

/'‘VF EIGHTY-SEVEN car-slied employees in Christchurcii, fifty-three prefer to -cycle to and from work, although*they possess free tramway passes. “ There is something wrong,” says one member of the Tramway Board dramatically. “ The trouble is they want trams to their doors,” says another peevishly. There is nothing whatever wrong with these cyclists. They pro-yde an interesting cross-section of society, and the Tramway Board would be wise to study it in all its relationships. Man is at heart a self-starter; that is to say, he chafes under the tyranny of the clock, from its first tinkling in the morning till its resetting at bedtime. Trams are the slaves of the clock, narrowing the already narrow horizon of the working day. Their inexorable timetable drags the husband from his last breakfast morsels, not to mention the fond embraces of his wife, and crates him up once more for stale delivery at a hated destination. The bicycle, on the other hand, is a trusty companion, with most of the real virtues of the horse and the motor-car. Its flexibility just gives that degree of unimportance to the clock that a motorist, setting out on a holiday, enjoys in fuller measure. Outward, it discounts remoteness from tram routes, and homeward it has starling and stopping virtues that may keep friendships in repair, simplify late shopping, and temporarily release the toiler from the daily straitjacket. When factors like these cease to be regarded as imponderables, the Tramway Board will be in a fair way to understanding the problems with which it is facet!. BEST WE FORGET. ' I 'HE New Zealand woman who is to receive £SOOO under the will of her father who has died in England will not enjoy the exchange bonus, because hers is a nontrading account. But if she, in turn, died, leaving the money to a near relative in England, the fact that this -was a non-trading transaction could not be invoked, and the relative would receive not £SOOO but £4OOO. If any man in New Zealand desired to pay £1 a week to a destitute relative in England he would be forced to lodge 25s in New Zealand for the purpose. So much for non-trading accounts. The fact is that the Government is squeezing every person in the country for the benefit of one TSection of the community, and the day of reckoning will be a bitter one. THE SLUMP IN RUGBY. \ LB OVER New Zealand the d- complaint is made that the standard of Rugby football shows distinct signs of deterioration. Similar statements have, of course, been heard before, but to-day the complaints are based on something more than prejudice, and controlling authorities must confess to a feeling of uneasiness. The main cause is said to be the new' scrum formation, which, modelled on the English Union idea, paves the way for more abuses than the most persistent spoiler would have thought possible. Quick hooking is prevented, and opposing breakaways sweep in on the backs, and do as much damage in one game as the old and maligned wing-forward did in six. Recent matches on the Oval have mostly been confined to forwards, w T ith smothering tactics particularly prevalent and scarcely one combined back movement in either spell. Obstruction has never been so obvious. Possibly, referees could do more to improve matters, and possibly the players themselves, in time, will evolve out of the present rules a more attractive and cleaner type of game. In the meantime, Rugby as played by senior teams in Christchurch is a drab and dispiriting spectacle.