The Christchurch Star PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd. WEDNESDAY, JULY 18, 1934. WIVES IN CRICKET.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20360, 18 July 1934, Page 6

The Christchurch Star PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd. WEDNESDAY, JULY 18, 1934. WIVES IN CRICKET.

TTAS THE Board of Control, in -*■ giving its last-minute consent to Mrs Woodfull to join her husband at the end of the tour, really experienced a change of heart? It may have lifted the ban on wives to lift it again, for the person who might have helped them to make more spectacular cricket is Mrs Bradman. It took the sweet persuasion of a woman’s praise to lift Crawford to his greatest achievement at Wimbledon, and it may possibly be that the lack of wifely ministrations dimmed the early brilliance of Bradman’s batting. It is true that before his marriage he had already set a dazzling standard, and it is said, also, that when Mrs Bradman went on her honeymoon trip to Canada with Mailey’s team, Bradman’s colleagues began to detect a subtle change in him. But it was a humanising change. Where lie had been cynical he became tolerant of praise or blame. It is only on this trip that it has become evident that he is worrying less about his own achievement. Perhaps the process has gone so far that he is indifferent to fame. But only a man could keep up that detached attitude. Wives make men ring up the centuries for their sakes, and if there were two or more wives on tour who can doubt hut that .there would be an enlivening spirit of wifely competition ?

CIRCULATING MONEY. r T"'HE BUILDING SUBSIDY scheme revived by the Unemployment Board to stimulate activity in the building of houses may or may not be a success. A man who wants to buy a ready-made home to-day can do so on extremely favourable terms, and at a very low price, and a subsidy limit of £BO for new buildings is not a very attractive bait. A man requiring a house of, that size is more concerned with finance. He cannot obtain anything from the State lending departments but, as a well-informed land agent points out to-day, there is a good deal more money now available for investment, especially from trust funds, at low rates of interest. It does not even matter much to the community if the subsidy appeals chiefly to speculators, for at least building goes forward, and that is the main thing. CIVIC SELF-RESPECT. CJTREET MUSIC is a flagrant nuisance that does not minister to civic self-respect. The City Council does well to check it, especially in providing that on the request of a shopkeeper or householder no musician shall return to the locality for twenty-four hours, but the council ought to he more courageous, and instead of licensing these strollers to bother anybody should prohibit the practice entirely. Licensing is a weak-kneed way of dealing with street musicians, hoardings or any other public nuisance. FICTIONAL VIRTUES. p' VERY NOW AND THEN in fiction an author creates a kindly rascal, like a burglar who steals only from the unworthy holders of riches. He is a character designed to titillate the emotions and bluff the reader’s conscience. Yesterday that character came to life in the Auckland Police Court, when a lawyer pleaded the honest, considerate nature of his bookmaker client. The bookmaker has one other virtue. He is a generous and constant contributor in fines to the State, which, the lawyer also remarked, is glad to fake his incometax. The philosophical interrogation of the magistrate as to whether the State is capable of being glad is perhaps beside the point, although a human ingredient of the State, the Income Tax Commissioner, has publicly expressed his appreciation of bookmakers’ honesty towards him. Yet to the State the bookmaker must remain an outlaw, for his only occupation in life is parting fools from their money, and the State is quite reasonably jealous of its prerogatives in that direction.