BREEZES

Wairarapa Daily Times, 19 January 1932, Page 4

BREEZES

Pork. Youngster: Is that your pork down there on the road- yov’nor? Farmer: Pork? What d’ye nieaii? There’s a pig o’ mine out there. Youngster: Ah, but a motor lorry has just gone by! * * * * Bad for Business. Beach officer: I’m a corporation official, and I’ve been instructed to request you to return to the bathing-box and dress. Fair bather (daringly clad): Indeed. Do I disfigure the bench? Beach officer: No, it’s not that, miss. But while you stay here nobody goes on the corporation pier. * * * * “Glen of Weeping” Sold.

Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal isselling Glencoe, his huge Argyllshire property, and presumably he intends making “ Lone Colonsay, ” his Scottish residence in the future. He and liis wife, Mr Gerald and Lady Louise Coder’s daughter, Dian, have lately put in a lot of time on the island, and had a yacht built for the passage to and from the mainland, Strathcona is a variant of Glencoe, or the “Glen of Weeping,” for it was the scene of the treacherous massacre in February, 1692, of the MaeDonalds by the Campbells of Glenlyon. * * * *

Maori and Greek Astronomy. The constellation Pleiades, which visits the Southern Hemisphere from November to May, is now almost at its zenith. When the Southern Cross lies on the horizon, then the “Seven Sisters” ride the Milky Way at its crest. The. origin of this cluster is shrouded in folk-lore in both North and South Hemispheres. The Greeks said the six brightest stars (in a cluster of about 15) were seven of the sisters of the I-Iyades who, pursued by the hunter Orion, were pitied by the gods on high Olympus and were turned into doves and placed in the heavens, where even to this day Orion still hunts them. Even a prettier tale is that of the old Maori storv-teller. When, all the stars were guarded by the “fairies” in the beginning of things, Makariti attended so well to his charge that it outshone all the others in the sky. His fellow sky fairies in their jealousy chased him for many nights, but he succeeded in protecting his beautiful star from their wrath. At last, in desperation, the leader seized a smaller star and hurled it with all his might at- the fleeing Makariti. It struck his shining burden, splintering it into a thousand pieces. But as they fell to earth, Rangi, the god of all, taking pity on Makariti, gathered up the fragments and set them in the heavens as a mark of appreciation for his triumph. lA # * * * Old Mr. Fsliaw.

An American editorial contributor to the “Chicago Tribune” under the above heading makes an amusing comment on Bernard Shaw’s visit to Moscow. It reads as follows: —“Mr Shaw, G. 8., the eminent amateur collectivist and absentee Red who lives his dream life in Russia and gets his cereals, asparagus and boiled potatoes in London, where he may have a fire in the grate when he wants one and take a private profit off anything lie can sell, was on the air the other day for America, selling the Soviets to the down-trodden Yankees. At the time of his speech the subjects of his prpise were either in the food ticket line to get the evening Narrot or onion or were spreading, the straw tick in the corner of a cold room and loosening the clothes line belt preparatory to curling up in their whiskers for a night’s sleep. His auditors were seated by their radios.

“The contrast in physical conditions between the world of which and the world to which he spoke would be Shavian justification for addressing the people with homes, heat and radios for the reception of a London talk as boobs and describing the Stalinised helots of State as free intellectuals. Mr Shaw, with real admiration for what he described, explained to his American listeners that if one of them in Russia, believing that he was entitled to the profit of his own work, should undertake to get it, he would be sequestrated and questioned and later his friends would be told not to concern themselves further about him. He would not be returning home. He would be testing the realities, if any, of eternity and immortality. Thus under the new order of intellectual freedom. Applied in London, this doctrine would have interrupted Mr Shaw in the broadcasting studio in the first five minutes of his speech. He would have been led to the Tower or the nearest police station and shot in the head for the encouragement of intellectual freedom and the betterment. of life. His friends would have been told not to worry about him. He was not coming home. Mr Shaw’s objection to private profit in his own case is notorious.”