THE PASSING SHOW

Waikato Times, Volume 96, Issue 15033, 2 September 1922, Page 11 (Supplement)

THE PASSING SHOW

COMMENT AND CRITICISM. (By “Free Lance.”) Economy, we are told, must be the watchword- Departmental expenditure is to be. curtailed and over-lapping avoided; but what the 'busy business man and. hard-worked local body secretary would prefer to know is how much longer the passion for collecting unimportant statistics will continue. For some time past signs of vestiveness under this affliction have been noticeable, and who can wonder, in view of the nature of some of the returns asked for? The following are quoted as samples of questions asked of tradesmen and manufacturers of a North Island town in a return form recently issued by the Registrar-General: —“How many feet of Jin iron pipe did you use last year? For what purposes? How many feet of .the same did you sell, and for what purpose was it purchased?”

Surely life is too short and time too valuable for people to be pestered with such rubbish? Even were it possible to answer the questions accurately, of what particular use are such details when they have been collected. Doubtless the work of tabulation and classification provides employment for a number of departmental officers, but can'the cost thereof be justified as necessary expenditure? Put to the vote, one thinks the “noes” would have it.

The Manawatu Times Jumps on another departmental “economy” with both feet thusly: “We are advised from an official source 'that the cost of issuing the “Kahete Maori,’ the sole purpose of which' is to notify the sittings of the Native Land Court, amounts to £2OOO per annum. In addition, it is considered necessary to issue a separate Panui or notice to each person concerned, so that the sole object of the expensive Ivahete or Gazette, appears to be the fulfilment of the formality demanded by the Act. It may even be considered worth while to amend an Act of Parliament to save £2OOO a year, or to incorporate it with the ordinary Government Gazette in English. There is not one Maori in ten who cannot read or write English, and not one of the remainder who cannot have the constant services of a capable interpreter in his kainga. Moreover, the legal circumlocutions of these gazette formalities and proclamations are as Greek to the native mind, _ especially when rendered in Europeanised Maori language. Surely there must be a more effective and less expensive means of carrying out these awful formalities. We learn, however, that there are actually six subscribers to this Kahete who are not on the free list, possibly they are State Departments also!”

.While on this painful subject “Free Lance” wonders if anybody else but newspaper slaves ever looks at the English-language, Gazette. Also whether the cost of “Hansard” is warranted by the value of its contents or the interest taken therein by anyone outside the confines of Parliament. It may be contended that no right-minded, person would question ' the utility of these sacred institutions, so possibly such doubts are attributable to tile scribe’s sluggish liver.

The advice tendered to a person who answered an advertisement offering to furnish, post free, for one shilling “full instructions how to make a fortune on the turf” was not without points of value. The instructions when received on a little chart read: “Horses to watch —rocking horses; horses to follow funeral horses; horses to avoid—racehorses.” People do say, however, that some folks, despite legal prohibitions, are still making quite a decent living off the turf, even though the officials will not allow them on the racecoursesBut as a rule these people are not the “punters.” Quite the reverse, if one may put it that way. The little chart is furnished all right, hut the punters provide the advice for themselves, and incidentally the fortune for the other fellow in the long run.

Two youths in New Plymouth recently were fortunate to escape serious trouble at the Magistrate’s Court. The evidence showed that one had purchased a bottle of preparation for resilvering Hie plated parts of ids bicycle, and had also silvered some pennies, with the result that they resembled current silver coins. It transpired that the lads had made no attempt to pass the coins and. had been quite frank with Hie police when questioned, in view of which the Magistrate _ eventually dismissed the case, stating at the same time that in doing so he felt he was taking a serious responsibility upon himself. He said the offence was a serious one, offenders being liable to imprisonment for life, and he hoped the case would act as a severe warning to others. The Magistrate’s caution as to (he great risk incurred by anyone putting the preparation in question upon coins, even without wrongful intent, should open the eyes' of the most thoughtless to llie very unpleasant but very possible consequences of such an action.

A couple of small boys, who recently approached, a Wanganui clergyman with a request for a match, certainly, as an American would say, “had their nerve with them.” The clergyman, more or less mechanically, complied with the request, and happening to look round shortly afterwards saw one of the boys puffing away at a cigarette. The clergyman in his amused astonishment at having been made a party to the juvenile misdemeanour, was “sport" enough to leave it, at that. A gentleman, who did venture to remark ihut two hoys smoking in a Dunedin tramcar were rather young to indulge in tobacco, was most impolitely reqneslcd by the lads concerned to visit that region Ihe road to which is said to he paved with good intentions. H is said Hint even in New Zealand some speculators a week or two ago were rash enough, nr should, one say game, enough, io give a few pounds sterling a “fly” in purchasing German marks. If the mark remains at 10,000 to the sovereign their purchases silou 1 1 1 come in useful for the same purpose for which an American tobacconist is using Russian rouble notes—to wrap up ounces of tobacco in.

Parliamentary life in Queensland apparently has its risk, as exemplitiod by the ‘case or' Mr -Moore, an Opposition member, who was temporarily blinded owing to his hat having been tilled with cayenne pepper, lie was to have addressed a meeting of protest against Hie abuse of the "gag” in the Assembly. Talk about parts warfare! Al'ler Ibis il vm i ii ld t as no surprise In hear of a uiembri' having been gma dli'd ami “gone through” in Ihe precincts of Queensland's Legislature. Parliamentary privilege, wiiati