TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Waikato Times, Volume 113, Issue 18928, 24 April 1933, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Have You a Hobby? Matter-of-fact New York gives way to sentiment much more easily than casual acquaintance with its reputedly practical citizens would lead the stranger to suspect, says a correspondent. Consider, for instance, the hobby show now in progress. Of course, it is not called a hobby show. The New Yorker doesn’t wear his heart on his sleeve quite to that extent. Exhibition of the New York Society of Model Engineers is its official designation and it is an annual affair. Miniature railroads that run like the real thing with signal towers and electrically operated switches; steamships, side-wheel and screw —all of them products of leisure hours of millionaires and mechanics. Hobbies they call them with casual indifference in the nonchalant manner men adopt to conceal their passion for labours of love. There are times when a little .hobby is a useful thing. Men and women who arc not running their automobiles because their budgets do not run to gasoline bny a few paints and a camel’s hair brush. The results may not equal the murals of Puvis de Chavannes, v hut provide a lot of indoor fun over the week-end and, incidentally, spur appreciation of the arts. And who shall say that the jig-saw puzzle does not have its value in centring thought upon the matter in hand? Millions, moreover, must have added to their vocabulary and orthography as they struggled with crossword problems. The giving up of wheeled locomotion is initiating many into the sheer joy that comes with walking. To the hum of the motor succeeds the music of the crackle of dry leaves under the foot of the walker through the woods and he finds the melody no less sweet. A little hobby now and then is relished by the best of men—and women.

Feudal Japan. Speaking in Paris recently, the Earl of Lytton, head of the League of Nations Commission to Manchuria, remarked that the attitude of the Japanese General Staff was that of the Russian General Staff from 1870-1914. “Japan,” lie said, “does not appear to have kept pace with the latest developments-of political thought and practice which have been going on in tlie West. Although she has established the form of democratic government, her armies and navy are still organised on a feudal basis, and the heads of her fighting services, though bearing the titles of Ministers, are independent, and responsible io the government alone. “How can China lie helped and how soon can (lie'establishment of a strong central government be aeeoniplislied? These are questions of immediate urgency in Unit part of the world. Geneva or Moscow? The shadow of that great question is cast on the Last as il is upon the West. At present China lias chosen Geneva, tint if Japan should persist in her present policy ami Geneva should fail, the choice may be, however reluctantly, reversed/’