The Passing Show.

Waikato Times, Volume 115, Issue 19272, 2 June 1934, Page 11 (Supplement)

The Passing Show.

(By “Fr All OVER THE EMPIRE Miss Jean Batten’s wonderful flight has been followed and her name acclaimed. With especial interest New Zealanders traced the young aviator’s journey, now elated at her accomplishment, now fearful of her fate. Immediate success was impos-. sible upon such a long, difficult flight. Therefore, the action of paterfamilias in putting down his foot with a Arm hand to guard his only treasure is- comprehensible. The risk was tremendous. What motive impelled a young girl to venture in such a race with death? Would she not. have been better employed practising her scales? Evidently this clever young Aucklander became infected with Sir Kingsford Smith's airmindedness, and, confident in her ability, was determined to succeed. Her achievement will occupy no insignificant place in the history of aviation, but she will be remembered no less for her courage and perseverance. She has brought honour to her country. We all take off our hats to Miss Jean Batten. • o • • Mr Bernard Shaw, when In the Dominion, said some things about New Zea_lander3 which should shake them out of their selfcomplacency. He let them see that there is more than one angle from which to look at a question, and that their viewpoint is not necessarily ,the best. Taken by and large, however, the famous playwright let New Zealanders down lightly—that is, compared with his criticisms elsewhere, and since he has reached the Old Country he has given evidence that he-was favourably impressed with Maorlland and its populace. * * * * Lest, however, we as a people should hug the delusion to our breasts that we are like the Pharisee in that w r e are not like our brethren in other lands, a prophet has arisen in southern climes, who, after a tour abroad, has voiced his impressions, and paints New Zealanders as he sees them. This is his picture:—“ We are victims of our own virtue. We are simply too good. We have not enough sin among us. Amongst the peoples of the world we are without doubt known as the good little boy. We sit with our clean, pink face among all the other boys with their black, dirty faces, but they have done something—we haven't. It would do us good to have a few political scandals in this country, because we would then begin to take some interest in politics. If Mr Coates were to take all the money from the Treasury and bolt, it would do us good from some points of view. New Zealanders are too smug and complacent. They suffer from their aloofness." Who will undertake to challenge the above portrayal of the New Zealander, and take up the cudgels against the southern sage. * * * # “Free Lance" has received a communication asking him to define the difference between an “economist" and a “professor." He feels that he cannot* do better than supply the definitions given by an Omaha Journal, namely: “An economist is a man who knows a great deal about a very little and who goes on knowing more and more about less, until finally he knows practically everything about nothing; whereas a professor, on the other hand, is a man who knows a very little about a great deal and keeps on knowing less and less about more until, finally, be knows practically nothing about everything.”

Comment and Criticism.

TO6 LaDC6. n ) We frequently read in the daily papers of police raids upon Chinese pakapoo dens, and the thoughtless often express, amazement that the police should spend much time and energy in netting pipers wheu they might be indulging in the more exciting sport of hooking sharks. Some investigations made by a Wellington paper show that the pakapoo racket is not the innocuous thing supposed by many. First of all it is averred that the dens receive little support from the Chinese; the patrons are mostly Europeans of the working class. These are the.; pigeons, who are effectively bereft of their plumage by the hawks and their agents. The real racketeers hold themselves aloof and are never included in the polioe captivesThe agents (there are dozens of them), are paid a stated wage for running the racket, and when they are convicted and fined, with an alternative, the principals let them go to prison but pay them their salaries whilst incarcerated. The fines used to be paid, blit the wily Chinese worked it out that if the 5 Consolidated Fund does not benefit police enthusiasm for raiding may wane, especially as to keep men in gaol is a dead loss to the Treasury. * # • * Figures show that the racketeers are working the greatest Bonanza ever developed for the odds they proffer are out of all proportion to the rjsk. Here is a sample as worked out by a professor of mathematics at Victoria College, Wellington:—To secure the highest prize (£75) on a 6d ticket it is necessary to mark 10 characters correotly on a card of 80. The "bank” reckons the odds'at 2999 to i and pays accordingly.- The professor, however, works out the ohances at 1,646,492,110,119 to 1 and computes the rightful prize for a correct card at £411,162.302,752 9s 6d. These are the mathematician’s figures, not "Free Lancets," who has no time to check them. He would, however, gladly forgo the 9s 6d if he struok a winning ticket on the mathematician’s computation. ■ * at • Last year there was a super-abundiec® of wheat. The world’s granaries were bursting and producers were faced with bankruptcy because through the operation of the law of supply and demand the price obtainable for the cereal w-as below the cost of production. Much grain, it was reported, was wantonly destroyed and modern statesmen decreed that over-production must be legislated against. So they restricted areas, paying laud owners a bonus for keeping their holdings idle. Now that it is too late misgivings are being voiced as to whether, the return from the smaller areas will be sufficient to feed the multitude. • * * * A few weeks ago reports from the wheat States of America Indicated that droughts and dust storms had played havoc with the crops, and that the returns would be much below the average, Now. .-conics news from Canada that a plague of grasshoppers has descended upon Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, threatening fully 48 per cent of the yield. It will be a tragedy if last year’s plenty is followed by a shortage. There are more unlikely things and if it does eventuate the knowledge that it is due to man’s manipulation will not make the suffering the less acute. .