FACTS, FANCIES, QUIPS & COMMENTS

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLII, Issue 1, 6 January 1909, Page 45

FACTS, FANCIES, QUIPS & COMMENTS

FROM THE AUSTRALIAN PAPERS.

Our coast ia very beautiful and very enjoyable. but. tin. oh. why are we Mill so morbidly. prudishly modest that mix ■ ed surf Lathing i» virtually unknown* , task* a writer in Melbourne "Punch”!. Surf l»athing —breaker shouting, an it is carried on in suhu-y —i* not safe for girl* by iheutm lw«. it i* essentially a • mixed sport. unless a girl happen- to la* very adept. It is a glorious form of exercise. Jt i- '\v most enjoyable method of bathing. Art here in Victoria very few people can disport themselves properly in the surf, while mixed bathing is given the glassy eye of disdain. At Sandringham certainly a few people have been brave enough to def\ such absurd | conventions: but at Lome, where probably the most free-and-easy crowd of fashionables in the State congregates, mixed bathing is the most daring form of amusement there is. Last year at Lome a few people bathed together. They* are still talk's! about, and pious, good folk hope fervently that they will not be there this year. We shall see. It is time Victorians threw off this yoke of foolish sedateness they have worn for so long. Surf bathing started three months ago in Sydney, and is in full swing now. You can almost pick the Sydney girl on the Block in Melbourne. She is brown, not the ordinary sickly tan and sunburn which the Victorian girl mistakes for ‘‘brown." The Sydney girl wears a clear, even brown skin. Iler pelt is bronzed until it has lost all appearance of sunburn. and the bronzing appears natural to it. These bronzed skins are so clear and healthy, too. The daily exposure to brine and sun and air does more for skin health than all the skin foods and tonics and massagings which were ever invented. We can have it here. too. if we only cared. The sun bath is not peculiar to surf bathing, nor is it peculiar to mixed bathing; our girls are too ready always to run in out of the sun. A little more of it would do them the world of good. In Sydney it is not fashionable to have a pink and white complexion. The admired skin is the brown, healthy surfbather's skin, and the browner it is the better. <?<*<* Culture is to be the keynote of our soviet y in the future. Already the craving for knowledge has set in. It began with •’Omar K hay am." and it, will end no one knows where. Already books on philosophy’ have replaced the problem novel, for it has been truly said that "man must know more than his business, and woman more than her prayers." to be social successes. The time is fast passing when fine clothes were the password to society. Women who a short time ago did not know what the "ayes and noes" signified, attend the debates, and can discourse quite learnedly about the ( aliens and the third party, knowing all the meanings of the most obscure Parliamentary terms. Little Lady Forrest. who kii., ;. • as much about politics a- does her chum ami husband. Sir John, started the fashion, which now flourishes on its own. The members are quite used to the invasion of silks and laces; in fact, they quite like it. and when things are dull they retire to the rail for a chat with the fair audience. But it worries the women not a little to find that half the members are not paying any attention to the speech-makers, whilst the other half are pretending not to listen. Now. "She-e-e says!" to quote from "The Red Mill." "(an a man write a coherent letter or intelligently read a book and be able to follow a speech at one and the same time?" <s><•>*> Leading members of the Sydney branch of the Chinese Empire Reform Association. when questioned on Professor Macmillan Brown's remarks, regarding the state of affairs in the. East and Australia's position under the circumstances, declared that -a Russo-Jap-anese alliance might be possible, but it is not. probable. .Japan is even more ambitious than China in the matter of retaining the good feeling of the AngloSaxon race.-—Great Britain and America —and has learnt years ago that Russia is too designing to Ivo trusted. Besides, they say- the interests of Great Britain and the United States are too great to permit of them standing idly by while Russia ami Japan carve up the northern part of China in the manner outlined by Professor Brown. Professor Brmvn's views on the awakening of China are not taken very seriously. "This gentleman." said a leading merchant and reformer, "is a Britisher who belongs to a country whose people live under the highest possible standard of civilization, and naturally the few reforms that the people of China enjoy to-day were too insignificant to be noticed by him. but I can as-ure him that we regard them as great accomplishments. With 420.000.000 people fenced in by customs, usages, and traditions, thousands of years old, we reformers recognise that we have a stupendous ta -k before us in modernising China. It is only a few years back when China had no such things as universities. colleges, or schools, nor did she pend her students abroad to the great educational establishments of the world. To-day we have numbers of these institutions. and every year thousands of students are being sent abroad by both -the Government and the Reform Association. These in turn will impart their ■knowledge tn others in the hundreds of villages throughout China. It will take time. but. make no mistake, China is ■waking up.’’ The' truth of the remarks of Professor Brown regarding corruption is admitted, and it is pointed out that one of the first objects of the Chinese Empire Reform Association is to bring into existence constitutional government on the lines enjoyed by Great Britain, as the. surest and shortest way of curing the cancer which has eaten into the very vitals of the people. AU great political parties—and the: - are four—in China, agree that this is the only rented v for this curse, the only points on which they differ being whether such government shall be monarchival, republican, or who is the rightful occupant of the throne-the present Manchu or the Chineve Jynaaty. <s> <e> Y'es. the big hat has arrived, but not fc J fancy, to stay for very long (remarks a correspondent in a Melbourne paper). Big hats look well enough — in fact, to be just, they are extremely becoming, but they are inconvenient', and when they invade the tramcars they are a positive nuisance, not only to anybody sitting jypr, but to the wearers tAemselves. Not

many mornings ago a gentleman wa* journey ing by the car from the Eastern suburbs, and quietly reading his morning paper, when a feminine voice called out to him from the adjoining car—"l wish you would lean forward and not knock my hat." He was filling l>ack to back with a damsel who wan proceeding to her work in the city, wearing a highly ornate ami very large hat. He answered not. but. with a look that denoted he thought much ami strongly, he moved out of the radius of the spare-engrossing head-dre**. But other men. and women for that matter, will not be no considerate, and the hat is more than likely to have to beat a retreat al least from crowded cars and thoroughfares. <s« <S» In the course of time, the afternoon "at home.” with all the bother and trouble it entails, will disappear altogether. Every year the cafe tea is becoming more and more popular. It is so much easier, so much more pleasant. There is hardly a day pas*?* but one or more tea parties are given in the leading cafes. These all belong to big society people, who a few’ years ago would have stayed at home and served out a cup of tea to fifty or sixty guests, who wandered in at all hours during the afternoon. The new custom is better for both hostess and guests. A\ ithout doubt, it has arisen out of the servant problem. The average maid will not work in a house where there is much entertainment. Big "at home” afternoons once a month are often enough to send a good maid packing. The cafe is the refuge from calamities of that sort, and to the cafes people are going. Successive British Governments continue the Imperial policy of permeating Australians with a sense of their obligations to the Motherland in naval matters. Admiral Bosanquet, the new Governor of South Australia, is the latest distinguished naval authority tn l»e detailed for unofficial duty in these parts. With over fiftv years’ service in the Royal Navy to his credit. Admiral Bosanquet knows his subject thoroughly, ami is a very interesting and entertaining public speaker. Those who have served on stations where he has been in command descrilx? him as a first-class fighting man. with a particularly active brain, a very extensive vocabulary, and a genial manner which wins the good-will of all classes. <s> <£> G> Cancer Specialist Dr. Webb did far more for mankind than the profession will admit. While other surgeons used the knife to check the terrible scourge, he adopted a simple treatment in which common soap formed the most important part. In Victoria there are dozens of men who are still halo and hearty though their medical advisers gave them only three to twelve months to live years ago. The Webb cure may not be absolutely reliable in all cases, but no other treatment has been so effective in Victoria. Latterly the deceased doctor became addicted to the drug habit, and he did not attempt to push his discoveries on the world. <£<s><£ An inspection of the papers in connection with the recent public service examination of candidates for appointment as telegraphists in Sydney reveals some amusing blunders and misconceptions of the meaning of words. One section of the examination was devoted to the meaning of certain words, and the candidate was required to construct

short sentence* to illu>irate hi* answers. The tollowing aere amongst the most am using re»ulU; — LAMPOON. 1. A lively little poem, as, "John is writing a lampoon.” 2. A Chinese fishing boat. "The sea wu littered with lampoons.** 3. A jewel; a precious atone. "He van sentenced to »ix month** imprisonment for stealing a lampoon.” 4. A satire. He put plenty of lam poon in hi* poem*. а. A sloop of war. "She is a trim little lampoon.” б. A small lamp. “The place was fitted with lampoons.” 7. Personal satire. "His remark* to Jiiu were of a very lampoon kind.” 8. A kind of lantern. "The place was decorated with lampoon*.” !l. An iron spar used in whaling. "The whaler then lifted the lampoon.” MINIMISE. To advise wrongly. "He was advised to have nothing to do with him or he would minimise him.” RADICAL. Original. “Was that joke which you sent in radical?” INEVITABLY. 1. Unconquerable. “Napoleon was called the inevitable.” 2. Unavoidable. "Here comes the inevitable milkcart.” PERIPATETIC. 1. P.elating to agriculture; farming. 2. A favourite son—from peri-round about, pater-father. 3. Pertaining to the heart. 4. Short and to the point. 5. Around the home: pertaining to domestic duties, as "Peripatetic instruction to a prodigal is invaluable.” PULMONARY. 1. Breaking up. as, "The pulmonary of the town by the earthquake was terrible.” 2. Sudden change, as, "This weather is pulmonary FISCAL. 1. Belonging tn a public department, a*. "The book* were property fiscal.’’ 2. Leading, of great importance: as. ' "Tbe fiscal question at present is military ' training." 3. Pertaining to the Treasury, as "The papers can be obtained from the fiscal.’* lu the Westraliau Legislative Assembly during the discussion on the estimates, Mr. Jacoby, a Ministerialist, suggested that "Hansard” lie abolished, and that the debates be published in the newspapers by contract, as was done in South Australia, where the cost was only £2400 a year, as against £3600 in Western Australia. The Treasurer and the Premier considered that the South Australian system was not suitable. They said they would like to >ee a reduction in the < ist. *A limo limit for speeches might do good. Labour mem- • bers upheld "Hansard," and opposed the newspapers’ contract idea. Mr. Nanson, a Ministerialist, said that a referendum would not give 25 per cent, of the votes for retaining "Hansard.” Parliament was too large and too expensive, and was slavishly following the English sysj tern. The Attorney-General said a reduction in the number of members was the most effective economical means, but he would be sorry to see that, unless they desired the'States to bo merged • in the Commonwealth. Mr. Nanson 1 warned Ministers that a group would be ■ formed with economy as a guiding star. 5 which would make government impos- - sible for a non-economising Ministry - from cither side of the House, even > though they had to go before the elec2 tors as a consequence. Eventually the t matter was dropped.