RANDOM SHOTS

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 36, 11 February 1905, Page 12

RANDOM SHOTS

■Up fl \\ "Z-AMDEIir

Searching the depths of a not too com/rehensive or retentive memory. J seem to recollect that a short time ago 1 wrote, something more or less sarcastic about motoring and motor-cars. Of course it was quite true —otherwise it couldn't Lave appeared over "Zamiel's" signature —and I don't propose In take it back by any means. But I wish to remark now that motoring is like most other things — it varies vastly under different cireumfta.nces. 1 have been up lo Kotoma since. ] made my above mentioned previous comments upon the auto, and I wish to record my humble admission that my experience, of life in genera), and automobiles in particular, ha* been materially enlarged in the meantime. More specifically, I took a ride an n motor car from Jlotonia to Taupo ;uul back on the same day; and though the trip has its disaiirantagea.it wa# '.nest amazingly entertaining and iuspiring. To begin -\vilh. ju=-t reflect that you can leave llotorua at six o'clock in the morning by motor car. run south past Waiotnpu ami Wairakei to Taupo and the Spa. and be back again for a Jate dinner at Itotorua on the sam<? cay. li, is something under 120 miles all told; but it isn't only the distance that is impressive. You eaji sec enough 'i>cauties of nature' , in that one day to fill au ordinary week. You can give an hour to VVaiotapu—and breakfast —two hours to Wuirakoi Valley—and lunch. You can put in hnlf-an-hour or so at the j Huta Falls—which, by the way, is. or Hit, one of the most splendid sights I have come aecoss in either island, and J know a good deal of both. You can run ; right down to the shores of Tmipo I-ioana, and round to the Spa and the Crow's Nest, which i= almost always ! 'ready to oblige."' You can even do the : !Aratiatia Rapids on the same day if you v.ish. Jn the evening. a,s you run home- i ward past tbo long flat-topped ridge of ■the Knimanawas. looking like a bank of cloud, or a far sea-line upon the horizon —under the shadows of Tauhara. "the centre of the island," so the Maoris say— alongside the deeply-scarred, bright-hued flanks or Maungakakaramea. the Kainbow Mountain—or by the curious jirmbled peaks and cones of the Hohoro Kange—or up the devious curves of the Whakarew.i rewa Goygc —you at last come to the conclusion that you have got more out of our much-advertiped "scenic wonderland -, than ever you got in a day liefore. ********** You understand. I don't for a moment advocate this method of seeing the country for anyone who has time or money iv do it deliberately and .-lowly—which i=. of course, the only truly rational way. But if a man has orjy a day or two to spare in Rotorua district, let him take ray advice and try a motor-ride to Taupo. Because —and after all this is supposed to be the chief point of these lucubrations—not only will be tind thermal wonders and waterfall and mountain range and lake and gorge passing rapidly over his field of vision, but be will have all the joys of motoring "thrown in." Now, here comes my recantation. Lei it be distinctly understood that my depreciatory criticism of the auto, was written before I went down to Taupo on a publicmotor car. 1 don't suppose it ranks very high among cars—a ]2-7iorF-e power Darxacq, capable of perhaps thirty miles an hour, but averaging about thirteen on the highly miscellaneous road we travelled. Happily the soil all over the thermal region Jβ soft, so that when the tracks are cut up an auto, doesn't bump with such awful intensity as on an Auckland city or suburban road. 1 don't deny that there was a certain amount of jolting; but even with only two persons in a five-passenger car it was only occasional and never intolerable. For four or tive miles at a time there would be delightful stretches of smooth road, over which the car would glide at a rate of from 20 to 25 miles an hour, with that fluent birdlike ease which is the great charm of motoring. I have never yet attempted to live up to the "goggle and veil" stage of autoinauia: but I can't imagine any experience of life much more exhilarating than to lie back in a motor car on such a road, at such a speed, while the path melts away behind, and bills and valleys, lakes aud streams fade into the past on either hand; 1 ought to have added that on this particular day there was very little sun or wind, and hardly any dust, so that we were neither scorched nor blinded nor asphyxiated. I can't answer for it that either Providence or the company will always supply such admirable conditions on the Tanpo road, hut these things ai-e true. And to conclude the day fittingly as I did, you should come home after nightfall and expend yourself in admiration of the driver, who dodges invisible ruts and cut impossible corners, and shoots into the blackness of darkness down break-neck inclines without ever hesitating for a second or turning a hair. A great day truly, and "to be marked ■with a white stone." in the calendar of my wanderings through this beautiful land of ours. ********** As I remarked above. I have lately been to Rotorua. and so I a-ni naturally rather effervescent when anyone mentions "thermal wonders." But everybody here either knows a good deal about the place or ought to go and spe it for themselves; and in either case I don't propose to inflict any seetfndliaud guide-book information upon a confiding and long-suffering public. The only matter associated in my mind with Rotorua just, now is neither geological nor seismologies 1, but ichthyological—to put it briefly, Trout, "it ought to be spelled with a capital, you see, because it is gettiug so immensely important; at least, as far as size, and quantity go, there is very little else in the world like it. I am not a fisherman or even an angler—there is a distinction which I leave you "to discover for yourself—but I rather appreciate the results of piscatorial enthusiasm in others, and. like lots of other people. I have rejoiced greatly over the phenomenal catches of trout by which Rotorua lias lately become famous. But when I saw the fishing statistics for Rotorua the other day I must say I began to feel exceedingly apprehensive. Of course, everybody knows that we have an immense number of trout in our streams, and that they often reach a size such as no British angler ever dreamed of—in fact, most British anglers are somewhat terror-stricken when they see a 15-pounder ov 20----pounder for the first time. But hard--3y anybody esems to realise what streOrt l, ever Ybody is making to catch them all. How man y people are •ware that there arc literally %U »i

thousands of fish caught every season at Rotorua. and that their aggregate weight has simply to be measured by the ton? J don"t want to bore you with figures, O most indulgent reader, but do you know that nearly 3000 trout were officially reported to have been caught in and about Rotorua in tut , month of November last?—and that their collective weight was well over four tons?. So far as The season ha* j pone—that is 10 say. within the last I three months—over 8000 trout have j been formally registered as caught in that district, and they weighed altogether nearly 13 -ions! Xo doubt these are a long way below the true figures for either number or weight: as not every fis-hennau takes the trouble to report his catch. But. taking the figures as they stand, it is plain that tiiis sort of thing can hardly go on for ever. We want to make our trout fishing as popular as possible, but we Hon't want the trout exterminated at. one fell snvoop. It seeajs to mc that something will have to l*e done soon in -1 he way of limiting the catch or imposing other restrictions on anglers; otherwise the glory of Rotorua- as a, fishing resort will soon be a thurg of the past, and the tourist who worships at the shrine of St. Izaak will know us no more. *****4 **** Even New Zealand does not appear to be free from the sort of people who make "scenes'-" at public meetings. 'Die type is deeply interesting, and that Greytown counciliur does not differ in any* essential particular from most of his kind. AfteT being fined £5 for calling the Mayor a "numskulL" he amused himself, or avenged himself (the ' processes of this sort of person are a little difficult to follow), by throwing at the Mayoral head a book containing Ihe minutes of the Council. The kind of Ccuneil that provides "scenes" is likely to collect voluminous minutes, and I shudder to think of what might have happened had the councillor taken good aim and applied his whole strength to. the discbarge of his missile. Fortunately, however, bis amiable intentions were noi realised, and the news that the police were on their way lor was on his ■way. for 1 don't know how many Greytown boast*l induced our fighting councillor to show a clean pair of heels. As I have said, the precise state of such a man's mind must remain a mystery. And perhaps still greater is the mystery how he came to be elected to any council. Surely, while we give all credit to the unconscious humour of persons of the type of this excitable Greytown ' councillor, it is due to the community that we shall not be made to look as unpleasantly comic to the impartial outsider as. say, the Hungarian members during the rpcent. battle of the inkpots- This councillor will no donbl do his best, and the mimite-book may only be ihe pale preliminary of a more formidable attack. A recent incident at Plymouth almo.-t supplies its own comment on the linguistic achievements of the majority of the officers of the R.N. A Portuguese man-of-war entered the port, and some English officers who went ofiicially 011 board the vessel were greeted in French. The Portuguese captain could not speak English, and none of his visitors could speak Portuguese- The spokesman of the party manag?d. blushing and stammering as he did so. to falter out a. few words of execrable French, which proved quite unintelligible. Finally a. Portuguese officer was found who knew English, .and the difficulty was overcome. The writer in the "Daily Express" who supplies this little story goes on to state that not one in fifty of the officers in the Navy can speak a word even of , French, lei- alone making himself undor- ! stood in German. I confess this comes as somewhat staggering news, for one naturally thought, what one ought to be nble to think, that languages were part of the stock-in-trade of both of "die warlike professions. Jn this particular case the harm done is only in the direction of making the officers appear particularly ridiculous; but the time may come when s.ueh a deficiency will also be ;i source of danger to themselves and to others. ********** The "Bio-Tal>leau" people having left the town, I can say things about their entertainment without fear of any charge that 1 wish to advert ife either them or their pictures. The fact is that these cinematograph exhibitions —at least when they are anything like as good as the one t>o which 1 refer—are very much more than a pleasant way [of passing the time. Their educative value, is inestimable. Months of the rarest experience (for the pictures are so faithful to their subjects as 1.0 make them virtually direct visual experience of the events which they recall) are compressed into a pleasant and profitable couple of hours. Now. fhe valne of this form of entertainment, to the younger generation seems to mc to be beyond anything 1 can conceive within the same limitations of time and space. Why. then, was it that every child in Auckland was not sent to that "biotableau"? What to a <hild is dull as a statement becomes a thing of jcy wlren translated into the unconscious language of the eye. The interests of the youngsters would be widened, their sympathies would be developed (for mvsplf I felt a sneaking fondness for the Russians coming over mc. and it was only cured by a cold bath in the "Star" cables the next night) and their imagination would be enlarged. The. same fact has struck an acquaintance of mine, and.be even went, so far as 1 o ask why the Government should not get one of these machines and keep it. supplied with films for the benefit of the children of the colony. ********** Now that suggestion does not strike mc as being at. all extravagant; in fact, I reg-ard it as the only good idea 1 have stumbled on during the past month. Arid though the possibilities of the invention as applied to educational purposes are. not without their humour they are also not without, their suggestion of untold practical benefit to the community. The humorist will fancy how English history could be made to live in a series of moving tableaux, beginning with the landing of Julius Caesar and ending with the Diamond Jubilee procession. It may be humorous, but it i≤ also highly practicable. If some central English educational institution could be induced to do anything so essentially non-respectable as to engage a large number "supers' , and provide, them with the scenery and the costumes of the various periods, the result ought to be a series of pictures that would teach our children more history in a night than they would learn in whole months iv school. The cost, if shared by the different educational bodies, would not >be great, and certainly infinitesimally small as compared with the immense advantages which it would confer. But I suppose the idea of an' actress playing Queen Elizabeth before a cinematograph lens would not appeal to the somewbajt rigid L prip<iple* oi ama «f our $dmsit«nists.