RANDOM SHOTS

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 231, 29 September 1928, Page 2 (Supplement)

RANDOM SHOTS

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The Parliamentary session is nearly over. The promissory session will begin immediately.

When there is no other dispute handy the Powers can always work up a pretty quarrel over Peace.

Now that television is an accomplished fact, we in Auckland, may soon be able to sit down and watch the workings of the D%partmental mind in Wellington.

A paralysing courtesy prevents one from suggesting that the Mental Defectives Bill should be printed with an apostrophe after the "s."

There has been no longing for daylight saving in and about Auckland this week. The weather badly needed a veil of darkness over it.

It is understood that the Tramway Union delegates who have been conferring in Auckland this week were offered free passes on all the buses in the metropolitan area.

Why don't the Auckland swimmers help the Avondale Racing Club by putting on a few water polo games on the day of the club's spring meeting? They could be confident of having suitable weather.

"In the course of the week-end storm the telephone system in Auckland was upset in a peculiar manner. To experts the disorder is technically known as 'leaking.'" This defect, it ie understood, is not at all uncommon on party lines.

A Leeds banker who recently died left £2,774,541. "He had lived a reserved life, and people generally were unaware of his great riches!" It would be easy to be reserved, with a reserve of that size.

Mr. Oswald Mosley, the Englieh Labour M.P., says "that titles do not count nowadays, and, therefore, he is not surrendering the title which becomes hie through the death of his father last week" As titles "do not count," of course Mr. Mosley will still prefer to be known as "Mister."

"Vox populi; vox Dei." Since 1860, with one exception, "the candidate with the largest sum of money at his disposal lias been elected President of the United States." So it seems that the voice of the people is heard to the best advantage when it comee from a "brass" throat.

"The Polynesian had very crude ways of extracting teeth. Sometimes a tooth was tied, and then a hot ember poked at the victim, who jumped back and the tooth wae jerked out. Toothache was, however, a very rare occurrence." It may have been a rare occurrence, but while the hot-ember treatment was the vogue, I imagine it was very rarely admitted.

The Minister of Health said in the House that the "right type of organisation" to be creaited under the Mental Defectives Bill "would be discovered as they went along." After the organisation has been found, I suppose an earnest attempt will be made to discover "the right type" of person to be treated.

The speech which Mr. Baldwin made at the Conservative Conference was described beforehand as "a veiled .secret." This differs from a plain secret, which everybody knows, and from a close secret, which only a few hundreds of people know.

Sir Robert Stout's New Zealand Citizen's Bill has more in it than meets the eye. It would give the New Zealand Courts power to inflict punishment on a person who committed a crime abroad then returned to New Zealand. So the tourists who return from America and boast that they had plenty to drink there would do'we'll to keep silent in the future. Kingsford referring to the prospect of bad weather for his return flight to Sydney, says: "We are not going to do anything foolish. It all depends on the point of view." If the airman had never done anything foolish (in the eyes of other people) he would not be in New Zealand to-day. Tk-« film artists are preparing "Winifred of Wanganui," with the assistance of Wanganui amateurs, local crowds, and local institutions and establishments. Similar work is being done in Napier with "Natalie of Napier." The value of this form of advertisement may lead to "Wenda of Whangarei," "Amelia of Auckland," "Tottie of Taranaki," and "Christine of Christchurcli." In fact, the daily life of each and every New Zealand town may one day be seen by the whole world. Great are the blessings of the cinema film!