THE PASSING SHOW.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 227, 25 September 1929, Page 6

THE PASSING SHOW.

(By THE MAN ABOUT TOWN.)

NEW ZEALAND MADE.

The Government is making every endeavour to popularise goods made in lS T ew Zealand.

Konse. patriots, hear the clarion call, "Buy, buy New Zealand made!" Books, billiard balls and motor cars, The hoe. the rake, the spade: Pictures and cotton goods and ships, Boost up the local trade. Let us be loyal to Maoriland And buy New Zealand made!

Watches and clocks and crockery, Newsprint, wallpaper, too, Paint, petrol, kerosene and salt, Starch, glue and washing blue; Silk stockings, aeroplanes and forks, Oh, buy, be not afraid To make the things that others make, The brand—"New Zealand Made !"

Ah, yes! although the country's young ' No one need bo afraid Of goods that bear the honest brand, Our own—"New Zealand Made !" And entre nous, the best of all, When pros and cons are weighed, Is our superlative asset, Our own New Zealand Maid !

The motor car has the disadvantage over the horse that it does not know the way home. Formerly the horseman who had imbibed unwisely merely let the A LONDON CABBY, reins or bridle flop and the horse did the rest. The modern provision of robot machines leads one to hope for motor cars with brains. It is a curiosity that neither in Britain nor in New Zealand need a man have a certificate of physical fitness before he becomes the licensed driver of a motor vehicle. The matter is being discussed at Home. It seems that a London taxi driver, being found intoxicated while driving his cab, was sent to gaol. It was found that the poor fellow, having been a. soldier, possessed but one eye, had had forty-eight surgical operations to his head and was at the time of the offence being treated for neurasthenia. It occurs to M.A.T. that the perfect gentleman who lately drove round a hairpin bend at fifty-five and nearly obliterated present pedestrian, should have his head read, too, his neurasthenia seen to, his eyes tested and his breath analysed.

People talk freely on the telephone to those persons whom they would pass with lifted chin and a haughty scowl in the flesh.

Watch the iron dials of HERE AND THERE, the people as they pass in the street. It is British to walk through life fearing that some boundah might speak to one. A clergyman on Sunday spoke of those who had passed over and who were still cheerily . communicating with those who still inhabit the earth. Mentioned, too, how pleasant it was that earth friendships should remain after a friend had departed. The clergyman mentions that he received a letter from a gentleman who had heard him on Sunday. The letter said that the writer had been greatly interested in the preacher's reference to communication between departed friends and friends who have not yet departed. He was glad one could talk to departed friends, for he had been attending the cleric's church for many months and not a darned soul present had spoken to him yet.

One understands, since gambling has been abolished, tha't nefarious persons still indulge in those sinful pastimes which have persisted since "they parted my I LAY, I LAY. raiment among them and

on my garments did they cast lots." In this universal method of acquiring other people's money superstition takes a large hand. Thus in a coterie of investors who habitually indulge in sweeps one man who has paid in for many years pins his faith on number seven. It is, he says, his lucky number. He has never Avon anything yet, but he feels perfectly confident that a time will come. Another ingenious investor, having obtained the list of entries for a specific race, puts down the initial of each horse's name and spends many joyous hours forming words from them. He hopes by years of toil that these initials will in due course form the name of a horse who will bring the bacon home. Infallible systems are bound to come off some time or other. The late Mr. Wells, for instance,' broke the bank at Monte Carlo with an infallible system. Nature has infallible systems, too. Mr. Wells himself became broke.

New South Wales lately expelled from its shores a number of Italians, among them some of the most expert burglars that ever went to the land of the frpp THE TIN OPENER, and the home of the .. , bravo. The expulsion of these broadbacked sons of the sunny south revives the memory that the burglars were remarkable for the appliances they used. They cut their safes open with huge scissors gigantic two-bladed tin openers. The police were puzzled at first. But one day they found a safe that had been scissored, the implement itself being left behind. The scissors were too large for one man to carry. Apropos of Australia and the burglar, it is within the memory of the middle-aged that house breakers who were not homicides were executed. Two cosmopolitan house breakers who had worked London, New York, Berlin, Paris and other cities tried Melbourne for a change. In one of their forays they were challenged by a constable and attacked him. He sustained curable injury. But the burglars were hanged

. Maybe you noticed in Tuesday's "Star" picture page a photograph showing New York deluging Eckener and his fellow Zeppelinists STRAW WATQ 6Craps °* F aper - A "y HATS, of the paper that wasn't . thrown was possibly very ably dabbed in by conscientious photographers in ]\ew lork. There's nothing very intriguing m a street covered with paper, motor cars and mounted police, but there is something specially interesting in the fact that nearly all the visible men civilians are wearing straw hats. The straw hat as far as New Zealand is concerned lias almost disappeared. Only one Aucklander as far as M.A.T. knows wears a tiaw boater, and he hates to part with it because he has had it since boyhood's days. Except for Harrow boys, who wear a special b eed of very large straw, British males have Ji? , thls type of roof - ° ne associates the straw hat with the complete summer 1 Si , t wbls ' thj wife and the whS+T, °fi I l ®, In b °3' ], ood's days, when the finest straw "boater" could be bought ior half-a-crown, one found with what marvellous accuracy one could skim such a hat across huge spaces. Durmg school "rags» the one , wearing those preposterous "mortar "don? >a\ other the then favourite donkeys bieakfast," exceedingly dangerous • "Jj , ® t0 . 01 5 P lace - Honourable scars can be inflicted with a well-thrown "boater," equaling m decorative effect the sword wounds of German 'Varsity students. The school teacher was making a physical inspection. Every little face shone with soap and intelligence. Many knees had been scrubItttp rmm bed ' Some small hands, [ THE CHILD MIND, meticulously clean when j, , mother had done with the in ,vo S v° M T t J afc tlle owners-Had fallen by +W Teacher came to a pair of hands that exceeded in grubbiness all the others. To ThevT/ "° h ' Tomm y> hands! rhey are as black a s a sweep's! Why eve" Soi'»°"pT t » sh ST c b ' { <"-° *°» °° Tommv ? e ', Mlss Sraiff " answered this [ f ™ y ! l ast Sunday our teacher told us that nothiL«i a °l! an heart and a new s P"-it nothing else mattered." A THOUGHT FOR TO-DAY. rX! SMe " 70U WOUM SUC '