ROUND ABOUT

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 165, 27 May 1940, Page 5

ROUND ABOUT

(By Aitchel) Some public speakers have a habit of wandering away from the subject, gassing for hours on Eskimos and their ways or something like that, and then meandering slowly back to the real issue. Mr F. W. Doidge, M.P., was like that on Friday afternoon, when he formally declared the Otakiri School to be open. After a long dissertation on the war, Mr Chamberlain's dismissal from office, what war historians will say, and so forth, he remembered his mission and rather abruptly concluded his review of the Allies' position to formally declare the school open. * « * • Incidentally it might be just as well to mention an observation which was overheard at the same gathering. Said One Anonymous: "funny thing, you know, they've been at the National Government for years to have something done about the school accommodation here, and nothing happened. The Labour Government builds the school and a member of the National Party opens it." • * • » The most original pre-nupTial party we've heard about lately was that known as a 'benzine coupon* party, the guests taking petrol coupons for the honeymoon. Evidently a case of 'thy need is greater than mine.' • * « « Smokers are experiencing a new kind of match trouble. Added to the variety which won't strike is now the kind that won't go out. The wood remains glowing for several, seconds, with disastrous effects on waste paper baskets. mm, • • This is almost a Ripley 'Believe-it-or-tnot' story. Last week the maid who tends to the needs of a certain household made a spontaneous and unsolicited offer to work for 5s less per week. The offer was hastily accepted before it could be withdrawn « « * * The tumult and the shouting dies, No councillors are sacked. And put away for future use Is the Rural Housing Act. It was evidently a pretty torrid sort of meeting at Taneatua when the Rural Housing Act was discussed. I am reliably informed that not a few pleasantries were Despite the low temperatures it is said that things were rather heated at times. • * m m Apropos my recent paragraph on radio serials, I have just read an article on the subject. It is called "Be Sure To Listen In'" and the writer tells how, in the interests of science, he listened for a~ whole week to the broadcasting stations around New York during the; daytime, when the programmes are mainly given over to serial and feature stuff. The results of his investigation are illuminating. "By the end of the first day,'" he says, "I found that I had encountered among the principal characters of the serials, one mad woman, one nervous wreck, four invalids, ons victim of amnesia, two blind men, one blind girl bitten by a rattlesnake, one inmate of a sanitoriurn, one crippled lawyer, one boy injured in a fall from a horse, one dying woman,, one woman undergoing a major operation, one sick baby and one man with ? face injury. "It's too bad," he £ays, "that they couldn't all have appeared in one sketch.'* No comment is needed. m m m m News Flash of the Week. NeAV York, May 23rd. "There ended in America to-day a divorce suit which began 15 years ago. It was begun by the husband, Wiley Hitchcock, school teacher, of Chicago, and contested by wife Win! Fred, also a school teacher, to whom he had been married 10 years. "Ever since, their battle has gone on—before 30 judges sitting in six: different courts. "To-day came the decision. "Wiley Hitchcock was granted his divorce—because his wife put sand in his shaving cream; destroyed his lecture notes; soaked his clothes; in water; destroyed his bedclothes;shut off the heat in his bedroom;, hit him with a brass and beat him while he slept." And he had to wait 15 years onf those grounds!