OBITER DICTA.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18419, 27 June 1925, Page 14

OBITER DICTA.

[By K.] Of all the drawing's of Mr Max Beerbolnn the one I like best is a picture of Mr G. B. Shaw standing: on his head-with Max looking at him, expressing the "mild surprise of one who. revisiting; England after long absence, finds that the dear fellow has not moved.'' With that gentle wonder I return to this column and. looking about me, find that the world is in essentials just the same as it was, and content so to be. Prance is still talking of evacuating the Ruhr, cocoa streams from Mr Williams's pen with the old iluency, Mr Wilford is more than ever in the middle of the road, the' City Council is still referring the hoardings question back to the Committee, Labour's arithmetician is still doing sums. The politicians will probably say that they at any rate are not in the same position, and the scientists are doubtless feeling that an immense stride has been taken by Science through the postulating of some new peculiarity in the atomic nucleus. But one docs not reckon politics or Science among, the essentials, and in any case neither the politician nor the scientist changes from ago to age. All of them are Professors of Error, but Providence fortunately saw to it that Professors should disagree, and so neutralise each other.

As for the present political situation, you need not believe the story that the choice is between fusion and confusion. The chief difficulty is as to whether Mr Masters and Mr George Forbes and Mr Vcitch are to obtain Cabinet posts or not, Mr Wilford having decided to stay out and solve the problem How to be Happy though a Pendulum. In the meantime 300 Auckland Liberals have gathered together to arrest the flight o£ Time and restore " the good old days of Seddon." I have a suggestion to make to the Liberal Party, but it is probably too late for them. I found it under the heading-, " What Liberals arc Doing," in the " Weekly Westminster" of May 16th:— ? "

Xo newspaper, in London or the provinces, is giving any adequate account of the remarkable Liboral revival whicli is now going on in every part of the country. We are anxious to do what >ve ean to rectify this defect. Wo therefore propose to set apart space for tho record of the revival, and wo ask Liberals in all parts of the country to send us notes about what is going on in their own areas. "Wo shall offer a prize of half-a-guinea weekly for the best paragraph sent in recording now efforts of propaganda, successful meetings, the work of study circles, etc.

If this scheme does not restore respiration, the British Liberals may still try cross-words or art-unions. But in New Zealand tho Liberal Party is beyond the reach of human aid. Death has overtaken it, but Spiritualism has demonstrated that Death is not the end; and so the Party is beginning a new career as an active ghost, and it is threatening to haunt Mr Coates and go on making clanking noises if it does not get a job.

Ih the same number of the " Weekly Westminster" there is reproduced a cartoon from " Kladderadatsch," the violent and vigorous German weekly of which some samples have been given in the'"Weekly Press." Hindeiiburg, in . pilot jacket and cap, is climbing the gangway of the ship "Deutschland " —an echo, of course, of Tenniel's old drawing of Bismarck's resignation, " Dropping the Pilot." In France, one may be sure, and in somo circles iu Britain, this drawing will be received as proof of Germany's determination to go full steam ahead for another

war. And it would be, if " Kladdera* datsch " were Germany, and if Hindenburg were Bismarck; but Hindenbnrg appears to be a mild enough and stupid enough old fellow, and probably " Kladderadatsch " intended to illustrate the difference between Bismarck and the new pilot.

The Kev. Harry has been giving some advice, reprinted at surprising length in the Press, to the modern girl, whom, strangely enough and very agreeably, he mher likes, believing that her " apparent boldness" is " really camouflage to hide her real feelings."' His advice is good—it was given by Kingsley long ago—but it will probably go unused. What between those who give her slaps ami those who give her advice she docs not know what to do with, the modern girl gets next to nothing in the way of real help. While there are politicians and reformers and Leagues and uplifters and scientists and busy cranks of all kinds requiring notice here, there can be little space to spare for helpful hints for the modern girl. I can do no more to-day, by way of satisfying the hunger left nnassuaged by the Kev. Mr Harry, than quote an item from America:

Haskell Collin, the artist, thinks that this year girls should, have large. eyes, oval faces, u straight bur not too lengthy nose, a short upper lip and a full mouth, turning up and not down at the dimples. Many girls are now busily cultivating these styles. It is found, however, that cloehe-shaped hatt strangle the blood-vessels of the scalp, rather like lied Indians, and undernourish even the few stray looks that survive the bob. Picture hats are thui favoured, the only troublo here being that there are now no tresses to which to attach aeroplanes that even when pinned to plaits are apt. like dirigibles, to break away from their moorings. Beneath the bob, therefore, a firm pad is now fixed, which forms the foundation for whatever superstructure is subsequently erected. ■

A meeting should be arranged between Mr 11. Heincl Smith, who describes himself as "Writer in the Inter. Press on Econ. Development," and the Rev. J. K. Archer. Mr Heme] Smith sends me au article and letter reprinted from ''Tropical Life.*' "The whole world," he says, " wants peace, comfort, and general well-being; it is truly clamouring for such things, but so long as our statesmen only talk and the masses only clamour,'* etc. "Arc we maintaining the best traditions of our race," etc. '• The policy under which Ave are ruled is m«Hpg us sullen and depressed, and doing more to enoourage unemployment, frauds on the dole, and the wish to steal, because it generates a lack of will and confidence," etc. This is the language of Mr Hemel Smith, less fiery and plangent but not less sincere than that of the accomplished woman who writes locally on Prohibition; and after columns of it he comes to tha" point and brings us face to face w|t]| the root evil with a rush:

One wonders what is really meant by .|i tho words, "Tho Gre.at War made world safe for democracy" —how can it jijjjf bo called safe when pigs and their drop- *s*;■ pings bring flics of all kinds to oyer-*; v crowded centres? ■■'s

While Mr Hcmcl Smith is persuaded that the world should concentrate on. getting rid of pigs, the ReT. J. K. Archer knows better. In the CSiy Council, when the whisky ments were being discussed, the MtJW, I read, " said the issue raised ins not alone hoardings, but what ws proposed to be put on the hoardings. The issue was the greatest moral issue tkat had come before the Council in the past ten years." Until a debate between Mr Hcmel Smith and Mr Archer v takes place, I shall never bo able to tell which of them has discovered the paramount issue.