OBITER DICTA.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19168, 26 November 1927, Page 14

OBITER DICTA.

[By K.] Twenty-two weeks—nearly six months —have passed since our legislators assembled in Wellington, and although I love political zoology as dearly as the Rector of Canterbury College loves the milder well-shrimp, twenty-two weeks of watching the almost human creatures in Parliament are enough. As a matter of duty, however, one reads the reports of the proceedings. And one day thi* week, yawning my way through a debate and hoping to come upon Mr McCombs doing some decimals, I came upon Mr Tim Armstrong saying something. He was condemning the Arbitration Bill, and used the word "hypocritical;' Mr Speaker, who is so delicate that he cannot bear to sec an unbared head in the Parliament Buildings, shuddered at Mr Armstrong's, word and ordered its withdrawal. Mr Armstrong explained that " no word in the English language could adequately describe " the Bill. That may be quite true, but it is not for Mr Armstrong to say it unless he knows all the words there are, which he certainly does not. I mention this, not as an example of the politician's well-known habit of going to extremes, but as an example of one of the commonest of failings. When Mr Armstrong, who knows no more about the English tongue than I do, makes a statement which implies that he carries the N.E.D. in his head and knows it from coverftto cover, he is doing no more than the good men who tell the public exactly what is wrong with the world, and what is the purpose of the Creator and what He thinks of this or that public topic. But then, as has often been explained in these notes, I never did care for J the uplifters, preferring always the decorative to the uplifting. Not, indeed, that I do not listen respectfully to the Rev. John Paterson when he turns from the Demon Rum to general principles and,assures us that "to-day our intellectual power has outstripped our moral and spiritual capacity," and that " that is what is wrong with the world." "We needed reinforcement of our moral and spiritual forces," he added, " so that we might use wisely the tremendous benefits which modern science had conferred upon us." Science was destroyed, in these notes long ago, and if Mr Paterson chooses to go on thinking that Henry Ford and Marconi and canned tongues and cocoa and the permanent wave are helpful to the human race, I would not undeceive him. But his delusion that intellectual power has outstripped anything at all—except, in the case of Mr Tim Armstrong, the power of expression—is comparatively new. He lives, it is true, in an atmosphere of cocoa, and this may account for his belief that brains are better and more abundant than ever. But one had imagined that it was grace and virtue that cocoa nourished rather than intellect. Mr Charles Todd, the chief,of the N.Z. Alliance, has no doubt about that. He divides mankind into two classes, good Prohibitionist* and bar loafers. In the meantime Dr. Gibb is more concerned over the movies than over the Demon Rum or the terrific strides made by the human intellect. He has suggested a new test to be applied to the films. He told the Presbyterian Assembly that he had gone to seo " Ben Hur," and "he was not ashamed to

stand up and "say that k weeping during p art of being screened" That i il V added how was. The reverend DocW>« h.s confession do hun would prevent his ttf^M*, or protest against his biLi B*' 8 *' But he would not JJS' mo prefer Ben he would think the less oflV?^ to the movies to be amused It must not be ,. ~ Zealand is the only CtS> hgion and uplift are The'-American Mercury" record the liveliness 0 f the "J** spirit in Mr Coolidge'scounbTji hrst selection from the «li» • •» in the October number ZTT Councillor Andrews and th* Councillors who believe that h J?* are excellent things, but I J?* for its evidence of the wide n!z' religion in America; "God is the greatest »d«r11... hlaifrd the wav in outdoot 1* \*H fc Presbyterian Church, DenV«. """V Business has got religion, too: "I say it reverently, when >„». ' who started tho D«lm«rt« M™'J*i«, sociation, 1 answer, Qod B **« 1» Adkins, Baltimore. "'»• I ) And the Fundnmcntalista ban *U of confidence: w * "Christ's coming will etUai. ,„., bergh's reception."~R« T , Stratton, New York. "™ k^ From Cape Girardeau, Miswnri »*. this:— !^* Continuing his Bcrieß ol Mrmom M .„ mobile Religion." the Ror TV »** tbe Centenary Mfthediat Ohureh B».J.?L« will speak on tho lukj™. %,'* ing Station." His openlttt tun...*!i« series on "A Flat Tire"TewTll* to the evening services hit Suiuj **

As a good New Zealander, I to* that Mr Amery has visited xa, when he goes home he will Uu shove us on the map on which wto would be, but from . wfclj, , I conclude from a, penal j the latest numbers of the Kmtn " Saturday Review," we have beaia ping a little. This excellent has just commenced a series otijiu competitions, which opened offer of a prize for the bertlji beginning " It's daffodil time in J Zealand." One competitor ifiitul responded with a limerick: ' Just where In the world ii Ntw Iftty That great big aurrounded-by-Ma bj| I hare a faint notion It's out In the ocean. I learned all about It at LtUsl. • And that was all the other cotnpe&t knew about it. The faot wm thith conductors of the " Review " cbo«}(tt Zealand as being the wohtiiw locality on earth, which seems it m that the Hon. Zone Grey's tMti our swordfish have not yet got lea the Rockies. Still, it was pl&irii find a few, columns of versai* 1 New Zealand in a foreign paps; I get) on the map with a black it were, amidst the laughteriM world, is better than not get% §f the map at all. And one at -mi the competitors—but he did'nptfjetb prize—did know sottetliutg about H The eland'r not found 111 New Zealut Nor yet la the spr» Vaniaroo. \ The gnu it not new In Net Zeilut There'a lack of a fauail 'fWnbii»' The daffodils went to New Bwlind;-I Which told them to grow and tto m There's always new »eal In New taW But hardly a rhyme that will do. The prize offered, disgusting jo nlili was one cent Still,.we have wdn beginning. The day will oqffl'HW children,. or at any rate our pi* children, will live to see iM" poems about us will be worth a'dtt • Even Rome was not built in .sitj.