WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 42, 12 November 1921, Page 6

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

NOTES AT RANDOM

(By

T.D.H.)

i Germany is willing to do everything) to meet tho Reparations Commission, except pay. ■ . ’ . M

The Financial debate is the occasion - ; on which Opposition members give theGoverninent,, adyice. which . ,thqy . ivould.: not follow themselves. - -

Seme of' the Labour extremists say; that instead of . a reduction of wages- -

the times w-arrant an increase. Well,; Lenin said the same thing- and acted - ' up to it, too; but the. Russian wage-: earners don’t seem to be any bettor off - , for it,- . "

Sir lan Hamilton has discovered a--new curb for a' boiler explosion. 1 “If it is proposed to block Japan’s safety. ( yalve .we had better don gas-masks.” be says. 1,-;

The Washington Conference, Sir lan: Hamilton, asserts, is. "a . smoking concert in a powder magazine.” In view of: his remark above he doubtless has fears. - that the delegates will have their heads - : blown to the roof - , to stare , them in the face. . As a famous . gentleman,, jyrhor must be a relation of .Sir ..lan’s,.. dnen* said, - ' it would .be. a,. gpb'd -.thing, ,in.. such/case to be "like"a. bird, 'in two .placesi at once.”l should noF he:''sri | tp.rised.e to. hear that Sir -lan Hamilton, was pre- 1 pared . to sacrifice . not ..half . tli'e. Fleet,: but the whplp of., it, to, preserve., then remainder.’.'. ''.. ...... ........ .... ,

King George’s speech .at the proroga.-i fion seems to have -been much longerthis, year than usual. The . prorogation Speech ■is ..seldom delivered by. tee, 'King in person, but. is .read by .the . LordChancellor, . acting as a Royal . Commission. Queen Victoria for many years had the .Speech read .by tee,. Lord Chancellor for her when she attended' in person to open Parliament.'' Poor, old King William IV once. got. into.diffi-l cuities over a Speech from the Throne.', It Was a. very dull and gloomy dqy,’ and> as his eyesight was bad- he could not' see well. . He stunibled .along putting:, in wrong words, correcting them,, andv going Lack and trying ' to. make sense nf tli!e (sentences. At one .point hestpek. altogether, aiid. aftey(two pr,three, /ries gave it up, and handed the', paper to Lord ..asking, , liim to tell ■ hiiA what the word was. At about .theend of the Speech two candles wera-. brought in, and "so the King insisted onstarting at the beginning again, and - - then , delivered .jt like ,a professor of:, elocution. . ... - • ■ .

King William was a bluff old soul ac- • cording to all, accounts. It was he who gave .the' Navy the privilege of drinking?; the King’s health . sitting,' aa practice maintained afloat to. this Cay.; ff'T recollect aright' the story' is that-’ King William iu his service afloat be« 4 fore he ascended tl.e Throne more than» qneq. bumped his, head op the beam's wlien rising in the mess, to drink thw Royal toast,.,and when he became King; made it a rule that .there was to be nw more”such dangerous rising... from..,tabi» aboard ship in future. r ~

Desire Landru, whose . trial, has started off again for the supposed murder ofeleven -wives or fiancees, is a hard nut for the French Judges: He was arrested in Aprilj 1919; and the Courts have been: at him on and off ever since. The French'--system is different from burs. ‘ The Judge i fires away at the prisoner trying tor, wring an admission of g-uilt from', him: or trip him up in some war, The police l meantime are hunting for more , evidence, and the'Judge hears the witnesses*' 'witeoiit-' either the prisoner 6r his-’law-yer (who plays a- humble - part--in thee trial) necessarily ' 'being " present. In- ■ March last a -Superior Court decided.' teat Landen's case, after Ixaring occupied nearly two years'up-to-tlitit date,) *sd to be begun all’over again, as the ex«: parts who had examined the 'supposed-' charred remains of some of the missing; ladies ‘had forgotten to take' the oath. The vast edifice of documents so’painfully- constructed by the examining Magistrate fell to the ground' at one tell,'' swoop. Null and void was the ' indictment comprising in.itself'-500■ pages. Null' and void too until all put in- agkin wer« '■ the~4s(X) documents in the mighty dossier. ' '■ •.

.They do things differently in Franco. To, help along- the - prosecution, during Jxindru’s trial, in 1919 the Paris '‘Journal” published during its eburse tho views of a celebrated .physiognomist on Landru. This gentleman, a. disciple of Lavater, .said: ‘‘The osteology of the skull of tee man of fiancees is significant. Its form is clearly convidftl, 'which indicates sanguinary and brutal .instincts, <but of a. practical nature withal, a man. . of strongly developed, business talent; activeanil enterprising. . .. . ’’tap.‘man. might' have died for an ideal, but has no. cenevon's instincts. The eyes 'arc yemai'k--ably fixed, showing a'strong. wilL Thai bushy' eyebrows show deterniination and decision, and indicate .if ctonriheering, irascible ' and ' unsociable character. The open nostrils are excessively sensuousand lascivious: So is the rrioiilh.** The photographs of the ladies the. expert waved awiiy—‘‘defenceless women, credulous, Tound-visaged. therefore-..vasy to deceive.’’'' He seized one. "She ought to have‘resisted..' She has a squate'face. She should have downed Landrii,’’ Landrii. of'course. sayS“’fie was Onlvibnying furniture from tho hundred ladies with whom lie condncted matrimonial correspondence.' and knows no more than the ‘Ma<iistfnte where tEe missing eleven ar®It' is only an eleven per ebhi.' loss, anyway. ■' ■ ..y?, . ..

- A correspondent wlid writes appreciatively of the reference' in the column yesterday to Armistice Dav, forwards some Abraham Lincoln stories. Unhannily, space limitations prevent me? making 'fnll''use of them; 'but fho’-o one which has a bearing on dondifinris.. in New Ze’ land toMay: .which is. worth'mving. It was a • troiiblons, time and the President wn= lieing liadgeiyd by a deputation from the bock-cbn’l+’-y.iinst jwonr own Prime'Minister is badgered)', on the sins' of omission of the Administration. After listening patiently for soma.'time Mr. Lincoln, summed up the .position something like, this:— . ; , "Gentlemen, suppose all. the property you were worth was in gold, and, you had put it: in the hands of Blondinfto carry across the Niagara River | On.> a rope, would you shake the.cable, pr keep shouting out to him: ‘Blondin, stand-up a little straighter—Blondin, stoop a pittie more —go a little- faster—lean .a ■ little more-to the north—lean a little more; to the south’? No, you would hold. v?nr breath as well as your, tongue,..and kyep your hands off until ho was snfely ■pi er. The Government are carrying an . immense weight.' ■ Untold, treasures are. .in their hands. They are .doing tee very best they can. Don’t badger them. Ke«p silence and we’ll get you safe, across. Now here is excellent advice for some of our New Zealand badgerprs.r., ....;

EXPERIENCE; ’ 1 Deborah danCed. when she was two* ' As buttercups and daffodils do; J" Spirited, frail, naively bold, >■' ■ Her hair a ruffled cfest of gold. And whenever she spoke her voice.wenfi singing . Like water up from a fountain springing 1 . But now her step is quiet and slow; She walks the way primroses go; .... Her hair is yellow instead, of gilt, Her. voice is losing its lovely lilt, ,/ .’ And in place of her wild, delightful yaya A quaint "precision' rules her days. , * For Deborah now is three, and oh, i. - She' knows so much that she did hot know. ■■■>' ■•.’C k■' ' —Aline Kilmer.