MTSCELLANEOUS.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 September 1928, Page 1

MTSCELLANEOUS.

THE PLATS WE SEE.

“ What principle shall guide Ms .in our selection of plays, whether we speak of them as 1 clean,’ ‘ wholesome,’ meritorious,’ ‘ worth while,’ ‘ seriously intended,’ or what not? We can make little progress by consulting individual tastes. One who has listened by the

hour to discussions regarding the merits and demerits of this book or that sermon, this play or that picture, knows how futile ft is to expect agreement in such matters. . And the reason is obvious. We interpret these thin in terms of our individual experience, and no two experiences are exactly alike. Moreover, we, ourselves, are constantly? eha rigirig by' reason of advancing years and added experiences, :A play, sermon, or picture may have little meaning for us one year and the next affect us deeply because of an experience which has changed our whole outlook on life. Perhaps we shall gain light if we inquire concerning the purpose of the theatre. Has it an essential place in civilisation ?. Has the playhouse a place in'our communities along with'the schoolhou.se and the house •of worship? When one considers the increasing complexity and increasing strain of .our life he must accord the theatre yj place with the school and the church.”—The Rev. George Reid Andrews, .chairman of the Church and Drama Association of America.

THE LEAGUE! SPIRIT AT OLYMPjTA. “In the Games.we may believe that nationalism is beginning to take itself less seriously, and that the process will continue. The emergence, of what may be called the Wer Powers’ in athletics has given a powerful emphasis to genuine good feeling. Just as in politics the League spirit is often asserted more faithfully - by the smallei Powers than by their greater neighbours, so at the Olympic Games the growing triumphs of Scandinavians and Finns have taken the edge off the fierce asertive rivalries of countries which, until recent years, had almost a monoply of these athletic victories. —.“Manchester Guardian.”

FAMILY OF SCULPTORS. FARNBOROUGK, KENT, Aug. S. One of the largest groups of statuary in the world is growing up in a hig shed behind a pretty old-world house at Lock’s Bottom, near here. It is the Canadian National War Memorial, to be put up in the central square of Ottawa. The workers at this great momument are, the March family, seven brothers and one sister, all outstandingly clever at one phase or another of sculpture. The design, chosen from 127, is by the youngest member of tlie family, Mr Vernon March. I have seen, with Mr Percy March as my guide, the first products of theii Work the ‘ portions, cast in bronze but not yet joined together, of the two figures Victory and Liberty, which will too a triumphal arch. Each figure is 20ft high and contains more than nine tons of bronze. . 1 # Passing through the arch will he representatives of Ml the Services who fought in the war, ,and each figure will be eight feet high. Work has been started on the cavalryman. The family do all their own casting, and an oven! capable of melting three tons'-of bronze lies behind the house. This is in charge of Mr Percy March, who told me that hb had never had anv tuition except from Ins brothers. “Our first experiments in casting were carried out in a stove at the

corner of our .kitchen, as far as I can remember,” Mr March said.

A clever arrangement of needles at the ends of a 20ft. beam, lightly balanced on a ball bearing, is used to increase tlio scale of the small model figures to' that needed for the big ones. At one end a' needle is placed opposite a spot on the model and at the opposite end of a hig needle points out the exact corresponding spot on the large copy.

GERMANY’S LAST HORSE “TRAM.” , i BERLIN, August 8. The last horse tramway-car in Germany has disappeared for good. Until yesterday the citizens of Zerbst, one of itlie most picturesque towns in Northern Germany, stll maintained three tramway-cars, r> cHftthe necessary horses, and the ceremonies with which they said farewell showed that tlie\ only parted with them with a pang. The last journey of, the three tram-way-cars was an historic . event in which the whole town took part. The members of the town band sat in the first car and played. In the second and third came the memhois of the board of directors of the tramway company and the 28 shareholders. and an immense crowd trot ted after the slowly moving vehicles At the railway station there was a halt. The musicians .got out of their our /and got into one of the new motoromnibuses' in which the civilians will henceforth rattle through the quaint streets, and they set off again playing a triumphal march. The curtains of the old tramway-cars were solemnly drawn and the old horses dragged them for the last time back to the stables. There the musicians in the omnibus which preceded them played a funeral inarch, and so the city of baroque houses and bitter beer'sadly, but with determination entered the path of modern progress.