WITHOUT PREJUDICE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXII, Issue 4360, 30 December 1921, Page 2

WITHOUT PREJUDICE.

NOTES AT RANDOM. (By T.D.H., in the “Dominion.”) The way Austria feels to-day: Anyone can have us whp will feed us. « The German Tragedy.—To buy a packet of candles,, and to find that if you had kept the money until day you could have bought a house' and section with it. Thanks to Mr Holland’s activity, * s the Union Jack has been put on the , Customs tariff free list. Perhaps the Labour extremists will not be able to afford to sport the national flag. Faint praise ne’er won 7 fair lady. Silesia won’t be happy till it knows to whom it belongs, and Galicia might be happy if it didn’t. Naturally the American newspapers 'to hand by yesterday’s mail are full of the Disarmamept Conference. Here are some “Peace Parley Pointers’’ collected by the “Literary Digest” : What the .world needs is to teach the young idea not to shoot. The world must abandon its goosestep if it wants to avoid its- swan song. If the race for naval supremacy goes on the world will be sunk by its floating debt. An unemployed army is better than an army of unemployed.. As we understand it, the Disarmament Conference is a. sort of disArmageddon. Extract from “Ye Times” of Decent ber s', 1346 : “Ye allies this daye in ye conference at Eyewas.hingtonne did saye that ye Englishe varlets hav- - ing cowardlye slaine so many good menn and trewe in ye late battle at * Cressy with a vile mixtnige of sal- ; petre and charrcple, yclept gunpowder, that it be againste all alwe of ■ Godde and mann that suche be ever used in any warre againe, nor aughte but ye sworde and ye bowe and ar-/ rowe(”

For the benefit of “Sixth Standard Schoolgirl” and other correspondents who are “hot stuff” on Early English, I may state that the above message was mutilated in transmission, as the telegraph was in its infancy in those days. It will be a serious thing for recruiting in the future unless the Disarmament Conference bars poison gas and submarines. Shakespeare bears witness tp the ill-effects in this direction of introducing gunpowder, for foes not the staff officer at the Battle of Shrewsbury, in “Henry IV.” say, . . . but for these vile guns He would himself have been a soldier. This is Mr J. A. Tripe’s story. He told it to a Dominion man in the Supreme Court on Saturday. Teacher: What is grace before meals ? (pointing to the son Of the local vicar). No reply. Teacher: Freddie, wh,at does your father say before breakfast and 'other meals ?

Freddie: Go easy with the butter, my boy ,it’s Is 8d a pound ! Do you believe in luck ? At a Lon-* don theatre the other day the company protested against a new play being named "The Golden Moth,” as the word “golden” is supposed to be unlucky in a plaj r ’s title. The manager said he. would change it, and then he said he would not, let the name stand and defy the Fates. Another stage superstition is that it is unltfcky to quote “Macbeth.” On the racecourses in England it, is thought very unlucky to have anyone wish you luck when you are going to a race meeting. If they say “May you break your neck,” your chances' will be infinitely better. In the Navy they say that every time a glass rings a sailor dies.. Some people will not only not be the third person to light a cigarette from one match, but will object to any third person lighting a cigarette from a match which they have used. Many good folk are satisfied that what settled President Wilson’s fate was attending a dinner after his arrival for the Peace Conference at which thirteen sat down, and he also sealed his doom when he let his famous Fourteen Points be cut down to thirteen by striking put the freedom of the seas. Let us all hope President Harding has hired an astrologer to keep him oh safe ground br disarmament m,ay come down to reducing the size of navel oranges, or something of that sort. Plane ginometry from Dry America: Frpm drug store to drug store is the shortest distance between two pints. Dr. Bumpus is most interested iu the steps being taken in view of the degeneration of the university spirit in Sydney. Where nearly eevrybody makes a mistake about education is in encouraging the ridiculous idea that people should be educated for the vocation they intend to pursue. Until we get rid of this delusion no real progress is possible in (he edu-i cational world. Sidney is recognising it, for they are reviving. their university by encouraging sport. The whole history of civilisation, thd Doctor points out, shows that nine-tenths of the mischief of the world is done in leisure hours. Employers take good care that people do not go wrong in working hours if they can help it. But there is no one but a handful ofpolicemen to look after whole cityfuls when they are let loose after-’ the day’s work is over. Burglaries ate almost invariably committed in nnoworking hours, and by people who, if they had been educated .to use their leisure properly, might have obtained their relaxation in taking part in bridge tournaments. New political parties are being formed every day by ladies and gentlemen who know: of no better way of killing time. Under A proper educational system they wouhC have learned the superior attractions of jazzing at the cabaret'. No boy should be allowed to leave the primary schools until'he has learned the elements of snooker. If thl schools were devpted to training the'people to make a right use of their leisure the Doctor is convinced the world would soon be a very different place from what it is. This is the real key’ to reform. This is for. th® ladles: • A husband came home on to find a note left for him by his wiffc'.i-

Carelessly’ he opened it, but as he read his face blanched, “My God," he exclaimed, “how could -this have happened so suddenly ?’’ and, snatching his hat and coat he rushed to a ..hospital which was hear his home. "I want to see my wife, Mrs Brown, at once," he said to the head nurse, “before she goes under the ether. Please take my message to her at ontoe.” "Mrs Brown ?” echoed the nurse. “There is no Mrs Brown here.” "Then to 'which hospital has she gone asked the breathless and disi tr.acted husband. “I found this noto from her when I came home,” and he handed the note to the nurse, who road: "Dear Husband,—l have gone to hare hay kimono cut out.—Bell.”