THE PAST WEEK.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5491, 23 October 1929, Page 3

THE PAST WEEK.

On several occasions in this column reference has been made to the puerile repartee which goes on in the present House. Now for a change is offered the following :— A political candidate was doing his level best with a campaign speech when a heckler shouted : “I wouldn’t vote for you if you were the angel Gabriel.” The answer, quick as lightning : “If I were the angel Gabriel you wouldn’t be in my electorate.” The tender for the metalling of certain roads in the Tauranga County was awarded to Mr F. Spreadborough last week. From his name he is apparently the very man for the job. It was amusing to read last week two cablegrams from the United States of America on the subject of prohibition published on the same day. One, the essence of a speech by an outsider who was touring the country, stated that prohibition in the United States of America was a complete success. The other, from a pronouncement by the head of the American Episcopalian Church, stated that f prohibition was a complete failure. Of the two stories the latter is the truth. * * « * When prohibition was first introF duced into the United States it was said that naturally there would be a little sly-grog selling, but that only the old “soaks” would indulge, and it would not matter much if they did die off. But the result has been the very opposite to that. The “old soaks” respected their palates and internal organs too much to swallow the alleged liquor. The youth of America are the ones being principally affected. Jilst as in this country, where there are certain of the younger generation who think it clever to indulge in cocktail parties, in the Republic it is the same, only there it affects the greater part of the population who are in their teens, instead of just a few as in New Zealand. So-called liquor can be obtained with ease in any part of the United States, in the majority of places quite openly. The following , story is told which might hold good of United States town : A stranger had arrived in a town after a very long and trying journey in the train. He wanted a drink badly. As is usual in such cases in the prohibited country, he went straight to a policeman and asked him where he could get a drink of “hard stuff.” The police officer, pointing, said : “You see that house over there with the red tin roof ?” “Yes,” answered the traveller eagerly. “Well,” that’s the only place you can’t get a drink in this burg.” « * * * The appointment of Captain W. W. . Stuart, practically as Lieutenant-Gov-ernor of the uninhabited and snowclad land of, the Ross Dependency is j set out in the following picturesque words in the N.Z. Gazette received last week:— 1 “In pursuance and exercise of the power and authority conferred upon Vme by His Majesty’s Order in Council under the British Settlements Act (Imperial), 1887, dated the 30th day of July, 1923, and all other powers me thereunto authorising, I, General Sir Charles Fergusson, Governor of the Ross Dependency, do hereby appoint William Wigmore Stuart, Esquire, as an officer of the Government of the said Dependency, with authority to do all things and take all steps necessary or expedient to safeguard, preserve, and cause to be observed within such Dependency His Majesty’s rights and sovereignty, and the laws and regulations in force in the same; and the better to enable him to carry jr out such duties do hereby • confer on J him in respect of such Dependency all the powers and , authorities which be exercised in New Zealand by a Stipendiary Magistrate, and also all the powers and authorities which may be - so exercised by a Justice of the Peace, but so, neverthless, that such powers shall in no way derogate from or limit his general executive and administrative authority in so preserving His Majesty’s rights and sovereignty and |jthe laws and regulations in force in ' such Dependency in the same manner, and with the same powers and authorities, as the previous executive and administrative authorities have in the Dominion of New Zealand for carrying out and enforcing the laws of such Dominion : To hold such office and exercise the duties thereof during ' pleasure.—As witness my this jfcllth day of Octdber, 1929. Charles JFergusson, Governor.” ' The duties of stipendiary magistrate should lie lightly on the broad shoulders of Captain Stuart, for he will have no traffic infringements, maintenance and debt cases, vagrants, or such things to deal with. What a happy land for some of our harassed magistrates! One wonders if Mr Hunt were placed in such a position in ’ what manner he could find an outlet for some of his humour.w v The boundaries of the Thames Valare somewhat imaginary and certainly elastic, it is true, but when Matamata in an effort to “boost” Matamata, Morrinsville, and Putaruru /district calls in Patetonga to add to a ■string of figures the imagination and ’elasticity are stretched to the limit. The Post Office and Public Wdrks Department list Patetonga as being in the Hauraki Plains County. That should be definite enough for anybody.