RANDOM REMARKS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 647, 28 February 1914, Page 6

RANDOM REMARKS.

By Onlooker.

An interesting fact in connection with such a well-known and highly eßteeraed town as Te Awamutu is that it intends drawing its water from Pirongia mountain. a distance of Beventeen miles. Te Awamutu has always been famed for its liquor, and apparently the city fathers are determined that the lustre of that reputation shall in no wise be d<mmed. It will be interesting to note if the water supply from the wooded slopes of towering Pirong a will prove an additional attraction to King Country visitors. In bygone days nobody cared whence Te Awamutu drew Itß water supply as long as its other liquids kept up to the mark. However, one has to be careful about writing of Te Awamutu liquids; there is a danger of being charged with soliciting orders within a proclaimed area.

Tennis, as was only to be expected, has had rather a bad run in Te Kuiti_ this year, and cricket is duwn and out altogether. This was onlv to be expected when it came to a contest for popularity with the noble game of bowls. Reference has previously been made to the high tradition and hallowed associations which linger round the very name of bowls. It would therefore be a needless repetition of painting the lily to enlarge further on the subject. However, the tradition associated with the game is becoming so very high that suspicion is bound to be aroused unless a brand now lie can be invented. Originally the game was played in the stone age with the skulls of the enemy Blain in battle. The skulls used in the modern game are supposed to be alive. But frequently one has doubts. It should be noted that skulls are not required in tennis.

Dommesticity is a general term covering an immense field. Fortunately there is a common acceptation for general terms, and we are thus enabled to arrive at an accepted meaning for most things. Strange tricks would be played by the English language were this otherwise, so appar ently we are indebted to man's adaptability and amiability for more than appears on the surface. But to get back to domesticity. It is a term beloved of man in his melting moments. To possess the virtue %aguelv conveyed by the word is the crown and glory of womanhood, while non possession of the attribute may be regarded as a calamity. This is probably the man's view. What the feminine mind might regard as calamity woold perhaps be something altogether different. Being Scotch and cautious I decline to speculate further on the woman's attitude towardß the subject, and will continue the dissertation from the mere masculine viewpoint.

Personally, domesticity always carries the suggestion of something feline. Visions of a purring, con tented tabby, making Itself comfortable on the domestic hearth will aiise and obscure the larger meaning of the term. This is doubtless due to a limited imagination and a colonial training, and should be forgiven accordingly. The domestic woman has not been boomed in song and story; even the susceptible spring poet has npglected her, while history is curiously neglectful in sounding her praises, or even in recording her virtues. We all love the girl who dances and laughs; playo tenniß and smiles, while we adore the one who pretends a sweet and almost intelligent interest in bowls. But we yearn with an ineffable longing for the girl who possesses the domestic virtues. That is, when we begin to get old. She stands the perfect embodiment of womanhood, supreme and unapproachable, on a pedestal which is not mancreated, but was fashioned by nature at the beginning of things, and was intended for the accommodation of the whole sex. Unfortunately a mystery as deep and enshrouding as that which surrounds the British constitution attaches to the definition of domestic virtues. The task of defining a main road has beaten the combined intelligence of the local bodies and the Minister of Public Works, and that problem is simple compared with the setting in plain language the factors which constitute the virtues of domesticity Perhaps some well meaning reader desirous of doing a great work will draw the veil, and particularise sufficient details to establish a definite Btandard.