CASUAL COMMENT.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 5 August 1920, Page 3

CASUAL COMMENT.

[By Recount.]

Six years ago this week the world woke up to the fact that it was time to be up and doing, and , great was the excitement and speculation as to what would happen to France and Belgium in particular, and the world in general, when the hateful Hun had had his say. Here in New Zealand those first few days were wonderful ones in many ways, especially for the young fellows eager to go forth and fight. It was what thousands had been dreaming of since schooldays, and when the opportunity came to seek adventure, the minor details of work, or what team vmuld win the next Saturday's match, were cast into the discard. r - Well all who wanted adventure |^^nd life with a capital L got it •gsod and plenty, and for many a good chap it was the last Great But those who are left to think about it all—older and perhaps wiser—retain the memories of having lived in stirring times and sharing in great achievements.

With the Kaipara train service what it is—and isn't —stories to the detriment of the line are inevitable. The Railway Department could certainly give this town and district more consideration in small matters. When the English and New Zealand league teams played at Auckland on Saturday last, the late train for Pukekohe and further south was delayed to enable visitors to the match reaching home the same night. The HelensTille train could also have been delayed for an hour at anyrate, but apparently the Department did not think it necessary. No doubt Helensville people are also backward in not asking for the train to be delayed. A local Chamber of Commerce would be in a position to attend to matters such as this.

Another matter which the local railway officials could attend to is the placing of a light in the Helensville South station. The last few pitch-black nights have proved the need of this, and several travellers off the 6.30 p.m. train have walked into everything but the gate in coming off the platform—or what serves as a platform.

"The line of least resistance" was faithfully followed in most of the early settlements in New Zealand, and in this respect Helensville is no exception to the rule. The result locally was not very satisfactory, and modern town planners would be at a loss to know what to do with the town. Commercial Road is a serpentine switchback, with shops and dwellings perched haphazardly. Improvements will gradually come, and the big hollows might be filled up some day There is a project on foot to widen the street opposite the Lyric Theatre by taking a fence back about lift. Old settlers allege that the buildings fronting the street in the vicinity are not on the proper boundary, but are built on the street. On the other hand, it is stated that theorginal plans of the town fail to define any width at all for the street !

Down in Dunedin they have made a start with the servant problem. The solution of the problem, or what they hope will prove to be a solution of the problem, is called the Cooked Food Company, which has most of Dunedin's most prominent ladies on the provisional directorate. They have opened a shop in the city, and the scheme is to send out by motor cooked meals and prepared dinners, to order, at 1/6 a head. The idea is not to provide cheap food, but to make it possible for women of education jto get away from the routine of gj^ the daily meals and the constant tie to the kitchen. At present they are only supplying the midday meal, but if that pans out all right the service will be ex tended. t t t Some people are really too good to live. A vast amount of nonsense has been talked and written about the demoralising effect of the movies upon the juvenile mind, but as an example of what. might be called morality gone mad the action of certain city councillors at Gisborne is hard to beat (says N. Z. Free Lance.) The civic Solons in question argued in favour of a taboo being placed upon all movies in which the famous Mary Pickford appears, on the ground, forsooth, that it "was a mistake to train the children to look upon" the golden-locked American film

actress, "in view of the press reports of her private life." But what has Miss Pickford's private lite, and the reports—often, we suspect, grossly garbled by the American yellow press, and which should never have been cabled to New Zealand—to do with her acting in plays which convey an unimpeachable moral ? As to the children reading these sensational reports it is the duty of any parent who exercises a wise control over her children's reading to keep divorce reports out of their way. And, in any case, Mary Pickford is not the only film actress who has figured in the divorce couits, either to her discredit or through sheer misfortune. There is a certain class of jaundiced-eyed people who see evil where no evil exists, and the SmeJlfungus tribe should not be encouraged. To its credit the Gisborne Mayor mildly snubbed the local goody-goodies by remarking that if the people objected they could prevent their children going to the pictures, and the "incident thereupon closed." It should never have been opened.