UNSEASONABLE.

Putaruru Press, Volume IV, Issue 133, 20 May 1926, Page 5

UNSEASONABLE.

ANZAC SERVICES. Riding Moralising Hobbies. Everyone, no doubt, has heard the story of the woman who advertised her husband’s 'death in this way:— On January 1, John, beloved husband of May . Deeply .regretted. His widow will carry on w the plumbing business at the old ad- * dress.” I have always maintained that, this story is a lie. The incongruous has its limits, I thought, not to be ' overpassed by the freakish, the fanatical, or the humourless. But now I am not so sure. For one of the reports of what everyone says was a very eloquent address by Mr. Isitt at the Anzac Day service last Sunday contains this notable passage:— There 'should be glorification of moral welfare. Sentiment was utterly worthless unless action accompanied it, continued Mr. Isitt. All should strive to live better lives and to make the world a happier place. Drink was a errible curse in this country. A voice: I’m for that. All might not be Prohibitionsits, continued Mr. Isitt. “ Hear, hear,” came a voice. The Mayor called for order. Mr. Isitt dwelt upon the curses of drink and gambling. Any time, Mr. Isitt would say, is a good time* for a blow at the Demon Rum, and that old writer who maintained that there was a season for every thing walked in darkness. He was right so far as his light would, allow, but he lived centuries before .Mr. Pussyfoot Johnson came to give America a twelfth commandment in the shape of the Eighteenth Amendment. There is this, however, to be said in excuse of Mr. Isitt: for many 7*ears, when he has been facing a crowd, the topic has been Rum, and » seeing a crowd before him on Anzac * Day he momentarily fell a. victim to

habit. And so, too, for the matter of that, did the Mayor. Yet I hope that if, in future, Anzac Day addresses are to be made the vehicle of private fads, those responsible for arranging the ceremonies will call for tenders. There are so many “ terrible curses ’’—from the well-shrimp to the unreformed electoral law—and so many earnest earnest Leagues combating them that the competition should be brisk, and brisk competition means money. ” K,” in Christchurch Press.