WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT THINGS IN GENERAL.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 238, 29 December 1916, Page 7 (Supplement)

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT THINGS IN GENERAL.

LOVE NEVER FAILETH. With brown kinds filled with sunkissed fruits and coin Conies golden Autumn through the naming glade, Bending the ruddy bracken's crisping fronds 'Neath gorgeous garments, sweeping where Spring played.

O mystery and might of power DivineSpring rises triumphing from Autumn's grave; Through Life, through Death, and into Life again 0 Heart love on, for Love the world skill save. W. B. J., in The Friend.

NOT YET ARRIVED! Dr. \V. H. Griffith Thomas sends to the " Spectator" this amusing story told by the United States correspondent of a Toronto paper: —"A party of convivial Germans —more or less hyphenated—met in a San Franscisco ■cafe severed weekp since to cheer on, the Kaiser in his work of regenerating Europe. When the festivities were at their height and the Imperial War Lord's health had been quaffed in oceans of Rhenish and Iflger, it seemed a graceful act to mark the occasion hv a message of encouragement to the Crown Prince, which was accordingly despatched to Verdun. France : '(Jo on. Fritz. "We are all with you.' Signed by the chairman on behalf of the guests. Tn due course it came back to the senderj with this significant line across the corner: 'Pas encore arrive a Verdun.' "

DEMOSTHENES AND VEXIZELOS. Comparing the tasks and tiiws of Venizclos an<] Domosthonos, Mr. W. L. G'ourteney, in the October "FortnightMv'' says:

"Demosthenes' orations exhibit the almost desperate efforts of ** man to strike some spark out of dead matter—to urge, exhort, goad, upbraid, en-

treat, or shame passivity into fcom« semblance of life. Venizdos has much the same task, for his lot, too, Iras fallen on unhappy times. To be a Greek citizen in the modem era. is to be conscious of great humiliations. "There has been no one quite like him in the Near East in his grasp of actual and possible conditions, and his far-sighted glance into the future •- certainly no politician in Athens who has a tithe of his ability . . . The circumstances of the time have thrown up a statesman who scorns formed in the 'ancient mould of an Aristides, a Pericles, i Demosthenes."

CANADIAN COLOURS ON WOLFE'S TOMB. An intojesting ceremony attracted many soldiers and civilians to Westminster Abbey last week. A contingent of the 116 th Battalion of the Canadian Light Infantry arrived at Waterloo from Brnmshott, and, headed by the regimental band, marched over Westminster Bridge to the Abbey, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel Sam Sharpe. The last four men carried the rogi. mental colours and flag, which, after a short service, were deposited in the clhukvl of the Abbey, but will subsequently \h' placed on General Wolfe's tomb.

Tn receiving tic colours. Bishop Ryle said the battalion bad deposited in the Church's keeping the flag of their own and their country's honour; and in tliVir keeping-- sons of the great Dominion of Canada—wax deposited a noble share in the honourable task of preserving and vindicating the great Empire of Britain and of its dominions.

OCR DEBT TO THE WRIGHT BROTHERS. "With nnexiunpled generosity Afr Orvillc Wright, who, with liis lirother Wulbur, now d(-:xl, invented the midem aeropkne. and his representatives in this country hnve presented their

■ ''uible living patents to the British nation.

'Eailic;- in the war the Government paid a trifling t'l">,000 to cover royallies undei tb > Wright patents For our war aeroplanes. Next March the original patent elapses. Mr. Wright will not renew it, and every British maker will bo free of royalty.

"The Wright Brothers, of Dayton, Ohio, always 'looked on England, the home of their ancestry, as the most favoured nation.' They gave her the first offer of their great secret, and even when Lord Haldane showed them the door they did not forget their affection, it rests with the British GovJrenment now to manifest in worthy fashion the graitude of his country. And may we hope that our great universities will seize the chance to confer their honours on the splendid inventor?" says the "Mail."

TOMMY'S DILEMMA. Sir J. H. A. Macdonald describes n, visit to "Somewhere in France" ;\nd back:

"At every turn the temporary Anglicising of the country was manifest. First on one side of the road would be seen a vigorous football match, then on the other side a little farther down a game of cricket, and, tost of all, at the sain.? place, an individual corning down the road clothed only—if clothed it could be calledI—in 1 —in the shortest of running tights and track shoes, ready for a foot race. Nothing could be more comical than his evident hesitation 'whether lie should salute or not in passing, seeing that his sparse clothing could not be classed as uniform. Wisely, and probably correctly, he looked the other way; his air of bewilderment made one laugh."'

HOW TO MAKE THE PIANO SING. "What is tli'j most elusive and diiiix nit tiling to tench, and yet at the same time the mots necessary of all the powers whi'-h a pianist must acquire to he successful in his art?" asks Mark Hamhoui-r jn the "Strand Magazine.'' "Is it not surely the power to product «i tine nelile tone from his instrument ?

"The study (if tunc on tin l pianoforte in all its infinite varieties of loudness and softness, of roundness, of purity, ' f abruptness, ol sensuousness. is n.i intricate and absorbing as anything in the world el' mu.sical technique. For it eembine> within its,'lf not only the highest technical attainment, but also much that properly belongs to the province of interpretation and inspiration.

"I can think of no more fitting conclusion to an article on beauty of tone than to refer to Anton Rubinstein's attitude towards this quesion. For that

master of touch, who was undoubtedly tho greatest exponent of 'how to sing <n: the piano' who ever lived, used always to tell his pupils that he had acquired his knowledge from listening to ;he singing of the great tenor Rubini. "He happened to hear Rubini sing one day, and was so impressed by the ■•vonderful quality of his sound-produc-tion that ever afterwards his ideal remained to reproduce something of the tcno of Kubinis' voice upon his piano ' :

WOMEN DOCTORS. -The ceremony in Hunter Street, Brunswick Square, -when the Queen opened the extension of the London School or Medicine tor 'Women, sets a final seal on a movement wnieh is one of the most interesting and important <;i our time," says the Telegraph "The school itself was founded in 1874, rebuilt in 1900, and when a new building was required for the increasing needs of the students the Council, was a just confidence in the virtue of its cause, appealed to the public for £30,000. "The Jirst half of that sum was speedily forthcoming, and when there appeared some difficulty in obtaining the remainder a letter, published last year, over the signatures of Mr. Asquith. Mr. Balfour, and Lord Ourzon, mot with so effective a response that the second £lo,ooo-was almost immediately subscribed.

"To-day, the school, admirably equipped with chemical, physical, and biological laboratories, with lecture rooms and facilities for research and experimental work of all kinds—much of which the Queen inspected—is one r.f the largest and most efficient schools in the metropolis. It is new possible to give a complete course —five years—of medical instruction to 4o students. Ninety now students can be admitted every venr.''