NEAR AND FAR

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 58, 30 October 1931, Page 2

NEAR AND FAR

I Justice — With Whiskers. Our, sculptors are never satisfied. They are always upsetting cherished ideas, states the Stratford Post. ,Ever sin'ee our tenderest years* most of us have thought of Justice in terms of a young lady, classieally draped in the fashion of the day when skirts swept the ground and the shingle was not. She is blindfolded against prejudice, but nevertheless she manages to maintain a set of scales at a preeise level. And' now Mr. C. S. Jagger, who gave us the Royal Artillery war memorial at Hyde Parlc Corner, has come along and blown all this to pieces. His notion of the personification of the modern Solomon is a rather dismal-looking gentleman, blindfolded 'tis true, but sporting a flowing moustache and a pair of very full-fledged Dundreary whiskers. America a Place of Contrasts. "America is a place of great contrasts. While walking along State street in Chicago I saw a police car, mounted with machine-guns dashing along. Around the next corner was an nnattended fruit barrow from which people bought goods, placed the tnoney in a box and took their change with no thonght of stealing. That showed how metxculous were the American people about small things but lax over more important matters," said Mr. Keith Falconer, Nevv Zealand delegate to the recent Y-M.C.A. woi-ld conferences in Toronto and Cleveland, who is at present in Christchurch. Seventy-one People in One House. Erriet Day, living at Guildford Rd., South Lambeth, when summoned at the South Western Police Court for not keeping his dog under control, told the magistrate that in an adjoining house 71 people lived, and the children, 50 of them there, tormented the dog by throwing things at it. A police ofixcer said the house was a fairly large one. "I should think so," said the magistrate, who dismissed the summons. Helpless Sea Birds. Number of seabirds have again been picked up on the British coast, helpless because of the heavy oil and tar on their wings- Only recently a big cormorant in this plight drifted on to the beach below BeacUy Head. Holi-day-makers tried to remove the stuff from its wings, one man tying its beak with a handkerchief while another did his best to cleanse it. But their efforts were of no avail, and. in the end it just drifted out to sea again, unable to rise. It wonld float like this until it died of starvation'. A Brighter London. A New Zealander who returned to Wellington last week had something to say of the way- in which London is being brightened. "I was riding on the top of a bus round St. John's Wood, and also walking along Mayfair," she said, "and I eouldn't help notieing all the houses — they had scarlet doors and window boxes, cobalt blue, pale blue and vivid orange, in fact, almost every colour. It dxd look so gay. And what a cheerful effect on everyorie! Nobody could possibly be dull or miserable who came out and went in a scarlet door every day. The window boxes also were filled with masses of flowers, each one outdoxng the other in frivolity." Wizardry hy Wireless-' Senatore Marconi, the famous inventor of wireless, will shortly conduct another wonderful experiment in long-distanee transmission of power by wireless. He announces that du'ring the night of October 15-16 he will operate a switch in his yacht Elettra which will light a bonfire at Rio de Janxero, about 5000 miles away. Senatore Marconi deelares that the electric impulses he will use will he the same as those he utilised in March, 1930, to switch on the lights of the exhibition held in Sydney, 9000 miles from Italy. Gramophone Love-Letters. Talking love letters are the latest fad of youths and girls in New York. For a shilling in the slot one xnay ehter a booth, speak xnto a microphone for a minute and a half, walk out with a gramophone record of the massage — ending many times with a sound like a kiss — and post it on the spot. For two shillings one may talk for twice as long, and for 4s for five minutes. Sure Cure. A bad form of gastric influenza is prvalent in Opotiki. A characteristic of the malady seems to be a depression of spirits. Various "old woman's" remedies are freely proffered, but the only cure that we can see is new clothes and a holiday. — Opotiki Herald. Prestige of Parish Retained. The difficulties confronting a city parish in its efforts to find the overdue stipend of the vicar, and the way he had arranged to meet his parishioners by personal sacrifice lent more than ordinary interest to proceedings of the last Auckland Anglican Synod. One way in which the standing committee of the diocese had sought to relieve the financial burden on the parish had been to reduce its status from a parish to a parochial district, thereby enahling a saving of £50 a year to be made in the vicar's salary. The proposal was stoutly resisted hy the parishioners, who have expressed the wish at all costs to retain the prestige associated with the standing of a parish. Whole Garden in a Show. Some people wish they had room for a garden. Some people make room. One of these unconquerable souls is Mr. J. J- Haley, a London post office overseer. ' At a post offiee flower show recently, while cert'axn competitors put in bunches or pots of flowers, Mr. Haley put in his whole garden. The garden is about 3ft. square and has a 9in. lawn. A goldfish swims ih a little pond, set amxd tiny living plants, which grow in the erannies of miniature rocks.4 Many Londoners, it is remarked, might enjoy the delight" of a garden if they were content with one small enough bo grow on a scullery table.