THE TERRIBLE WORLD WE LIVE IN

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 171, 12 March 1932, Page 4

THE TERRIBLE WORLD WE LIVE IN

— E.G.

.W.

Being the brief impressions of the Vla'n in the Street on current affairs . i ;-.s i : Interviewed immediately after having paid his unemployment levy, the Man in the Street was fnelined to be gloomy. ' ' Nowadays, he said, when a man had paid his wages tax, his unemployment levy, and bought his art union ticket, he was almost afraid to go home and face his wife, let alone his mother-in-law. — He did not imply that he was ever anything else but reluctant to face his mother-in-law, but in his present condition he was even more so. Without desiring to dwell upon a painful subject, he thought that if the Government would apply compulsory conciliation and volnntary arbitfation to mothers-in-law, it would do something to eompensate for its existence, although personally he had very grave doubts whether anything less than a battle cruiser would compulsorily conciliate his own dearly beloved relative. So far as the voluntary arbitration was concerned, he also had his doubts. His own experience had been that his mother-in-law did the arbitrating while he merely listened. * * * Events in the world generally seemed to him to be almost as disquieting as his own financial position. The Chinese and Japanese seemed to have made up their minds not to settle their differences, although what these differences were he was unable to determine. Personally, he could not tell a Japanese from a Chinese except that a Chinese took in washing 1 and a Japanese took you in without the°washing. * :l: :I: He had been very pleased to hear of Miss Maud Royden's scheme to raise a peace army to act as sandbags hetween the combatants, and he had done his best to persuade his mother-in-law to join. It was, -of course, ludicrous to expect her to join a peace army, but anything was worth trying once. * ❖ ❖ Then in the land of Bars and Tripes, some dastardly individual had pinehed a hahy, while here at home, the Government was trying to make ns carry one. So far as his own ex-

- " !»—■■■■■■ » ■"r ■WW1 - MWIWWn.PI. perience went, he thought that a man in his right mind who pinehed a baby deserved all he got. Personally, he had got one without pinching it and he was quite sure that he had. got more than he deserved. If this American baby was anything like a lot of the babies he knew, instead of demanding a ransom, the kidnappers would undoubtedly end by paying its parents to take it back. * * * He was glad to see that already, according to various authorities, England had turned the corner. Last Saturday night he had appreciated the difficulty in turning corners himself, in fact a policeman had spoken to him about it, and he was very glad to learn that England, at least, had managed it successfully. He did not know anything about this gold standard talk, but if it had anything to do with gold-diggers, he could not advise them too strongly to leave it alone. He had noticed a good- deal of talk about cancelling wai' debts and thought this a very good idea, although he failed'to see why war debts should be the only ones mentioned. He expected to hear about some of his own next Magistrate's Court day, but so. far he had not received a great deal of sympathy whc-n he talked about cancelling them. ❖ D ealing with problems nearer home (but not too near home, on account of the wife), he said that as he d'd not own a gun he could not properly express his opinion of the Government. As he was not a politician he would not say anything about the exchange pool because he did not understand it, although so far as he could see, it would be more likely Kelly pool when a man came to tot up his losses. He agreed that the primary producer was the hackbone ~ of the country and thought that the politicians were probably the bone without the hack. * :f: * He preferred not to comment upon the attitude of the banks until he know what the manager was going to do about his overdraft, and he thought the economy commission was a good thing so long as it left hizn alone. He noticed that Mr. Coates intended to put a lot of men over the fence, but he did not think that because Mr. Forbes had started this sort of thing, everybody else should have to follow suit. He would have some eriticism to make regarding income tax when he found the income to tax; in the meantime, it was nearly six o'clock, and in this sort of weather it took more than one swallow to make summer worth living.