THE WEEK, THE WORLD AND WELLINGTON.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9189, 11 September 1908, Page 7

THE WEEK, THE WORLD AND WELLINGTON.

(By Frank Morton.)

Louis Bkokjs.—Tjik Hockey Girls.— The Old Squabble. Hotels. Louis Bectfe has arrived in Australia on his way to the Solomons, where he intends to dig for fresh material. That is very sensible of Louis Becke, ■because of late the excellent old material has been wearing a little thin in patches. Becke still knows his Pacific, but it is the Pacific of thirty years ago, frilled with romance and the enchantment of distance. Before he went to England many years ago, he told me that he .should for ever abandon literature, if he could only make soap-boiling pay. I'm very glad that the art of soaphoiling did not enthral him; for the books of Becke are always very pleasant and stimulating, and it ia well that he should go on writing then}. I like my realism touched ideal, and Becke'a pleasant little stories have always pleased me. The town has been full of visiting hockey girls during the past few days. They are bonny girls and cheery girls, a credit to their folks and to the country. I have not seen them play, because athletics don't appeal to me; but I'm open to accepWany man's assurance that the very well. Also, they are full of fun and frolic. So full at times, indeed, that the censorious prude who ia for ever abroad in the land has shaken her head with an air of grim significance. One such lady got the ear of the "New Zealand Times" the other night, and told a feanome story of tbe "rowdy" behaviour of hockey girla in the Day's Bay boat. On investigation, it proves that the girla were merely merry and gay, harming no one and taking no harm themselves. This the "Times" has explained. But in the meantime, Dr. Izard, who is chief medical adviser or something to the hockey-girls in general, has worked himself up to a frightful pother of indignation. He says that no future hockey fixtures shall be adadvertised in the "Times." Did ever indignation blossom to a more ludicrous conclusion! It is a queer thing to see a man like Dr. Izard stoop to a threat of that sort; since Dr. Izard has been regaided as a man of intelligence sufficient to enable him to understand that modern newspapers of good repute are not to be bought by twopenny advertisements. / Once again is the leading Wellington newspapers assailed by persons Kvho desire to express their opinion •on women's frocka and haberdasher* ies. This subject crops up periodically, like anti vaccination and the -theory of sunspots. The latest batch of correspondents merely carry on tho convention, saying nothing new. Necessarily; / one correspondent f'Horao," this time) comes in with a sour grin to point put that the women of Wellington are the worst dressed in the Dominion. This is, I vthink, about true; but why worry? Tne Christchurch women dress best, because they have really nothing else on earth to do. The Dunedin women •come iitxt, a long way behind. I never heard the women are what you call bonny and braw. But the Wellington women only succeed in dressing expensively. She has an awful eye for colours; she almost invariably ; set-les on the style that suits her worst; and her costumes and arrangements have no redeeming quality of distinction. But why should people write to the newspapers to point out ■ unpleasant truths like that? It would be an excellent thing, I ■think, if inns (using the word in the good old sense), were not allowed to ■do any bar trade; not allowed, I mean, to serve but their guests and •their guests' guests. What you call a good bar trade is a great destoyer •of comfort in your inn. When mine host depends for his chief profit on the guzzling crowds that come like swine to the trough, be has little time' or inclination to care for the 'comfort and well-being of his guests. A house of entertainment •should not be permitted to deteriorate into a house of swill. If inns were permitted no casual bar-trade, the .■class of inn-keepers would greatly improve, and the travelling public would be assured of decent comfort. Fynes Moryson, in his "Itinerary,",, 'gives a delightful picture of • the inns of his time. "As soone •as a passenger comes to an inne, the servants tun to him, and one takes his horse and walks him about till he cools, then rubs him •oown, and gives him meat; another ■servant gives the passenger his private chamber and kindles his fire; rthe third pulls off his boots, and makes them cleane; then the host •and hostess visit him, and if he will «aT"wttfr'"the huste or at a common 'table-with tbe others, his meale will /jost(Am sixpence, or in some places •lourpence; but if be will eat in his -chamber, he commands what meat he will, according to his appetite; yea, the kitchen is open to him to order his meate to be dressed as he likes beste. After having eaten what he pleases, he may with credit set by a part for next day's breakfast. His bill will then be written for him, and should he object to any charge the host is ready lo alter it." We don't find inns like that now. 'Our houses of entertainment have lost the excellent quality of homeliness. We are no longer guests, but numbers in a book. Phyllis, no longer very neat of hand, belongs to a union and sniffs at our timid requests for attention. At the table things are not always what they seem. The tired man wants an inn without a bar, but an inn that still does not smell of the boardinghouse. Is it asking too much? I suppose go. '