THE PASSING SHOW

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21206, 31 August 1940, Page 11 (Supplement)

THE PASSING SHOW

♦ we ’ re having a conference to stabilise wages, costs and prices, is there any chance of a conference to cauterise taxation?—or even halferise it. * * * * Hats off to the Auckland “trammies” for a rare band of triers. * * * * A copy of Rolf Boldrewood’s Australian bushranger story, “Robbery Under Arms,” fetched £145 at Christie’s, a record for a first edition of the book. It’s so up to the minute. * * * * Best mot on Italian intervention is by Walter Winchell, the American columnist. “Italy,” he says, “shaped like a boot, is behaving like a heel.” The Dictionary of American Slang defines a heel as “a person who informs against another or betrays him; a petty thief; a sneak thief.” * * * 0 “France does not expect salvation from Britain. France expects herself to achieve a re-birth.”—M. Baudouin. “Some fell on stony ground.” Does M. Baudouin hope that the Nazis will care foi'#the frail seed of France’s new life, nourish it with the good earth they plundered at such cost, water it with the kindly rain of sympathy and neighbourliness, and generally tend it till it grows big enough to shake off the German parasite? * * * * Ruin and destruction walk with the Nazis. They have plundered inoffensive countries, robbed the people of their food, razed buildings and spread horror. Fire is their handmaiden. They have taken the lives of brave men who fight only for the right. All these crimes are charged against them. Yet one crime is greater than ail, concerning which it was said, “It is better for him that a millstone be hung about his neck and he be cast into the sea.” They are killing little children. • » • i A remark by an R.S.A. official at Whakatane on the subject of the Home Guard could start a hot argument. He said: “Physical training might be required as a preliminary in the cities, but in farming districts it should not be necessary.” The picture such a remark summons up, that of a six-foot husky whom Hitler would quail *to meet, is the common conception of the man on the land. Yet “Free Lance,” for one, is not prepared to accept the superiority as a physical specimen of the country man over the town. He knows many strong men on farms and many weak ones too; many who contribute to the weight of the scrum, but many who stand on the side-line because of flat feet. Your good physical specimen is the man with organs functioning smoothly in coordination with brain and nervous system. Harmony, in short, is the perfection of physique. Granted that the country life has the natural advantage, the town man, if he looks after himself, can more nearly approach the Greek standard. But that argument is not so important as the change in the nature of physical training in the military world, which aims to show that the man who makes a of carrying 2001 b on his back is not necessarily the one to stand up best to warfare. The aim of all exercises on the physical training card today is relaxation. They can no longer be called “jerks.” The loosening as well as the toning of the muscles, suppleness as well as strength, is the aim. So the man from the farm may be even more in need of physical training than his town cousin.

COMMENT AND CRITICISM

(By “Free Lance.”)

“The police are genuinely interested in the welfare of the people.”—Commissioner D. J. Cummings. Bill the Burglar says he’s quite well, thanks, without the police butting in. * * * * A proposal put before the Dunedin Presbytery was that soldiers should be educated in the history and principles of democracy. We understood they had already taken such a course and were on their way to impart their views to their little Nazi pupils. * • » • A conference of natural scientists, philosophers and religious leaders will be held in New York on September 9, 10 and 11. They believe that the departmentalisation of thought in democratic societies has been in part responsible for the weakness ot democracy in the face of totalitarianism. They hope to reach a mutual understanding, and if possible to formulate the basis on which they may co-operate for the preservation of democratic ideals. We can hardly wait for September 0, 10 and 11. • • • • The piano salesman knocked on the door. A husky fellow answered. “Good morning,” chirped the salesman. "Would you be interested in buying a baby grand piano?” “Where is it?” The salesman smiled. “My dear man,” he said, “you didn’t expect me to carry a piano with me, did you?” The other scowled. “That’s the trouble with you white collar fellows,” he bellowed. “You think you’re too good to do a little manual lab-our.”—Tit-Bits. • * • • People seem to be taking to heart the judicious combination of warning and appeal published in the Waikato Times on the subject of the daffodils at Hamilton Lake—a lovely sight only now approaching its best. In last Sunday’s glorious sunshine the blooms were not "fluttering and dancing in the breeze,” mainly because there was no breeze; but all the same “a poet could not but be gay in such a jocund company.” “Free Lance” saw lips muttering and brows furrowed as amateurs tried to beat Wordsworth at his own game. Plenty of words could be found to rhyme with daffodils, though pills, ills and chills were as inappropriate as kills, bills and Brazil’s. As Wordsworth made no mention of people getting away with the blooms, it could be presumed that in his day the daffodils were public property. Not so in Hamilton, and the poets, determined to prove their indignation at the low-class practice of robbing the Domain Board, were heard frenziedly composing ballads which referred to vandals dressed in sandals having too many handles and should be made to eat candles. A wholesome respect for the by-laws was apparent on all sides. “Auntie Kath, look at this one,” piped a small voice aa its little owner bent to touch a daffodil. “Don’t pick that, for Heaven’s sake,” said the lady in question. “It’ll cost me a fiver if you do.” The benefit of the doubt was generously given two girls on another day by a Hamilton doctor who saw them not far from where the daffodils are, each with a huge armful of blooms. Be careful, girls. Better still, be sensible and leave die flowers alone.