This World of Ours

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 37, 24 February 1939, Page 2

This World of Ours

6y

JOHN

GUTHRIE

FRANCE ’S "Little Hitler’’ is the mayor of Crosnes, a, village just outside Paris. He has issued a decree forbidding dogs of his. commune to bark between hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m, A PLUTOCRAT knocked at the door of heaven; St. Peter inquired name and address, but drew a blank against that entry. "‘Do you reeall any action of grace, ever so small, that might

have been overlooked: here??’.. asked he. . "Yes. Once I gave a penny to a blind beggar.’’ Said St. Peter, fumbling in his robes: ‘‘Here’s tuppence-go-to Hell.’’ Popular Sports ITH the exception of cricket, Japanese took part in the same sports as New Zealanders, says @_ visiting Japanese, baseball, ski-ing, skating and sea-fishing all being popular in season.News item.

Interviewed for this page, a well-known Oriental said, with an inserutable laugh, that good sport is also had in apologising and working up expressions of regret for various little incidents such as dropping bombs on British ships, smacking missionary ladies in the face and Scattering a few machine-gun bullets on American gunboats, but this sport ean be had all the year round. Alas, Poor Phar Lap j READ that the skeleton of Phar Lap is now on exhibition in the Dominion Museum at Wellington, writes Artist Cousin Hobnail. Please publish the enclosed letter. ‘""The horse has’ long been ealled the friend of man,’’ writes Artist Cousin Hobnail, ‘‘but is man the friend of the

horse? The answer would appear to be in the negative. Here was a fine, noble animal, a picture of grace and strength, with something in his bearing, spirit and demeanour that made him an object almost of reverence. It now appears that we have set up his bones as a monument to his memory. If you know of anything funnier and less conducive to respect than a skeleton,’’ says Artist Cousin Hobnail, ‘‘lead me to it. I like a laugh. ‘" Alas, this fine, noble animal has been made a clumsy mock of. He has been set up for people to say, like little Red

Riding Hood, ‘What large hips you had, Phar Lap!’ ‘What long teeth you had, Phar Lap!’ and ‘What tremendous ribs you had, Phar Lap!’ ‘*What lover,’’ cries Hobnail, ‘‘eould worship at the shrine of his mistress’s bones? ~*What descendant of a long line of notable ancestors could take. his guests round a gallery of skeletons with pride and say, ‘Here is my forefather, Sir William. He fell at Crecy. Observe that noble tibia. This dainty little bone-study is my aneestress, Isobel Flighty, the toast of the Regeney Bucks. Regard the exquisite conformation of her knee-joints. Here is the noble framework of greatgrandfather Tobias, the famous Victorian preacher. I see the wire in his backbone is rather rusty. ""From some far-off Elysian field,’’ writes Artist Cousin Hobnail, "‘I seem to catch a long derisive neigh. -I seem to hear a noble horse telling the souls of infant foals as yet unborn: ‘There’s only one race I am glad to have lost, my children. Tt is called the Human Race... .° 7? . & Offside [V4CCcOUN TABLE behaviour of the Government in ignor- * ing the claims to public worship of the All Blacks during the Physical Fitness Week campaign has caused much headshaking in well-informed quarters. , ‘We take it as a deliberate slight,’’ said ‘a well-known fiveeighths, ‘‘on the whole of the profession. Lots of the boys, I don’t mind telling you, are already considering turning over to League, and the possibility is that ‘by next winter there will be no Rugby games for the public to see at all, and we'd like to see the Government that could carry on in office in a,

the face of a national calamit; like that,’’ said this chap men. acingly. *"There was some talk once of haying an All Black in the pageant of Youth and Health sitting on a throne drawn by Fitness Girls .strewing roses in front of him and "burning incense as they went, but that idea seems to have lapsed. There’s still time to do something, however. We are strongly recommending that the P.M. should lay a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Genius who first devised the idea of the wing-forward, and. if this isn’t agreed to,’’? said this chap grimly, ‘‘there may be trouble. All-we want is a gesture."’