PASSING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Volume 11, Issue 2280, 11 November 1897, Page 3

PASSING NOTES.

(From Saturday's Daily Times.)

We have at this moment a prophet among 88, the burden of whose message is " The Approaching Great Tribulation," and speedy wind up of all things terrestrial. ls Ktiaveor 'fool 1 " — asks the public, on the assumption . that third possibility there is none. lam not sure that the assumption is sound. "Fool" is not exactly the word for a religious enthusiast, however preposterous his beliefs ; otherwise Gordon of Khartoum was a fool, which is a thing I could by no means bring myself to say. In the present case the prophet pays for advertisement?, has hired a hall, offers " free admission," and is silent oto the subject of a collection. If aknave, he is an unusually deep one ; if not a knave, does it necei sarily follow that he is a fool t I can't think so. Long observation has convinced me tbat a religious fanatic may possess a judgment as sound as a bell on all subjects outside of religion. The people in Christchuroh who put their money into Mr Worthington's Temple of Truth were other"wise quite cempos mentis; in like manner Theosophists, Spiritists, esoteric Buddhists, end-of-the-worldists are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves on all questions of eating and diinking, baying and selling, marrying and giving in marriage. Mr Seddon might have been a Mormon bishop ; we have the fact on his own testimony. It was at one time a toss-up with him between Salt Lake and New Zealand. If he had gone to Salt Lake — as two of his schoolmates did, and became bishops — the same qualities which have made him Premier of New

Zealand would bave .made him head-man amongst the Mormons. And yet Mr Seddon is no fool. ' Let us therefore be charitable. In religious beliefs what is one man's meat is another man's poison, what to, you is quintessential truth may be to ma outrageous absurdity. A curious fact, but fact it iB.

This, I suppose, is the reason that it is not difficult to start a new religion. A man may be as mad &s. a hatter on religious subjects

J without bringing any imputation on bi3 i general sanity. The Eoglish papers report jjn attempt to sell by auction the •' Tower of J>z r eel," near Chatham,' the most extraordinary monument of human folly, I should Bay, since the Tower of "Babel. The Tbwer of Jtzreel- was erected at the cost of Lldo,ooo by the followers of "James Jeri shorn Jtzreel," originally James White, a private in tho 16 f h Regiment of Foot, who norns 20 years ago published the " Flying Roll" — a new prophetic B-ble — and instituted a new religion. The Jezreeiites observed the law of Moses, let their hair grow long, and announced that they would ! never die. Of course refutation was easy ; j only time being needed. The prophet him- j self in due course went the way of all flesh ; : his wife, " Queen Esther," followed him ; j and now their Tower has come to the i hammer and been "passed ia," nobody j wanting to buy. "Jezreel was not clever," says a newspaper critic, "or he would never bave asserted that his adherents would not die. He might, bave made a»y number of , assertions affecting the future of their souls, but when he came to make promises about their bodies which events subsequently disproved he gave himself completely away." That is to say, he was more fool than knave. Yet not so very much a fool after all, since he had the handling of £140,000, contributed by his dupes. To build a tower wilh it was doubtless the act of a fool ; en the other band, he probably contrived, like other spiritual potentates, to exist very comfortably on the general proceeds of faith and devotion. As for his followers, there is no reason to suppose that they were not, in all other relations of life, cane and sober-mmded citizens — quite as much (jo as our Theosophists, British Israelites, Spiritists, faith -healers, end-of-the-worldist«, and the like. These all are cases in which the alternative " knaves or fools 1 " seems inadequate. Some third term is wanted, distinct from either, and not merely a betwixt and between.

The appetite of Ministers for good things on syndicates and the like is justified by Mr Seddon on the general ground that life is short. Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we rii-3. To the Seddon following in caucu3 assembled, or to the bulk of them, this sentiment seems to have commended itself as eminently reasonable. Said the Chief :" I shall not always be a Minister " (which is a merciful admission). "Why shouldn't I grab while grab I can 1" — or words to that effect". A miserable minority of four demurring to this view of political ethics have since been expelled as traitors. And such undoubtedly they are. Object to Ministers getting on to syndicates 1 Why, Seddonism is itgelf a syndicate; — its object, the exploiting of New Zealand for the soTtesbehoof and benefit of politicians of the right colour ; its members, all who swear by Seddon as Managing Director, back him up by their votes, and are content to look for their own pickings in the crumbs that fall from ths great man's table. These be the principles of Seddonism. Seddon and syndicate are correlative terms ; the one implies the other. When, therefore, a Seddonite, socalled.imaginesanincongruityin Mr Seddon's being on a syndicate, he falLs into deadly heresy and must be cut off from the body of the faithful. We may expect as the result of recent discussions not less Ministerial syndicating but more. " I shall not always be a Minister," said Mr Seddon, in a pathetic tone of grievance. All the more reason for activity whilst the chance endures. In future nothing need surprise us. He knoweth that his time is short.

A few weeks ago I discussed the question as to whether member or constituents conferred the favour when a member was returned. Upon further reflection lam now convinced that the constituents are the persons who ought to be congratulated, and I am surprised that I did not recognise this at once. I know 'a man -who once wore the habiliments of a legislator, bat has now regained his former humble state. And indeed he is rather proud of his lowly condition, and boasts that he is almost the only one extant who has come through a course of politics unscathed. All the other cast-off legislators are either dead or have become vegetables — sponges most likely. And here I might imitate .the example of Sterne, and branch off discursively into a consideration of the fate of castoff legislators as he did in "Tristram Shandy" when he gave the world that memorable chapter on buttons. My friend's experience is that the game isn't worth the candlo. The member at once becomes a mark for the subscription-hunter. Promoter* of every kind of entertainment con1 fluently rely on him for financial help. He

must become patron of all the football or cricket clubs. He ia saddled with the responsibility of heading the subscription list in every case of distress. And whattcan the poor man do 1 If he is asked by an influential supporter a reproachful glance is sufficient to bring him to a sense of his duty in the matter. The constituency bave bought him, bedy and sou l , and paid for him too, and not unnaturally think they ara entitled to some return. Indeed, in many oases this is all they get for their money. So that practically wbat the constituency does is to select a convenient channel by which L2OO a year flows from the general fund into local charities). If the member is a poor man he may well ask : Where do I csme in ? What are my wife and family to subsist upon? I do not sfe that there is any answer except we attribute tho position to the topsy-turvy-dom of labour representation.

Mr Seddon has in his time played many parts, but the very latest is that of a puffer of - a patent medicine, which attained celebrity by the repeated assertion that' it was worth a guinea a box. Mr Lewis, it seem?, is sceptical about; the /virtues of patent medicine*, and thinks that ij their labels disclosed the ingredients of which they were composed, people would cease to buy them, no doubt, in Mr Lewis's opinion, much to the benefit of their health and their peckots. Evidently Mr Lewis does not know the person who drenches himself with patent medicines. As a matter of fact many patent medicines do profess to bear the names of their ingredients, concealing the proportions, and this is taken as evidence of caudour, whereby the sale is largely increased, and tke maker much comforted. The peisons vrho advertise these nostrums know human nature fairly well — if they did not 'they might have to earn their livelihood like other people. But Mr L a -wis was far too awesping when he asserted that in one particular nostrum there was only one active ingredient. Mr Seddon knew better than that ani promptly- said so. Nothing so fraudulent could come out of St. Helen's. If he permitted it to be supposed that this fraud could emanate from there, people might begin to draw nasty inferences and draw disparaging conclusions. But Mr Seddon had reasons other than those which were patriotic or interested. He ■ had actually been over the factory where this particular thing was made, and having been shown the various drugs and informed of their place of origin, could no longer doubt that the medicine was all it professed to be. To the casual reader this may seem a slightly illogical conclusion in the face of an objection to display aa analysis, but Mr Seddon has leaped greater obstacles in defence of a friend — especially a Weßt Coast friend whose " creed was a real good West Coast publican's and a real good Liberal who always obeys orders without the slightest doubt." No doubt we shall see the Premier's defence published as a testimonial, and perhaps he may attribute his good health under his recent infliction of banquets to the regular use of this nostrum. If he lends his came as Premier to a mining syndicate, why not to a patent medicine advertisement?

The harmless necessary hatpin has been brought into somewhat unenviable notor'ety of late. It has actually furnished a subject for a condemnatory letter in The Times by a medical man. The hatpin, like the hairpin, has many uses, and it has the advantage of being a much more formidable weapon. It has been warranted to be as efficacious as at least three policemen in making room in a crowd, and it will be remembered that at a recent football match in Melbourne it did excellent work in the hands of an enraged and disappointed she-barracker. The hatpin, however, need not plume itself on formiag the object of a letter in The Times. In the silly season in London fearful and wonderful topics engage the attention of such of the public as cannot get away from the metropolis. The health of the army in India has been a standing dish for months, and I imagine some of our lady friends in this colony may not troproELtably peruse some of these lucubrations. The income tax is a sure draw for a host of letters. Even the taxation of the clergy has been trotted out alongside the' homing instinct of pigeons and the tyranny of the customs officials at Dover. Many of- these are standing dishes, and all that the hatpin can congratulate itself upon is admission to a group of subjects that people only talk About when they have nothing else to do. There are several reasons why hatpins of portentous length should not be used. It seems ridiculous waste of good material to use 9in of hatpin to fasten a bat to three inches of

hair. There are hygienic reasons also against its us?, bub ib is unnecessary to enter upon them, since the meanest intelligence ought to know that an accidental scratch with a weapon not likely to be aseptic might lead to serious results. But if anyon'e,»teven onr medical correspondent, imagines women are going to give up the use of an j thing simply because its disadvantages are pointed bat, it shows how little he knows about the sex. Not even in the silly season would any man of experience try it. Civis.