WISE AND OTHERWISE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 149, 24 June 1908, Page 6

WISE AND OTHERWISE.

(By OLD SALT.) A perusal of the New Zealand news* papers—this indictment is not parochial would almost lead one to be« lieve that the Arbitration and Conciliation Award, Court, and all appurtenances, constituted a modern Frankenstein, ■which engine, it may be remembered, was of very little use in itself, and extremely dangerous to its makers. One of the most recent decisions is to the effect - that an employer is not entitled to re- . quire a waiter to work.more. than, eleven < hours in any one day. The poet has sung / that "they also serve who only stand v and wait"; but if the waiters will take , . a tip—a not unlikely supposition—they; J will not consent to be overworked ■ through waiting too long to serve. Surprises are always looKea for, if not ;■■ anticipated, when pre-sessional addresses are being delivered, and a general election is in the near distance. The difference between "artful" and •'full'of art will : be apparent to any who examine that' - term "near distance," The latest sur» prise packet—not so important, of as that of Sir Joseph's, which, transform* ed us from colonists or Stat (e)ists, into • "Dominoes"—is a suggestion 1 that an electric recorder take the place of the old-fashioned "ballot-box. ' And as the' machine is the invention of a gentleman in the South—Dunedin, to be precise l — •: we may be pardoned for regarding if with suspicion. So, a word in season'tot the electors: Are yon noting that the voting, Was one time* a ; mere selection; • Jast devolving and then solving ~ --j • .Claims o£ those who sought election! -. ; What queer caperst Ypting papers. That-at one rime were eclectic, Are discarded. Those regarded VMust be labelled thus — "Electric"! A sheep farmer in the South professes to have found a new use- for goats. Hβ says: —"Keep a few goats in the flock and dogs will never bother them. Wβ ; had a flock of 500 headi- and never lost one when we' had goats." Many minis*' ters of religion do not hesitate to discriminate -between sheep and the goats in their flocks—not by the flavour of the flesh, although the "plate" playc a part. And we have heard of the effect upon a bull of a red rag. Can it be that the mere suggestion of black doth has' a -' pacifying effect upon a wild dog? Or ■does the remote connection with a divine induce the divinity which shapes our ends to control the end of the dog which, bites? ' . - - '

Age canuot wither nor custom stale the. infinite variety of that oft-quoted "News: in Brief." From tile latest column I learn that "A Jew can marry'an English, woman at a registry." One might .qualify this most interesting statement by adding "provided Barkis be willing"; but that, perhaps, is taken for granted. Tho difference between "can" and "may" is hardly worth remarking; but has it, I wonder, occurred to the sapient scribe that such a thing as an English Jeyr ia. not an unknown'quantity, or did he, in the fury of the cacoethes scribeadi forget his egotism and delee an "F'f

Sweet, admittedly, are the toes of advertising; but all the same there are advertisements which one wottld rather be without, such, for instance, as those which New Zealand has received at the Pan-Anglican Congress in London. To describe the white population as Pagans,! and the natives as brown-faced Irishmen is calculated to draw a class of people like' the Athenians ol old, who were always running after some new things' rather than desirable immigrants. It' will be" interesting to note which will be the more Irish or the Maori. Let us touch the harp gently

Another injustice to Ireland I read) , At the Couferenee Pan-Anglican; j Now the 1 'ats'-; Jn the fire, ] Let us anerirh the Celtic Ire. i • By putting the £ jlame on the "Pan"! The rendering of the drama "Camille,*' announced for to-morrow night, reminds mc of a story which may be new to soma of my readers, and which deserves to be preserved as a very excellent bon mot. Upon the first production of this play Alexandre Dumas, the father of the author, was accosted during an interval by one of the Press critics, who said in an interrogative way: "I suppose you had a hand in this production T" "Certainly," was tho reply, "I was the author of the author!"

The Chairman o< the Liberal Colonial Club in London—Lord Durham, to wit, although the word is not at all. applicable —did himself proud at a recent dinner when he commented on an address which, had been delivered by Mr, Pember Eoeves upon tho working of Women's Suffrage in New Zealand. Perhaps the gom of his speech was the expression of opinion that women ought not to have a vote until it was known, that they would use it in a sensible and rational manner—and

Gentle Iβ every English maid, Quite free from art and wile: . B " t - ln i !l , fs case - this truth's displaye*"Gentle" sUould read "GentUei*