CANDID COMMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 237, 3 October 1908, Page 13

CANDID COMMENT.

By " RILDA."

Surely one of the greatest benefits dolivable from the recurrence of a general election in a country is that it brings to light so many people of rare nobility and solid grandeur of character who would, otherwise, remain buried in obscurity. j Each beautiful character, as it becomes revealed, is so much pure gain to the world-hardened individual who has begun to say to himself—while lacking the evidence of election time—that, al] the world is rotten, and that the virtues are all rapidly becoming extinct. At the present moment such a doubter has but to read the programme of the candidate who is standing for Parliamentary election fo be reassured that tbe giolw is not half so rotten as be suspected, so long as there are still alive noble human beings like uflfcjrthis man who bus been ''persuaded" t* fuggest tbe immolation of himself upon the altar of public life. When pleeI tions are long past, people are so liable I to fall into the fatal error of thinking that, there is not much high nobility of character or love of universal improvement, for sweet improvement's sake, left in the race—but only just wait until an election once more looms in the near future! Then you begin to see what a high ideal the "candidate" has long nourished in bis bosom, and to realise that you are in for a real millennium period if only you will take the trouble to vote for the rrreat and good man who. elected, will make it his business (like Beechani"s pillsl to "right the wrong.*' There is no one single wrong thing which these candidates do not intend to fight, against, tooth and nail. There shall not be too much immigration and there shall be immigration-, there shall be an Arbitration Act and there shall not be an Arbitration Act; there shall be freehold I tenure of land ami there shall not. be anything so iniquitous: there shall be Prohibition and there shall not be Prohibition. Oh. indeed, there will be a vast number of improvements made if the parliamentary candidate be only elected, land that is all he asks, liv-the-bye, it woul'.l appear that some of the candidates must be looking on reverse sides of the shield which i- upborne in the cause of Right—for I find that I have enumerated above, "improvements" which are diametrically opposed lo each other. Yet | each candidate dues seem so completely convince*! that his method is the only possible one to put the world to rights! Yes. it is a most instructive season.) this election period. The only thiny; a | little bit encouraging about it is that i there have been elections before tin's,! and that there have, before this also, been great, and good men who have offered themselves for candidature just out of a pure and earnest conviction that it was their duty to right the wrong. Vet somehow,'when the Parliament got fo work with those splendid creatures duly elected by admiring constituencies. nothing special seemed ti> happen. ai:<l we j still failed to see any of tliose vast and | desirable reformations which the said I splendid creatures lived but to inau-rit-[rate—when they were standing for eleeItion! It is a disappointing world, my j masters, but surely we may expect better things after this election of 1!»08? We can but live in hopes. ft. is good news that the District Health (.Mlicer has quite lately been conI cerning himself about the du«t-and-lly i dangers, and has even got the length of addressing a letter to tin- City Council. ■ upon the subject—urging upon that august body the advisability of requesting the Auckland trader-people to keep (all their perishable provi-ions behind ! closed gla.-s window.-. limit minds I think alike evidently, for it may linger in 'the remembrance of tlie faithful readers j of "Candid Comments" th.il I became | quite agitated myself upon this topic a ; few weeks back. ' We arc told that the Health Ollicer's letter was referred to the Working Committee, who. we may ; hope, will now set to work passing the : necessary by-laws to enforce these sugI gested reforms. ! A breezy air. reminiscent of tlie re- ' cent Hunis-Squires light, i- noticeable in the title under which the Rev. 11. 11. S. Hammond, the No-license champion, lias been introduced to the notice of New Zealanders. "Hauler Hob, the Booze I Banishcr" he is called—a pretty and I choice thing that, in the way of titles. It is a method of advertisement which 1 may commend itself to tlie many celebrated and would-be celebrated personi ages who seek tin- suffrages of the i general public. "Paderewski. the piano ' puncher" would immediately describe the attributes of the great pianist : ".Madame Melba. the Melbourne melody-maker." is J also an alliterative title which may sug- ! gest itself. "Joyful .loe, the jubilant 1 jeoparder." might, to his detractors, seem somewhat indicative of our worthy Premier's cheerful way of spending money on improvements, which his detractors (again) say he has not got to spend; and there are quite a number of other celebrated folk who ini<rht find it worth while lo label themselves after the "Ilattler Hob" pattern. A good pattern is everything in thi.- imitative age. An old l.uly acquaintance of mine, a 1 distant connection, it would appear, of Mrs. Muluprop, was dreadfully grieved the other day to read in the papers that "the ammonia plant in the Dunedin gasworks was partially destroyed by an explosion on Wednesday night." She i thought it a beautiful thing that the em!- --! ployees in the <_-as works had been attempting to brighten their sordid surroundings by the introduction of a little . greenery, and as she has a nice garden . herself, she was very anxious to send .those poor men deprived of their am- ' monia plant, a few nice growing shrubs • to take its place. In was only with i the utmost difficulty that .-he was persuaded that the ammonia plant did not ! bear leaves, and had certainly tended I ill no wise, c\cn in its pristine days, to beautify the interior of the Dunedin gasI works. Siie was left muttering, "What was the good of cailiug a thing a 'plant* j when it was made of metal? You might ■ just as well call a cow nn ironclad. i (Sometimes when tackling a full-fledged j piece of New Zealand beef, that docs I present itself as the only possible ! and appropriate name for the fabric 1 one is attacking!) ! ''What's in a name';" as "Battler Bob" iniglit say; but truly there is no excuse for this aching desire to change the , name of Karangahapc-road to something j Anglicised and less typical. The people who are agitating for the alteration need not attempt to lay the onus of the change upon the stranger within the gates. For 1 am quite sure the stranger just delights in trying to get round that word, and in having a good tussle with I it before he makes it his very own. i What is the good of coming out hundreds j of miles from England to a wild ami I foreign land like this, only to lie couI fronted wilh such hopelessly "tame" ! names as Elect-street or Bridge-street—

names one knows by heart in England already. But if a word like Karangahape, racy of the soil, be presented to the notice of the tourist, there is beginning to be moneys worth in his trip, and he feels he is not "doing" New Zealand in vain. He can. at least, mention the name in his letter home, and then the good folks there picture up some wild untutored track, such as one sees, say, in country districts of Ireland, and begin to think he is actually achieving something bold and daring at last. New Zealand lays itself out to be full of tourist attractions, so the Government Department, in charge of an important branch of the Dominion's prosperity, should gently but firmly check the ambitious tradesmen who would fain change the name of their road for one less happily indicative of the Maori quality of tho land in which they live.