TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume XLVI, Issue 7359, 11 July 1889, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Mc Laboucheee, "we observe, still continues his annual tilt against the House of Lords. This year his motion stood in the following form: —

" That in the opinion of this House it is contrary, the true principles .of representative erovernment, aad injurious to their efficiency, that any person should sit and vote in Parliament by right of birth, and it is therefore desirable to put an end to any such existing rights.' 1

As usual, he was , very caustic and witty in; his remarks. Referring to the classes from which the House of Lords was recruited —"former ex-Ministers whom it was desirable to shelve, county gentlemen who had given large sums of money?' ,to their party, and very rich said ?the remarkabje circumstance was that no sooner did those gentlemen get there than they became more aristocratic and Conservative than the descendants of Crusaders, and proceeded, like the Chinese, to ennoble their ancestors. There was Mr Guinness, of Dublin, who brewed very good stout, and who was sent up to the House of Lords became it was thought necessary to do sometning for the; middle class. He found from " JJurke" that a great mistake had been made in regard to this brewer.. Mr Guinness was not Guinness; his. name in prehistoric ages was Magennisa, and this Magenniss who lived in these prehistoric, ages Vas the yiscount.lveagh. . Literally this nobleman had been restored to his native nobility. When the laughter at this shot had subsided, Mr Xiabouchere went on to refer to Sir Hardinge Giffard, who went to the House of .Lords to sit on the woolsack as Lord Halsbury, for whom the obliging Burke found a pedigree extending back .to. the reign of Edward I. Mr Ilabouchere * scored another point when, in connection with the rejection of, the Deceased Wife's Sister Bill, he said that the constitution of this country "gave the right to Lord Dudley, , liord Lurgan, and other great Biblical scholars—(laughter)—to decide whether, if Moses forbade an Israelite to marry his own wife's sister, that ordinance was' obligatory on Englishmen of the present' day." The motion was rejected, but ,by a majority of forty-one votes only. This is a significant fact when, we remember that, in 1883, when Mr Labouchere brought down a somewhat similar motion, an hon. member, asked the Speaker whether it was not high treason, or something of that sort, and when the motion came on there were not forty members to make a House.

Aboui the time when Mr Labouchere was making his onslaught on the hereditary legislators, one of these hereditary legislators ' t» future was perambulating the streets of London earning his livelihood with a barrel-organ. This is Viscount Hinton,'eldest son and heir of the Earl of Poulett. He is now about forty years of age, and oblivions of the fact that he has not by any means deserved well of his family, , is aggrieved that the family or the peerage or somebody will not " do something for Lim." ,-He.hae -descended in the scale since we last beaj-d He was formerly a clown at* the Surrey Tlfeatre and elsewhere under, the name of "Mr Cosman," and about' twenty ago he took unto himself a ballet dancer, Miss Lydia Ann Sheppy, as wife. There are two children of the marriage, " the Hon. William H«-nry George " and " the Hon. Maud Marie," whose names are set out with all due dignity in "Debrett." A; reporter had a confidential conversation with his Lordship the other day, and, got some interesting information as to the drawback* and profit* of hi* oddly choeca

calling. Lord Hinton, it appears, sets out at eleven in the morning, and seldom gets home till half an hour after midnight. He trudges from twenty-five to thirty miles a day, dragging all the way an organ, which with its carriage weighs five and a half hundredweight. He has to pay ten shillings a week for his organ, and half a crown for the lamps. When he has deducted a portion of his day's earnings to cover these expenses, and tbe cost of his dinner and tea, he has only about six shillings—certainly not an extravagant stipend per day for the son of an earl. It may be added that he finds his biggest audiences at the publichouses in Oxford street. The dream of his life, however, ia to get permission from the South-Eastern Company to play on the boats of the Calais-Dover service. " You see," he naively remarked to the reporter, "it would mean good business for mc, and it would prove an attraction on board the boats, wouldn't it ?" The reporter did not reply to this question. Perhaps he had crossed the Channel durmg a rough passage. If so the thonght of having added to the other horrors of the trip, the agonising strains of say "Two Lovely Black Eyes" ground out on a barrel organ probably aroused emotions too deep for utterance. A Kaiapoi correspondent, who takes a great interest in agricultural matters, sends us a lament on the decadence of ploughing matches. He says : — " The period ot the year for ploughing matches is rapidly, drawing on. As yet no sign has been made by any of the Committees. For some years the interest in ploughing competitions has been on the wane, but usually when interest in these matters has nearly died out, it revives with sudden vigor. It cannot be said that the ploughs have reached the acme of perfection, and certainly the young ploughmen who are coming out every year should profit by the experience which may be gained at a match in a similar way that their predecessors have obtained unowledge. True, the skill necessary for " holding " as well aa steering the swing plough is no longer required, but in the manipulation upon a piece of soil with a double-furrow and wheel plough there are countless points to be observed which go to make up a good seed furrow and a ridge from which there will be proper drainage, and that contribute to the production of prolific crops." We are afraid that the days of ploughing matches in the old style are drawing to a close. The beautifully straight furrows on which the ploughman of the poets prided himself are going out of fashion, and disc harrows and pulverising ploughs have contributed largely to this result. Tbe great object now aimed at is to work the ground as. thoroughly as possible, and to secure efficient drainage; and to this end all the efforts and contrivances of the farmer are directed. Ploughing matches in tho future, if they are to retain their hold on the agricultural community, we fancy will take more the form of competitions in which the merits of new pulverisers, drain ploughs, &c, may be tested and the latest inventions brought under the farmers' notice. We confess, however, that we shall be sorry when it has come to this, for a clean, straight furrow is a pleasing sight to a man fond of the country, and it is desirable for young ploughmen to learn at any rate to open out and finish oft their work in proper style.

The news of the death of the Key. Dr. West, of Wellington, will be read with deep regret by the Congregational body of New Zealand, of which he was one of the leading thinkers, and also by all who had come in contact -with him and knew his kindness to those in trouble, his unaffected nature, and many other good qualities. The reverend gentleman was what is known as a "hard student." He graduated, we believe, as B.A. at the Melbourne University, and on coming to New Zealand he successively became LL.B. and LL.D. of our own University. He was the second man in New Zealand on whom the latter degree was bestowed, Dr Fitchett, M.H.8., being the first. There seems little doubt that the close application involved in his studies, added to the heavy duties of an important pastoral charge, proved* too much for himj and" hence a final cbllapse which has deprived the colony of a very able man.