DUNEDIN GOSSIP.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XI, Issue 575, 16 November 1880, Page 6

DUNEDIN GOSSIP.

(from our own correspondent.) ;

‘ Novembet 11, ' j The Prince of Wales’ Birthday passed off very, tamely in consequence of the weather. It rained apd threatened rain all the morn-: ing, but mostjof the afternoon it kept fine, although .there was. a. high wind, : Still it was . perfectly apparent that great numbers of people had intended going in for genuine holiday making ; and even as it was a surprising number turned out to enjpy themselves as: best they might. Four excursion steamers were well patronised. The great event of the day was the Druids’ fite, and the principal feature was the procession. About 80 ridiculous individuals marched (or rode in a waggon under a native fuachia, supposed to be a British oak) along the streets, dressed in white nightdresa-Iboking affairs, with long white hair and white beards down to their waists. Of all the extraordinary and laughable sketches it was in the van. How sensible adults could do it is a wonder ; but they did it, and seemed to be proud of themselves. They had only one ad vantage—their identity was lost in their funny garb. Then the Druids held sports in the afternoon, but, like all such affairs, these were very tame. I think I have dilated on former occasions upon the facilities we metropolitans have for enjoyment, with gardens and Forbnry Parks, and the Ocean Beach, and the Heads, and with the trains, and steamers, and tramcars, etc. Country people like to hear of these things sometimes in order to be reminded of how dismal their life is. Well, a fresh pleasure-field is to be opened to .us this summer—for the Sabbath too, for I notice that Messrs Smith and Larnach’s steamer, the Colleen—famous now in supreme court annals—is to run every Sunday from Rattraystreet jetty to Grant’s Braes and hack every few minutes. It is pretty certain to meet with a good deal of custom, for we Dunedinitea are a pleasure-loving people. We are just now somewhat religiously inclined, however—or at least a few of us are. The Raikes centenary celebration is in full swing, but the attendance at the various gatherings has not been large. Raikes is credited with being the founder of Sabbathschools, and the opportunity of his centenary is being taken to carry on a movement that is expected to infuse new life and energy into Sabbath-school work. It is a somewhat funny thing that Raikes was not a Sundayschool man at all in the modern meaning of the word. He appears to have been of a freethinking turn of mind, to put it broadly, but was a philanthropist, who, seeing that children in his native town in England got no opportunity during week days of learning, being kept at hard work from early morn till dewy eve, set about starting a day school on Sunday, when they were allowed to run wild. He did not attempt to teach religion at all, but no doubt taught morals to some extent; and contented himself in the main with driving the ABO and the multiplication table into the youngsters. No doubt the thing he thus set agoing afterwards blossomed out into the Sunday school business as we know it ; but it is funny to see men honoring Raikes who, if he were now to do what he then did, would hold him up to public execration. However, that does not matter much. The Sunday school institution is a good one, and the clergymen and others who are addressing meetings and holding conferences just now deserve to be commended. Talking of religion reminds me of “Veritas,” who sledge-hammered me in your columns a week or two ago. I have not got much to say about him. Only one thing I don’t wish to be misunderstood about, and that is the reference I made to Mr Mackie. He is an estimable kind of man in his way, but is certainly too narrow-minded and is a bigot too. He gives way too much to the ridiculous evangelistic notion that belief saves a man. He takes part in all these foolish meetings at which a man, if he only says “ I have Christ” is encouraged—nay is commanded—to believe that he has a passport for heaven. Dr Stuart is just the opposite. He keeps carefully aloof from the strolling evangelist, and his gospel is that, good deeds give a man a right to expect safety hereafter—nothing else. And Dr Stuart is willing occasionally to give even a Roman Catholic credit for holding his beliefs as honestly as anyone else. As for Mr Forlong, whom “Veritas" principally champions, he is not worth fighting over. He has the vanity and the confidence and the facility of wagging the tongue that characterise the “strolling evangelist.” “ Veritas” appears to be the kind of man the height of whose ambition is to become a “ saver of souls”—that is, to be able to work up people’s excitement till they declare that they believe and have found salvation, just because they are asked to. The only one of the foregoing characteristics that he wants is probably the ability of wagging the tongue. He appears to have a quantity of woodenheaded wit, and he has the eminently young man Christian faculty of abusing and insulting anyone who differs from him. If 1 should ever give “ my candid opinions about 1

Dunedin parsbns,"' abdutlVfiloV ho i* exexcised, let me ( juteurA- mni'‘t"didn’t 1 ftoiblo your readers much cobceriifakmy cHtib 1 fie is only «fledgling. :■ •* l ■ • ■ <r* .irfo* j-f T The about the d&qbalifiriitlbri ■of Mata defied riiuch'tqlk here. ' are jieme • who heliSVe Mfcl4 ftf iheteftt Hof sb in New Zeftland, ahd‘ I’ 'hWvfe lizard''apdrt&jig men declare' that;' Australia a better. He Certainly sbdtild have .Won,' 7 <Hb Melbourne! Cup.:; i: Aba]lcula i tidn’'' , ih6wr the Dunedirt Oiip Was travelled at;*WiiW bf ji?st uponlGyarcb} a.Secdhd I' thd 1 Oup at IG| yards a sfecohd, 1 and all the 'way’as in Oup, Mata! Would' dp thp r ,Duiiedih (M in 3 48 6f8!49;' tjiat i«j of coiirae, if’it is correct that he could HaVe Won the Chp, This Seems too miich 'tp fek froto him 1 ; 'but renieiriberink that inewkftlr require a little ‘ allowance,' that thp slower course would heed.a still greater'allowance, that he held the Dunedin Cup his bwh Whenever to go fpr'it,'and then giving him the year and the lesser Weight,'and it r: ip not too much, to say that ho cdnld do’the distance in the time. ■ \ r \,n ' rj “ Since writing the : abpve Melboiirne Age account of the Cup race. ’ J It is an excellent; one. Evidently the' Writer has kept a close eye upon Mata, for he ci|ea his position throughout. He say s', that entering the straight running the four. favorites were almost exactly abreast./ Mata mad-the lead, and just along with him were flaneur, Progress and Lord Bnrghley; but Mata died away, he says, in . the final effort, thus suggesting that he found the company too good for him. There is not a hint of “dark" running on Mata’s part, so that the, Racing Club must havb gone upon information hot then to the front. However, We shall hear more of it when the later papers arrive. The Lingard company are doing very well at the theatre. They have been playing “ Pinafore,” but it is hot their forte. Mr Lingard could not make a deplorable failure in anything, but he is very near doing it in Sir Joseph Porter, K.C.B. He puts no dignity, no hauteur into his admiral, who should be dignified and full of official stiffness, ; although he must let it be apparent all the while that he is bearing himself in order, as it were, to poke fun at himself. Mr Kiccardi, who played Sir Joseph- here before, was perfect in the part, and he sang magnificently—if Sullivan and Gilbert (the composers) ever see him, they will go into raptures over him. Mrs Lingard is just as unable to play Josephine as her husband is to play the admiral. She is a music-hall actress, and cannot give ua refinement or polish, because she has not got it ; and she sings in a screaming way that is often painful to listen to. But her appearance—who could resist it ? She is the only woman I have seen on a Dunedin stage who can manage her train. The way in which she does this is the envy of all women who see her. She winds it right round her fefet, and then steps out of it with the most perfect grace—-her every movement on the stage if an exhibition of the poetry of motion. S,o that it is no wonder we pardon her poor singing and her inability to do justice to the dialogue of Josephine so long as she charms us by her beauty.