BY THE WAY.

Evening Star, Issue 8730, 23 January 1892, Page 2 (Supplement)

BY THE WAY.

—Let your sense be clear, Nor with a weight of words fatigue the ear. HOBACB.

The administrators of oharitable reliefpublic alms, in faot have been greatly exercised over some alleged perversions of the fund in the country districts. It is pleaded in behalf of the recipients that they would rather live on half a crust in their own homes than go into the Benevolent Institution, and this is quite comprehensible. It is not altogether a matter of sentiment, as some of the Trustees argued. The old digger, who has always been a free man, would simply die if he were forced into the Institution, with all its grisly surroundings, its enforced and uncongenial companionship, its cribbed and cabined confinement. Leave the poor old fellow in his hut, gentlemen —in his hut in the lonely gully, where he is at leaat a free man, loathing always fresh air, aud sometimes perhap?, on sunny days, able to take his battered tin dish and old spade to fossiok out a few grains of gold wharewith to increase his scanty store, and dream that he is a veritable digger still. Why deprive him of these comforts, dearly valued by him and costing nothing to the country ? It is a sad mistake to force these poor derelicts into your Caversham mansion. I say nothing against it, mind you; but it is the very lait place I would like to see anyone I knew confiaod in. And such confinement must, and does, destroy the last spark of self-reliance and self-respect in any man. Go you there—you who doubt it—watoh the old at dinner, talk with them, and you will rind that you have not elevated humanity, to say the least of it, by shutting them up in your co3tly buildings. To my mind the whole system of oharitable aid is vicious in the extreme, and cannot last. Some " more excellent way" has to be provided. And in the meantime pray let Mr Inspector visit all those in Dunedin who are in leceipt of aid and report thereon. I assure you it would be a very interesting report; and if you want to sbut more people up in the Institution you will find the necessary numbers in our own streets and alleys without going to the country for them. Not but there are some gross cases of imposition in both. Which goes to show that more rigid inquiry is necessary than is now practised,

The Government (that of New Zealind, be it noted, not the Imperial Government) have requested that the names of possible appointees to the Governorship of this colony shonld be submitted to them before final selection. I, "Nemo," offer humble but strenuous objection. Lord Brougham, who was or thought himself an universal genius, once wrote to an editor proposing to write a history of the French Revolution (no less), because he "had some little knack of narrative." I am not a genius, thank goodness; but I have some little knack of logic, and the faculty cuts up rusty at this latest piece of humbug on the part of Mr Ballance. The New Zealand Government is, after all, but the head of a majority in Parliament and in the country. It might even at this moment represent a minority for all we know, but I give the benefit of the doubt-, and assume it has at ita back a trajority. The Governor is the sole link between the colony (not the majority observe) and the Crown. Why, then, Bhould he have the imprimatur of the local majority upon him? Why should he come to the colony burdened with the feeling that to one political party he owed his appointment ? For let me tell the readers of this column that 1 know some of the members of the New Zealand Government pretty well. I've had a nip with Dick Neddon on the West Coast (at his expense, I'm bound to say); and I knew something of the Premier, too, at a time when it never occurred to him, or indeed to me either, that he ever would be Premier. And that knowledge enables me to state that when they want to have & finger in a pie it is generally for a useful purpose—useful to themselves, I mean. If they want to havo a say in the ohoioe of a Governor, it is not for the benefit of the colony (otherwise they would clearly leave the matter alone), but to benefit themselves. Bless me, it would never do. At the present time a Governor lands with some pomp and circumstance, and in a highly constitutional manner, as beoomes Her Majesty's representative—flags flying, And the boom of eighteen cannon (or some other cumber) echoing throngh the air. Then, when comfortably settled, he gives audience to bis Ministers—all in proper style, and according to etiquette. Are we going to alter all this, and have Dick Seddon going to meet him on board the nteamor, slapping him on the back, and saying: «* Well, old fellow, we did the best we could for you. Come and have a drink " (for that is the style in which he U3ed to do it to me) ? Thanks, no ; I prefer matters as thev are arranged now—very much, indeed. * * * *

Nobody knows who is going to be Governor of New Zealand, bnt the first person mentioned, and still in the running, was a certain Sir Herbert Maxwell, M.P., whom nobody appears to know anything about. I am in a position to give a fall, true, and particular mental description of him—and, on a pinch, physical as well. A fine fellow he is, too; so fine that I devoutly wish he may succeed. I confess that I care little for your horse racing, battery building, afterdinner • speech - making Governor. The "young peer" business does not suit me either. An old peer is bad enough, but m young one has the additional advantage of unripeness. Let New Zealand be the first colony to have a literary Governor—not a pressman ; God forbid ! but a Governor with a fine mellow flavor of genuine letters abont him. That we should get with Sir Herbert Maxwell. Let the reader turn to the October number of •Blackwood,' and there he will find a delightfully written, pleasantly ramblipg article by our proposed Governor. A wise article, with a flavor of history, philosophy, a strong one of common sense, and j ust that touch of humor whioh mellows the whole. The subject is ' Imagination,' the value of which to the statesman, the writer, and, indeed, to the successful business man, few people have got sense enough to understand. Our new Governor (as I hope) does ; knows, too, the peculiar value of imagination to a raler, whether a king of old or a latter-day statesman. Here is a sample from the artiole :

The gift ol imagination is the one which, of all those we are endowed with, brings us most near to the Divine. . . . Charles 1., by nature gentle and flonaidarato, would have Bhrunk from intentional oppression; but it required a stronger imagination than his to realise the hardships inflicted in bis name —sQd be paid the penalty.

A strong Liberal, too, is our new Governor —an instructed, historic Liberal, I mean; not the New Zealand Brummagem Ballance-c»m-Reeves-<um-Stout article. Let the following bear witness :

Who oan trace tha course o( events leading up to the revolt of the American colonies without cursing Lord North's somuolenoo, and bemoaning the obstfnaoy with whioh he re-enacted the blunders of the preceding century ? I confess I like the word "somnolent." It implies a lot. I never beard it locally used bat once. A good many years ago the late James Macandrew (for whom I had a great respect) was within measureable distance of being Premier. "It would never do, my dearfellow," said a sharp literary politician to me," he's too somnolent." And so he was. Then, aa a student of history, I oonfess I like a man who oan curse Lord North. And, in fact, it speaks well for the vigor as well m the sense of a Governor that (within proper bounds, of course) he oan curse anything that's bad. * * * *

A fine, wholesome, genial nature our new Governor has got too. Let the following bear me out:—•

A healthy vigorous Imagination is the best possible safeguard against despondenoy about human nature. By it a man understands that every lofty thought or noble aspiration that thrills him is the oomtnon property o* his fellows, and he will therefore he slow to impute unworthy motives to others. There is wisdom there and dear perception, as well as a wholesome nature. Then what do you think of this : More sajreful culture of the imagination would put an endow* for all to slipshod habits in writing or speech. .... Many and many an Intentional •ting has been planted by a clumsy phrase or halting: ixpressioa. All very true, the moral being that a touoh of imagination would have enabled the writer to know exactly the effect of his words npon another. A very neat phrasefilogy has oar new Governor. Speaking of Jfelsao, whose imagination was unfortp-

hately as Undisciplined as it was vivid, he says:--

He was wonderfully mttrprotfed agairut despan tfency by the Intense realism o( his fanoy.

The italics are mine—very neat, indeed, is the expression. My last quotation shall show that oar new Governor can gently enjoy a joke at his own expense t A frieodly critic, looking through the proof-sheets of this paper, has Just remarked that It is so rtmbl ng that It requires a good deal of Imagination to imagine that the subjeot of it is imagination. The thrust is fair enough; nevertheless, when the clroumstanoes under which it has been thrown together (ohiefly in railway trains or in lobbies of the House of Commons, waiting tor divisions) are remembered, the writer cannot out be thankful that it has a semblance at all of organic cohesion.

Modesty, too, added to his other qualities. Let us hasten to get this man for Governor. But—when ! Fancy Diok Seddon, John M'Kenzie, and W. P. Reeves having the power of veto! Heaven forefend. * * * #

I heieby give notice to all the millions whom the information may concern that from henceforth I intend to believe not one word that I may see in print concerning the German Emperor, Should the announcement of his death arrive to-morrow it will be to my mind a oase of Bishop Kennion and the sea serpent. I shudder to think of the lies apropos of that Imperial young man, for which some people will havo to answer at the great day. Only a few weeks ago a cablegram reported a gruesome speech, in which he was mads to warn a lot of recruits that they might have to Bead their sisters and their mothers and their cousins and their aunts to kingdom come all for the good of the Fatherland. Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do what the Emperor told them, and, if necessary, commit parricide or fratricide. It was certainly a startling piece of intelligence, and I was not surprised on the following Sunday to hear the Imperial charge spoken cf from the pulpit in uncomplimentary terms. And now, lo and behold ! the Kaiser said nothing of the kind. All he did —0 bathos !—was to give his dear young soldiers some fatherly advice re the temptations of life! I know now how much credit to give to that stuff about his supposed goings-on in his yacht when (according to some miscreant imagination) he doubled the parts of admiral and archbishop. Let the compiler of the 'Frisco mail news believe it, non ego. * * * *

The dying week has witnessed another political banquet—a function, by the way, which the promoters did not see the propriety of postponing until the funeral of the Duke of Clarence had taken place. These fussy little ebullitions of fictitious enthusiasm are getting rather stale to the outside publio, though to a born petty-banqueter like the Honorable Richard Seddon they are as delightful and infinitely various as ever. I confess the feature in the Lawrence affair which most interests me is the contingent from Dunedin. Messrs Finkerton and Earnshaw were there, "and what for no?" I should have been there myself if I were a "Liberal" M.H.R., and could get nobody to banquet me in mine own romantic city. No, it is not the presence of those two worthy representatives that engages my attention, but a non-parliamentary trinity, consisting of Mr Alfred Lee Smith, Mr J. P. M. Frascr, and Mr Vincent tyke. What is it, I ask myself, that impels these highly respectable but not unoanny gentlemen to attend rural Ministerial banquets with so beautiful a faithfulness? la it a penance imposed by what Mr Pyke used to call the " insolent malignity " of Sir Robert Stout? Is it a test—a probation—prescribed by Mr Ballance in order to prove that the trio are really penitent, and desire to make progress in the right faith? For it cannot be disguised that round each of the now dutiful three hangs a certain cloud of suspicion—from a Ministerial point of view, of course. Mr Fraser showed remarkable possibilities of candid criticism at the time of the strike ; Mr Pyke—well, the old gentleman is very " friendly " at present, but he has a past, and, possibly, a future ; while, as for Mr Lee Smith, was he not a "Conservative" candidate at the last election? But Mr Smith deserves a Note to himself. * * * *

The Duke of Clarence's death is Bad enough, but far sadder from a New Zealand point of view is a certain piece of intelligence which was given to the world at Lawrence last Monday, or perhaps I should say early on Tuesday morning. Therms undeterred by tho solemnity of the midnight hour, or by the eternal fitness of things, Mr Alfred Lee Smith (who, as a convert, is always a welcome guest at "Liberal" banquets) announced his awful intention to "prosecute politics for the rest of his dayß." Angels and ministers of grace defend us! " Here is vista," as Walt Whitman would say. What a looming and blooming future of flatulent harangues, and Factolian sands, and " pestilent perversion," and extract of Lempriere unfolds itself to the appalled and evil eyes of all who are not ex-Conservative Liberals! Yes, Mr Lee Smith, having "scented" which party is the best for him —temporarily, at all events—is going into politics bald headed. Some time ago he told us—did he not tell me, " Nemo,' ; to my shadowy face ?—that he didn't care a " twopenny damn," no, not he, for critics belonging to his old party, so that he has the advantage of setting out on his " prosecuting " career with a pachydermatous political conscience and what is known as a conveniently Bhort memory. Perhaps I ought not to growl, for I daresay he will be pretty good fun, and prove "suggestive" from the point of view of " copy." After all, there is some virtue in a "prosecuting" politioian who possesses flexible conviotions, has a taste for apt alliteration and tautological turgidity, and loves to go "plundering and blundering " among classioal myths. After all — and it shows my forgiving amiability—l have a touch of tenderness for the redoubtable Smith, and at the proud moment when the returning officer gives him permission to put the magic letters M.H.R. after his distinguished patronymic may I, unlesß dead in the fulness of years, be there to Bee ! * # # *

The Rev, Canon Howell, incumbent of St. Matthew's Church, was presented the other evening with what, I imagine, to be the smallest testimony on record. I read that "the incumbent was presented by one of the auditors, on behalf of the Vestry, with a testimonial in acknowledgment of his services in clearing the church from debt on current account. This was in the form of a small box containing a bright new threepenny piece of 1891, being the credit balance brought forward for the present year." The rauon d'ilre of the farthing, it has been maliciously suggested, is to enable a Scotchman to display his generosity. (The same, by the way, might be eaid of the LI.OOO note— lest? Mr Robert Chapman's statue of " the Aaron of the settlement" even now gradually ascending to upper air in the Octagon.) At last we know the special providential motive of the threepenny bit—as distlnot, that is, from its general Sunday use. It was destined to enablethecongregation, or rather the Vestry, of St. Matthew's, Dunedin, to make a graceful addition to the stipend of their clergyman in acknowledgment of special servioes rendered during a considerable number of months. At the year's end the Vestry find themselves embarrassed by the unwonted possession of three "browmi" —a sum whioh it would be slightly ridiculous to oarry forward to the next acconnt. What is to be done ? It wouldn't do to play pitch-and-toss in the vestry, which borrows sanotity from the adjaoent church; and a bottle of ginger-pop would hardly go round. Ha 1 an inspiration ! We will hie us to the bank in the morning, change those dismal but no longer embarrassing browns into a bright brand-new threepenny, and overwhelm the incumbent with our generosity I Who could devise a more delightful testimonial? So airy and gracefully unsubstantial —so charmingly sentimental! I sit with, my toes in a brook; If anyone asks me for why, I hit them a crack with my crook—- " 'Tis sentiment kills me," say I. Nemo.