HASTINGS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 8743, 11 August 1890, Page 4

HASTINGS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

August S, IS9O. v Little did I think when recently bewailing the dearth of news that I should have to send yon such awful news as that contained in my report of our Council meeting. The catastrophe, like most catastrophes, enme upon the. town without -.any warning, evil omen, or portent dire. ■ Up to 9 o'clock last night all was calm in Hastings. Her Councillors werecounsell- : me, her citizens were whiskifyicg and billiardislng, or turning head over heels at the gymnasium. No raven croaked upon onr battlements. No "fierce fiery warriors fought upon the clouds." "The sheeted dead did " not " squeak and gibber in the atreatsof "Hastings* But shortly after the hour mentioned the sword of Damocles fell ■. upon the unhappy Council. The Mayor re- , 'signed ! The cause was as simple as the ■ action. His Worship considered it . •' unconstitutional " for the Council to decide whether or no ie was expedient to enforce a certain bye-law not uncon- ' neefced with those noblest, tenderest, and

holiest feelings of our nature which gravi>'tate [miaht I say gravy-totel) towards . pork. The Council stood on their rights Vas councillors and Britons. The Mayor stood on his rights as a Mayor and a Briton. Hence the Mayoral " strike." 1 think the prevailing feeling upon the matter both in the Council and out of it As rather a "mixed" one. On the one - hand most people are glad that an obnox- • ious bye-law which is at present unnecessary, is " hung up" till it is wanted. On ' the other, they regret not merely that the . borough should lose the services of a gentleman who has long devoted much time, business capacity, and labor to the •work ot the borough ; but also that he

should part from the Council with feelings of annoyance. Perhaps, however, his Worship may be induced to reconsider his decision, or at any rate to allow himself to be nominated for re-election, which latter course it seems to me would be a satisfactory exit from the difficulty. His Worship would have made his protest, anid Hastings would get back her Mayor — unless indeed he aspires to a higher sphere of action, in which he might sway 4he destiny of the colony, in which case

I remind him of the adage concerning . *.' Two stools," and. of Shakespeare's re--1 . mark about " Vaulting ambition which ;o'er-leaps itself and falls on the other "siside." There is also, in yEsop, a fable *'_ -pregnant with meaning, which relates how * v a village harper, fired by the applause of 1 his hnmble auditors, essayed bis powers upon the public stage, and found that neither tbey nor his reception by a critical audience exactly corresponded to his expectations, let his Worship ponder these things, and be Tuse in time. I beg to remind Hastings readers that Mr J. Knott will on Monday evening give . one of the celebrated J. B. Gough's temperance orations at the Wesleyan chapel. Gongli was in his day a power in the land, and people flocked to hear him jast as later on they .rushed to hear Moody and Sankey. It is Isng since * these orations were first delivered, bnt in New Zealand diatribes against drankenjiess are not likely to be out of date in oar day. It is therefore to be hoped that Mr Knott will have a good audience.

Why shonld not ladies take to pharmacy ? asks the Lancet. It is pointed oat that pharoiacy is now quite open to persons of the female sex, and it is suggested that it is a calling for which their neat touch and delicacy would seem peculiarly to suit them. "For a long time," continues onr medical contemporary, "there were difficulties in the way, bnt these have now been overcome, and there is no reason why lady chemists shonld not commence business, under the patronage — if they can secure it— of the lady doctors."

As many as eight ladies had announced, mord or less publicly, that they were going to ride cross-saddle to the meet of the Coachinsr Clob in the costume for which their sonls so long had pined, Then it was understood that only fonr of them felt able to carry ont their threat ; but when the time came they all stayed away, to a woman, or else rede in the attidude prescribed for them by the masculine tyrant. It is one thing (says the St. James' Gazette) to ride a cross-saddle in Iceland, where there is nobody to criticise yonr appearance, it is another matter in the park, with fasionable London looking on. Women are fond of talking in a revolutionary way, but at heart they are more conservative than men, and we fancy it will be a long time before ladies will be .seen astride in the Row.