SNAPSHOTS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIII, Issue 10595, 2 March 1895, Page 6

SNAPSHOTS.

“ A Democracy, tempered by Banks,” is how the body politic of New Zealand was described a few years ago, and as a parody on the famous description of Russian rulo “despotism, tempered by assassination,” it was not at all bad. But we have changed all that since tho democracy has taken charge of the banks, by protecting them and saving them from the consequences of their own rashness. Is the democracy beginning to suspect that it has taken a viper to its bosom ? Or what is tho moaning of the announcement that our local Radicals are to meet in tho Square to-night to discuss the question of a State Bank ? Are nob Messieurs Naleria, Venal 1 and Co., aware that the Bank of New Zealand is now, by the dictum of all competent authorities, “ practically a State Bank ? It cannot be that these intelligent patriots —for so I esteem them—are intending to agitata for the thing which we already possess, and the only alternative is that they are bent upon agitating lta abolition. Perhaps I am mistaken, and they simply want more State Bank than we have at present—say by means of swallowing up the National and the Colonial. To that I, as an intelligent patriot, have no manner of objection, provided tho terms of amalgamation are fair and honest; but I hardly think the Square on a Saturday night is the place to discuss such a subject. _ The banking reformers in the Square will be like round men in a square hole if they attempt to fill the shoes of the ranting prohibitionist or unemployed orator. I shall not be among the crowd of obstructionists who “ circle tha Square ” this Saturday night. ■# * •

A Tory paper up Wairarapa way has taken up the wail of the “ man of ability,” and has thrown out quite an artistic threat to the common people of New Zealand,_o£ what will happen to them if they persist in reducing the wages of the superior Tory persona, who would like to run this country. It points to what the plutocracy of the United States has done by debauching, bribing and demoralising the people by keeping a hireling Press, and by corrupting the fountains of legislation and justice. The “good” plutocracy of New Zealand has, it says, refrained from these tactics in the past; but it adds, in effect, that brains must rule, and if they can’s do it by fair means they will do it by foul. There are already signs that our men of ability ” are adopting the methods of the bad Americans. Have we not a hireling Conservative Press, maintained at monetary loss, to try and pervert popular judgment by making “ the worse appear the better reason ?” It is well that the candid Conservative journal has “let the cat out of the bag.” The animal’s snout was just visible before, but now there is no more concealment possible. The people know what is meant by the outcry for “ the wages of ability.” It means that the superior Tory person of New Zealand hankers after the power which his American .congener possesses of robbing the people by means of trusts, syndicates and other forma of monopoly, and at the same time devoting a percentage of the profits so made to corrupting and confusing the people. Forewarned ia forearmed.

Talking of America and the wages of ability, reminds me of an incident that has recently been set forth in a number of Tory papers in New Zealand to prove that brain is entitled to higher wages than muscle. The Reading Railway Company in the United States had been cast in heavy damages for accidents at its level crossings—the Courts bolding that the warning signboard, “ Railway Track,” was insufficient. Thereupon the chairman of directors consulted one of the ablest railway lawyers in America, and the latter gentleman after nine minutes cogitation advised the company to have painted up instead : “ Railroad Crossing. Stop! Look! Listen!” For this piece of brain work he charged and was paid jEIOOO. No doubt his advice might be the means of saving the company many times that amount of money, but it strikes me that the incident is a very poor example of the wages of ability. _ It rather demonstrates utter want of ability on the part of the directors, when they had to pay .£IOOO for such a trifling- service. A great deal of the wealth showered upon so-called “ ability” is nothing but sacrifice upon the shrine of superstition and ignorance. # # * Out Canterbury athletes may not always be the very pink of propriety and model of perfection; but I fancy they will compare very favourably with those in any other part of the colony. Certain youths who represented Auckland at the recent championship meeting at Napier appear to have disgraced the northern city by their conduct. Two Aucklanders ware disqualified for alleged “ skimming” of the hurdles in a race; and considering themselves aggrieved they indulged in threateninga, &c., towards some of the Canterbury and Wellington representatives. Not content with this ill-bred display, some Auckland representatives declined to attend the smoke concert tendered to the visitors, and one who attended had better have stayed away. The Napier papers allege that this individual got intoxicated and, as the party was dispersing, assaulted two of tbe officials in the hall of the Masonic Hotel. The language used by the Auckland athletes is described as what might be expected from “ a lot of drunken creatures in & low tap-room.” In these circumstances it is not surprising to read that the

Auckland Amateur Athletic Club-as called upon to deal with the offenders. . * * *

There is too much slang talk6dda"thoso colonies. A little slang now and then is palatable, like the “little nonsense- ot the rhyming proverb, but when one- has slang for breakfast, dinner and tea, it ge>s more nauseating than toffy. And when the slang is obscene, profane and vulgar, it becomes simply insufferable. I went to a bathing place near Christchurch the other day, intending to have a “dip,” but instead I got souaad in a flood of blasphemy and obscenity such as I had never heard before- This from about a dozen youths—some of them boys of tender age. A lot of their talk was simply unintelligible gibberish to mo; but what I did understand of it satisfied mo that each of tho stupid gang deserved a month in gaol for using obscene language in a public place. But what are we to expect when men in high positions so, no better example than they do r And our public man are purity itself compared with the beautiful crowd they have in Sydney, from “ damn Chicago Dibbs” down to hia successor m the Premiership. The present Premier of New South Wales has been addressing hia constituents in turf slang, comparing himself to a horse that ia going to make tho pace hotter and hotter, and “ come off at tho right time.” He added that if ha didn’t come off, there would be “a big smash somewhere.” No doubt Mr Reid got a Sydney crowd to laugh at there choice figures of speech, just as Captain Russell was cheered to the echo by the Napier Conservatives when he “ slanged ” the Premier lately; but the pity of it all! If our men of light and loading can do no better than that, shall we blame the benighted larrikin for lapsing into blank profanity or giving way to the moat stupid forms of obscene lanSUage? *

Who wore those odd 169 ladies who wrote, regretting that, they could not bo peesent-at the farewell “ soeial ” to Detectives O’Connor and Neill, the other night ? “ New women,” all of them. I’ll be bound. It is the distinctive mark cf tho New Woman that she wants to do everything that men do—not because it is useful or beautiful, or heroic, but simply because men do it. Tho old woman—of whom 1 taka Eve as the type, despite Cardinal Gibbons’s identification of her with the new woman—elected to lead the way and draw men after her by her power of fascination; and I must say I prefer the old style to the new, though I shall probably be classed as a “fallen man for doing so. Could it ba that one hundred and sixty-nine were aspirants for employment in tha police force ? Possibly the peculiar talents of women—their rare gifts of intuition and inquisitiveness, for example— would make the fair sex invaluable an detectives. Lieutenant-Colonel Hume Jb not “a gallant man” in the sense that Henry of Navarre was, but has he not sufficient gallantry to open tho ranks of tho force to tho ladies? The girls are so “ taking ” that they might be more successful in effecting arrests than are the male policemen. Think it over, Colonel.

Why is it that the feminine mind is incapable of grasping the intricacies of cricket ? Surely the “ mere accident of birth ” should not deprive one half of the community—and the better half at that—of all the joys which flow from an intelligent appreciation of the national game. But it is safe to say that of the scores of women who witnessed the match at Lancaster Park last week between Canterbury and Otago not _ one in a hundred understood anything about the movements of the players. Of course they all applauded when their brothers or their brothers’ friends applauded, and said “ Oh!” when their male escorts derided the efforts of-some unfortunate batsman; but as’their mentors, carried away by local prejudice, nearly always did the wrong thing in the right place, they were altogether out of touch with the progress of the game. And the fair critics were ho better when left to themselves. X was immensely amused'by the comments of two young, pretty and ■well-dressed ladies who occupied seats in the car which conveyed mo to the Park on Monday. The younger one; was evidently impressed - by the expert knowledge of her companion, and contented herself, for the most .part, with an occasional “yea” or “no.” But the other was perfectly confident of her ground. She chattered sway about “ Cuff ” and “Da Mnus,” and “ Downoo ” and “ Rattray,” as if the gentlemen bearing those names had been her father’s footman, and wound up an account of Saturday’s “ defeat ” by declaring that “ it wasn’t fair,” and that the whole thing was to be played over again “right from the beginning,” because the Dunedin “fellows” had “ greased the wickets.! ” A . little knowledge—when it is very little—is indeed a dangerous thing. Flaneur.