SNAPSHOTS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIII, Issue 10628, 13 April 1895, Page 6

SNAPSHOTS.

The tendency of the age is to turn “holy days ” into holidays, and this was made clear by the way in which Good Friday was observed in Christchurch. In this I see nothing to deplore. As good old Dr Watts obssrved: “ Religion never was designed to make our pleasures less,” and we can surely commemorate a solemn occasion without making ourselves miserable or unhappy. Even in puritanical Scotland the “ fast days ” have been abolished, or are observed only as holidays. But the religious observances of Good Friday, accompanied by excursions and other jollifications, will in some quarters revive the old controversy regarding the relation of religion to pleasure. A phase of that controversy was touched upon the other day by the Christian Outlook, an ecclesiastical paper published in Dunedin, which deplored the large amount of space devoted to sporting news by the daily newspapers. One paper, it said, gave eighteen columns of sporting nows and only two of religious instruction. The editor of the Oarioofcexpressed a pious hope that Sir Robert Stout would introduce a Bill to deal with the matter; hut whether the suggested legislation is to prevent the publication of sporting newo or to compel newspapers to give o larger proportion of space to religious items ianot quite Clear. The outlook is not a cheerful cue any way to the average New Zealander. A brutal secular paper retorted that if religious bodies would advertise as liberally as the jockey clubs do they would get equal apace in the news columns. It even analysed the advertisements of the Outlook and found that, while it had only two religious announcements, it had numerous advertisements of moneylenders, patent medicines and If the agnostic knight should be persuaded to attempt legislation in the interests of religion he ought to make it take the shape of compelling the churches to support their own organa more liberally. * * *

Magna est veritas! “ Truth ” has triumphed in the person of its Christchurch apostle and prophet, who has obtained the mandamus of the Supreme Court, calling upon the Registrar-General to place him on the list of persona authorised to solemnise marriages in New Zealand. The ’cutest thing about Mr Justice Denniston’a decision is the evasion of the point as to what constitutes a religious body. Tho Judge, however, made it abundantly clear that the law takas no cognisance of tha character of religious teachers—that being a matter of which the devotees of each sect are understood to be the best judges. ’Twaa thus in the days of the Yelled Prophet of -Khorassan, and so will it be to the end. For my part, when I remember that there are in New Zealand some nine hundred clergymen and two hundred registrars empowered to “ tie the knot ” for those wishing to run in double harness, I fail to see the importance of one matrimonial undertaker more or less. A lamentable feature is that marriages are decreasing in New Zealand, depxte the lavish facilities provided for consummating them. Perhaps a little healthy competition among the nine hundred clergymen might give a stimulus to the marriage market. There is a Melbourne auctioneer in holy orders who makes quite a “pile” by marrying couples for five shillings. He rattles through the ceremony in the “Qoing-going-gone” style, and the knot is just aa binding aa that which is tied in church, with solemn surroundings or full choral service. If some Christchurch clergyman would but adopt this method of doing business, the bitter wail of fathers with large families of daughters might be hushed, and there would not be such a rush of clover and attractive girls to the nursing profession. « * * The general opinion of the ladies of Christchurch aa represented in the gallery is that Captain Russell ia very handsome and, personally, quite delightful. “ Oh,” exclaimed one buxom dame, “when he was young his figure must have been quite distracting.” “ However distracting hia figure may have been when he was young.” replied another, “ his figures now are quite too distracting for me.” But the gallant Captain appears to have an imagination quite as handsome aa His personality. For instance, when he asserted that for one unemployed walking the Streets in 1891 there were ten to-day, he drew the long bow till it broke. Powell was ready with the figures. “ There were two hundred and forty looking for work to-day,” he exclaimed. By the Captain’s way of reckoning that would make the number of unemployed in Christchurch not a fraction more than twenty-four in 1891. Our people are better informed than Captain Russell supposed, or he would not attempt to work off such stuff on them.

Another evidence of how the charming leader of the Opposition can manipulate figures was afforded at the close of his speech, when he sought to prove that upon the gross poll of the colony the difference in the number of those who voted for the Government and those who voted for the Opposition was only 4250. This great arithmetician, to serve his purpose, took tbs votes for all the Ministerial candidates who were elected and added them up as representing all the votes for the Government. Then he took the votes cast for all other candidates and added them up as for the Opposition. At the election for Christchurch, for instance, there were eleven candidate, of whom all except three were for the Government. But Captain Russell only counted the votes cast for the three who wero elected as for the Government; all the votes cast for the other eight candidates he counted for the Opposition. Instead of this only the votes given to the three gentlemen who were at the bottom of the poll were entitled to be counted for the Opposition, and the votes of all the other eight candidates were Ministerial votes. It wpuld be folly to expect a gentleman who could get befogged in this way over so simple a matter to understand, much less to master, the figures of the Colonial Treasurer. * # *

The great originator and apostle of modern seatheticism, Oscar Wilde, is in a bad way. His plays, which were not without genius, are still being performed, but without acknowledgment of their authorship; his fame has fallen to tha lowest notoriety, and ho is in gaol. Hard lines, but surely no more than he deserves. Gilbert, the very greatest of modern satirists, depicted tho apostle of leathotioism aa followed about by a crowd of beautiful women, from whose attentions—it being Saturday—ha was constrained to beg the favour of “ tho usual half-holiday.” That there was far more in the point than colonial audiences ever dreamed now begins to be clear. The Marchioness of Queensberry was the mother of four sons, but disputation ia confined to number three—Lord Douglas. Wilde has displayed quite a fatherly interest in number three, and number throe, quite singularly, is far more affectionately attached to Wilde than to the Marquis. But all this was public property, quite familiar, before it became notorious through the recent law proceedings. Tha evidence’that was coming, and which led Wilde’s counsel to “ chuck up” his brief, must have been something which the public did not know, and something much more “ powerfully smelling.” Wilde was “a funny little man”—-“a fellow of infinite jest, of moat exquisite fancy”—and yet wrapped up in all this dirt! Here’s a moral for the moralists. Ho lies in gaol so poor in reputation that, there is none so base as know him.

Among the institutions of the world the Christchurch Hospital is most peculiar. Years ego there were “rows” connectsd with it; they seem to have continued, ants promise to lire on unabatc-d. When it is not the resident surgeon that is the source of trouble, the medical gentlemen acscci ated with it split up into factions and jesr and fight; and now a new element of discord, and perhaps the moat irritating anpersistent of all. has been introduced in the nurses. Only occasionally doss th. seething dissatisfaction burst up and flow over, and then the public gets a full share of it. In this latest of miserable squabbler, the.prphifaitiocists seemto bare recognised;

their opportunity, and eagerly they rnshed forward to seize it. At last Saturday’s meeting the leading orators were prohibitionists. Mr Collins suggested that they should appoint a deputation to wait upon the Minister in the usual way, but tho prohibitionists would not take anything from Mr Collin*. To go to Mr Beeves would, they declared, be going down on their knees, which, of course, they never do—it would he grovelling. Some time ago, certain prohibitionists resolved that they would either convert Mr Beeves to the only article of political faith to which they attach value, or they would politically kill him. They failed to convert, so they are striving to kill. They are trying to poison him by serving him with choicest delicacies. Politically, Mr Ecevea will live a long time on such treatment. Flaneur.