SNAPSHOTS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCV, Issue 10918, 28 March 1896, Page 6

SNAPSHOTS.

It is a happy characteristic of colonial sympathy that it is always accompanied by offers of practical aid. The widows and orphans of the miners entombed at Brunnerton had scarcely realised the magnitude of their terrible loss before help was telegraphed to them from Canterbury. The wires that connect the two coasts of the Island were never put to a nobler use. It is nob in my province to suggest how the work so well begun should proceed. I have only one suggestion to make. The churches —which mean, I suppose, the parsons —are often reproached with their apathy for the welfare of tho masses. , They display a maximum amount of concern for tho souls and a minimum amount of thought for the .bodies of their flocks. That at anyrate is tne judgment of many people like myself — who probably know very little about the matter. Now the churches have their opportunity. If they devoted all their collections on Sunday to the Relief Fund no one could say again with truth that they had neglected the sweet virtue which their Great Founder extolled above all others—the virtue of charity.

In English papers I read that last year the births in London were more than five thousand below the average. The fact that this fall was coincident with the accession to power of a Conservative Government is worth noticing, if only by way of remarking that none of the Liberal leaders at Home have yet thrown on the shoulders of Ministers the responsibility for the decline in the birth-rate. Captain Russell and the other New Zealand Conservatives, who have been blaming Mr Seddon and his colleagues for adding to the adult population and neglecting the reproduction of the race, ought to explain the startling fall in London’s birth-rate. They are usually very eager to claim identity with the Conservatives of the Old Country, and to prophesy that similar results would in this country follow the turning out of the Liberals as have succeeded such an occurrence in England. Are they prepared to accept the parallel in this matter and to ask the colony to face a further decline in the birth-rate P

In every trade and every profession the one secret of success is the possession of appropriate tools. One can imagine that a lawyer whose reference library consisted of such works as “ Chambers on Diet,” would not be likely to prosper particularly in his profession—unless, indeed, his specialty were, perhaps, sudden deaths in boardinghouses. And we all know the terrific temptations, for, without doubt, we have all experienced it in our own proper person, to attempt to do with a spokeshave what, rightly looked at, is the work of a jackplane. This sort of thing is the commonest of mistakes, and, curiously enough, people never seem to realise where the fault lies. The more modest blame themselves, and put it down to their own clumsiness, overhaste, want of practice, and so on. Others do not hesitate to lay the whole blame upon the weapon they have so ignominiously failed to wield. It does not seem to occur to anyone that the combination of circumstances may not have been propitious. * * * But all my instances of appropriateness and its reverse are, I am glad to say, not of a depressing character. I wish to bring into more prominence than it has yet enjoyed, a little episode that illustrates a keen sense of the fitness of things. It is a humble episode of course. lam not dealing with the freaks of the great master of the violin, whose every accessory must be so perfect that ho will pay an almost larger sum for his bow than for his instrument. This is only a case of a man’s making the best of the tools that lie around him.

Two women quarrelled violently over some trivial matter in a street in a southern town. After a few moments, they became so enraged that they seized each other by the hair, and at the close of a brief struggle, still grasping each other’s locks, rolled heavily to the ground. Women and children looked on, and screamed helplessly. At last a man came up, and, very naturally, took situation at a glance. What did he do ? Did he rush wildly forward and, at the risk of life and limb, attempt to separate them ? On the contrary, he disappeared for a few seconds. Then he returned prepared for action. - And it is the form this preparation took that I would impress upon my readers as an example_ of the exquisite felicity of distinction that a fine spirit can rise to at a supreme moment. A woman would probably have brought a pair of scissors; an ordinary man a crow-bar. This man was not an ordinary man, and his thoughtful care was rewarded by instantaneous success. He brought—a live mouse! The ladies relaxed their hold and fled. * # #• I see an item of political news to the effect that Dr Newman is to be presented with a service of plate by his constituents. The reasons for making the presentation are not stated. The genial little medico is a man of independent means, but he, nevertheless, draws his salary as M.H.R. with commendable punctuality. He must be an exceptionally favoured individual if, after getting well paid by a grateful country for his political services, he is to bf» paid over again by the electors of Wellington Suburbs. I have not heard that Dr Newman stuck to his duty any better than the other members of the Opposition who left the House and shirked their duty of discussing the estimates last session. Considering the way in which all these Conservative gentlemen betrayed the interests of the

people, they might well be each presented with a service of plate —silver, of course, and, say, thirty pieces! Flaneur.