AMONG THE CROWD.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CV, Issue 12535, 24 June 1901, Page 2

AMONG THE CROWD.

■ -$ SOME OF THEIR OPINIONS. (By A MAN IN THE STREET.) - The accredited representatives of this paper, will ha''e duly described the official proceedings connected with the Royal visit and reception ; but their journalistic range of observation must necessarily, to a great extent, have been limited by the bounds of officialism, and etiquette. It may, coneequsntly, interest some of my readers to leam what impression was apparently mads upon the outside general public by the arrival here on Saturday of our august visitors, and the arrangements made for receiving them. Your true democrat is usually refreshingly frank, and your extreme Radical, brutally candid, in expressing their personal views and opinions on public: men, matters and management; and while, on the whole, it is perhaps just as well that these same views and opinions are not disseminated through the Press, there are occasions when it proves at least interesting and often instructive, to place them on record. Believing that Saturday’s functions afforded such an exception, I have penned the present article. •• you talk about your Christchurch decorations, ” said a visitor, from the Imperial City with a contemptuous curl of his moutacfied Up; “ Why, they don’t come within co-ee of M'dlington’s display.” __ “ And in my opinion neither these nor Wellingtons are to be compared to Auckland’s,” dripped in a gentleman sojourning at “Coker’s,” adding, with pride, “ I saw all the Melbourne and Sydney displays, both Centennial and Federal, so I consider myself an authority on the subject.” “ Far and away the finest turnout will be Dunedin’s, you will see,” was another gentleman’s emphatic decision. “They are mostly cautions, canny Scots down there, bub when they make up their minds to have a> splash in the way of shows, they always dip their hands into their pockets right up to their elbows, and do the thing handsomely,” added the speaker, who, by the way, came from Mr Piranha electorate. Well, the decorations satisfied the bulk of the sightseers, and that was a? much as the committee hoped to achieve, probably. The agricultural arch in Worcester Street, apparently won most approbation ; the frozen meat companies High Street structure running it very close for first honours. Considering the wealthy corporations interested in it, the Shipping Companies’ bridge was voted decidedly insignificant and paltry. To my mind, it suggested a dismantled and dismasted brig that had been, earned inland ■ on a tidal wave and stranded high and dry in a parched desert. “Oh lor! Wot a tuppeny-’apenny get-up!” exclaimed a coal-speckled stoker. “ You bet the company won’t spend much unless they can make somethin’ out of it. I know ’em! I ain’t worked nine year for ’em for nothin’.” Perhaps he spoke feelingly, and the painful fact had) been burnt into him. On all hands, the most unstinted praise was bestowed on the railway station adornments, and this should be extremely gratifying to whoever was chief engineer of the display. “ Ain’t they a splendid lot of fellows, these mounted men 1 Talk about your Imperial and Indian troops—why, none of them looked) half as well as these. You couldn’t beat them for soldier-like appearance and good horsemanship, with any troops in the world.” “Bai Jovel These are awfully smart, serviceable-looking fellows, doncher know.: Properly.; dwilled, they would soon make. Stine cavalry,” (this from an eye-glassed glots-trotter, ‘(doncher know.” I could have remorselessly sabred the conceited ass with my walking-stick, and thought it not even manslaughter, much less murder. These, ■ and similar encomiums fell upon the ear all along the Royal route, and “bai Jove"' they were ■ fully merited, for a finer body of mounted troops .it would have been impossible to amalgamate. No wonder the eyes of the nations have bulged at the sight and handiwork of our citizen soldiers. ,No wonder that British generals all along the South African campaign have fallen over one another in their eagerness to praise our various contingents. No wonder that the Premier let himself loose and raid, “If any foreign nation landed an army on our shores the intruders would be wiped out in twentyfour hours.” I’ve seen the massed mount-, ed men of four colonies, but none surpassed ours of last Saturday. The volunteers on foot, too, would compare most favourably with any of those I have seen paraded in Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales. Then, again, I would ask what colony or country could produce a more promising crop of military seedlings than, our cadets presented? It is, I understand,-illegal under our present Constitution to recruit troops here for foreign, service, and a good provision it is to keep our men for home defences. Otherwise, they would l speedily be bribed and cajoled into leaving us, I fear. But I venture to predict that at no distant date the Mother Country will look to New Zealand and hex sister colonies, as the healthiest and most prolific recruiting grounds of her Empire. Here, however, I must digress for a moment, and refer to the want of consideration shown, by the authorities in their treatment of volunteers and cadets alike. •

Press reports have told us how disgracefully the men. in camp at Wellington were treated ; of the unique and (admittedly) un- , soldier-like or mutinous methods adopted to draw public attention, to their grievances; of Colonel Pole-Penton’s equally unseemly and unsoldierly expressions in speaking of the ringleaders as “infernal cowards” and “ infernal curs.” Bub .the newspapers, so far as I know, have not told u$ what a Nelson volunteer officer told me on, Saturday, viz., that Colonel Somerville, in charge of the Newtown camp, had written several times to the Defence Department drawing attention to the abuses existing, and that the receipt of his letters had never even been acknowledged. Neither has the Press informed us that on one occasion, some hundreds of the incensed troops solemnly interred: sundry portions of unwholesome meat, read the buriaj service over them, andi actually fired a, volley over the dishonoured remains. A court-martial followed, but nothing resulted in the way of punishment. These are facts, albeit hitherto unpublished, for I had them from the officer referred to, as well as other volunteers who were then in camp. It is satisfactory to know that a searching inquiry is to be held touching these grievances. But even here on Saturday last, growlinga and grumblings were heard on every hand from the railway station, to Victoria Street Bridge, at the tvanb of consideration shown by the military “big bugs” in keeping the men and cadets standing for nearly two weary hours in the wet, mud and biting wind. Guises loud and deep were also audible at many points, and, elicited sympathy from many of the bystanders, instead of condemnation. Many of the poor, little cadets positively shivered in the cold, for their thin kharki and other suits affcwled hut little protection from the bitterly cold south-east wind, and it will bo well if no serious after consequences ensue. One company of uniformed;mites near the Victoria Street Bridge, suffered so perceptibly, indeed, that a lady residing near had hexmotherly heart moved to the extent of making a big can of nice, hot tea, which her domestic served out to the youngsters. The latter gathered round the good Samaritan’s door prior to leaving, and cheered hear to the echo for her thoughtful kindness. Why on earth the troops could not have been saved an hour at least of this needless exposura ’ and discomfort, I cannot imagine. The ' authorities are adopting 0 curious methods truly far popularising the volunteer movement. A half-crown reduction in the capitation grant per annum, will just about improve the ontire system, out of existence. " They’ve made a Hodmiral of Dick Sadden !.” With the addition of the adjective “bloomin,”’ such was the expression evoked by the sight of the Premier in liis cocked hat-and gold-laced uniform, from one .of his

horner-handed admirers. “ Oh! don’t he look the bloomin’ toff !” _ Thej’l be'makiri a hear! or a marljis on ’im before long, you’ll see.” “No bally fear! Dick won't take on any title ; mot he. He knows too much for that. If he lets ’em tack a handle onto his name he’s a goner so far as politics is concerned.” “What a contra? t between' the ‘ Dcok ’ and Dick Secldon!” explained another admirer of the latter, as his Royal Highness and the Duchess swept by. The speaker was right. A veritable gasometer of conscious pride, power and glory, the Premier's expansive smiles spread themselves ail over the street, and his bows comprehended not only the assembled multitude, but all creation, the universe included. “ Pore young feller! ’Ee looks as if 'e wus sick an’ tired of all ’is gallivantin’ abaht. an’ wished hisedf-trick ’ome agon,” sympathetically observed an unmistakeably London lady. Her English was; sadly at fault, but her diagnosis was mathematically accurate; the Duke, as I saw him, really did look as if the tour had taxed both his patience, endurance and constitution to the very utmost, find as if he would fervently, rejoice when the homeward Journey was commenced. “ Why, lie’s quite a little feller,” was another general observation, usually supplemented by, “His portraits and photos represent him ns being quite a tall, well-built man,” and “The Duchess is n deal a finer-built woman than he :s a man,” etc. My own preconceived idea, as to his stature, gathered from photographs, was that Iris Royal Highness stood somewhere in the neighbourhood of sft 9in or sft lOin, and it both surprised and grieved me to have to lop off some half-foot of his perpendicularity. , The Duchess disappointed many of the public, who, whilst freely admitting her good looks and refinement, set her down as being cold, formal and distant to her inferiors. I should imagine that when she cared to unbend, she could make herself particularly amiable arid sociable, and her smile, when fully developed, would be peculiarly winning and prepossessing. The smile, however, that was bestowed upon the people in my direction was but a mere resemblance, and even that appeared to have been carried a long distance in a frozen meat chamber. The nod ,of the graceful head, too, that accompanied the outline of a smile given, was of .a purely automatic and formal kind, but was mode the most of by those who caught it. Much disappointment was felt at the meagre character of the illuminations, and it was generally conceded that they fell far short of what had been expected. Some few firms, it is true, had gone to considerable expense, and of these Strange’s Sargood, Son and Eweris, the “D.1.C.,” and A. J. White’s displays came in for most favour. The Arctic arch in High Street, and contiguous lights in the Empire Hotel - frontage, showed up very well indeed; the Cathedral tower and spire were also considered remarkably effective, but the Post Office illuminations were not up to anticipations by any means, and they were regarded as far behind those of the Wellington Post Office building. Considerable comment was occasioned by one of A. J. White’s transparencies representing “Peace,” in which a male and female are represented in strikingly original attire. The lady, in fact, is simply clothed in finelyspun zephyrs, while her companion wears a dress of antique' oxygen.