NOTES BY A QUIET MAN.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXIX, Issue 122, 25 May 1895, Page 2

NOTES BY A QUIET MAN.

There have of lato been three robberies from museums in New Zealand, whioh shows a tasto for soienee unusual in burglars. It is true that their researches have been confined to the department containing coins, and speoimens of gold-bearing stone. Both, however, are interesting, and perhaps in course of time the thieves may turn their attention to the staffed birds, skeletons, and non-auriferous minerals. In the Wellington Museum there is a mummy in excellent preservation. The gilding and colouring on the ease are as bright as if they had beon done a few days ago, and tho joiners' work is in capital order. The deceased was a person of rank, the son of a priestess if I remember rightly, and the specimen generally is everything that could be desired. It would be a bold thoft to walk away with it bodily, but the drawback would be that the asset when acquired would bo difficult to realise. Sir Julius Vogel used to talk about fluid assets, by wbioh I suppose he meant those wbioh were easily exchanged for money. Anything less fluid than a mummy can hardly be imagined. Some of the rarer stulfed birds might be worth prigging. Ahout fifteen or sixteeu years ago a speci men of the exceedingly rare notornis was caught in Otago, aud the authorities of the Dunedin Museum tried very hard to get tbe skin and skeleton, hut thoy had not money enough to buy it. They begged it and they ttied to borrow it, and so evident was their anxiety to acquire possession of it that I hardly think that I am doing them an injustice in believing that if they had had the chance they would have been vory strongly tempted to steal it. In the end tho speciment was sent to Europe and was sold in Dresden for a large sum, somewhere about £100. If a thief oould get ho'd of suoh a prizo ho would have somothing worth stealing, and if robberies of museums are to go on tho burglars should undergo a course of scientific instruction in order to know how to direct their efforts. The deadliest sin iu these days seems to be to earn more than eight or ten shillings a day. I saw the other day that it was help n p as something very wrong that a certain public ollicer was paid at the rate of £7 a week. Well, if you can get and keep another of as much knowledge and judgment for less I suppose you ought to do so. But the question is whether you can. If no one is lo be paid more than labourers' wages p.uouts will cease to incur tho expense necessary to give their sons professional training. There would be little use to anyone of taking the trouble to acquire knowledge and skill ot hand if the reward were only to be equal to that given to unskilled labour. Within certain limits the pay of any ono who has to supervise great works or perform delicate intellectual tasks should be high. The mischief which can be done owing to incompetent supervision and direction when tbe expenditure of large sums is involved may very easily cost ten times as much as any salary which is likely to be given. If your eye lias to be couched it is poor economy to employ an incompetent surgeon with shaky hands, because he will undertake the operation cheaply, and when a great case has lo be heard before the courts, it is not good policy to be content with the services of blundering nnd stupid counsel. As a matter of fact people know this in their privato business, and, if they can 'afford it, on important occasions go to barristers and medical men who have made high reputation. The railway companies in England pay thofr ohief officers very large salades because they know that it is to their interest to do so. When the Now Zealand railways were about to be placed under Commissioners the utmost which the House of Representatives could be induced to vote failed to tompt the colony any eminent manager to accept the position of Chief Commissioner. People individually know that it is necessary to give good pay for good work, but when it comes to the cose of a Government or other public body there }s a howl if renmnenUiun approaches that which is readily Riven by companies and private employers.

Lady Mary Montague Wortley said said that scenery nnd history were alike in one respect, that they were most at tractive when the little known and the well known came close together. The most picturesque scenery was when the I high country and the ohnmpnignc met, and the most interesting part of history was that in wliich wild and civilised life were suddenly brought into contaot. Sir Walter Scott, who was a horn artist, quoted this saying of Lady Mary Montague Wortley's, but be certainly did not require ifc to inspire his genius. Iu Waverley ho brought together the patriarchal life of the Highlanders, and the more modern people of the South, with an effect that won bim tbe reputation of a magician. Unfortunately in New Zealand we havo not yet produced a master of iiction. The most which we have done has been to give temporary shelter to Mr Farjeon who has feebly 'imitated Charles Dickens, and to Mr Hume who has written " The Mystery of a Hansom Cab," and some other stories, which have nothing in particular to do with this i oolony. Ana yet there are great possj-

bilities for romance writers here. The old runholding life was not devoid of interest, considering the singular diversity of people who were mixed up in it. But even earlier than that, the old life of the whalers who settled on various parts of the coast and took unto- themselves Maon wives was a strange one, which would form a good subject for fiction. Unfortunately those who had experience of that life were not much given to writing. In the hands of a writer like Judge Mailing the materials could have been worked up into as good a book as "Old New Zealand." The privations and hardships which tho whalers underwent, varied by wild dissipation after the arrival of vessels from Sydney, offer plenty of interest, and fresh subjects of which a novelist with. the means of acquiring the necessary information could make good use. The most important native of New Zealand at present appears to be the horse Carbine. At least we have of late had more news respecting him than anv of his countrymen far Ward does not count, as I understand that he was not born in this colony. We have had telegrams and lone newspaper accounts of tbe sale and shipping of Carbine, and of the incidents of Ins voyage, of his illness at Colombo, and of Ins happy recovery. Unlike some personages of human race who have attained greatness, Carbine seems to be perfectly affableand unconscious of his high position. When be was taken on boart ship he poked his nose among his litter, iust as humbly as any cart liorse might have done, to try to find grains which had not been thrashed out. If any living creature ever had justification fo? giving himself airs he has. His high birth an! us own achievements put him at the head of his race, which according to Gulliver is m its natural state far superior to that of mankind. His fame reached far off lands, and a great nobleman will enter, tain him royalFy for the rest of his life. Every provision was mado for his comfort during his voyage, and a skilled Yahoo attendant wa s engaged for his sole personal benefit. No other New Zealanaer has had the cheers of counties thousands which have greeted • arbiue, and certainly none have ever been sold for so many thousands of guineas. Ihe self importanceof some people if their purchase money had been so great would be intolerable Erom his general charaoter for affability I have no doubt that Carbine is perfectly polita and friendly to his valet or pnva e secretary, or whatever else may be the official litle of his attendant, and that he never attempts to bie or kick him. I have heard that certain distinguished personages of inferior breeding to that of Carbine are much less con. siderate to those who serve them, and metaphorically speaking are already with heels and teeth. No «__der that there is mourning over the departure of bo great ahorse from Australia, and rearec that times are so bad that the money cannot be spared to keep bim there. It is some, times said that the human race deteriorates in physique in the colonies, but Carbine, the son of Musket, has proved that the equine race does not necessarily do so in New Zealand. Whatever mischances _. e t ?j l y i 1 > ave >dwecan truly say that the Muskets have not gone off.