A PAGE FROM THE KAISER'S DIARY.

North Otago Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 7264, 12 October 1891, Page 1

A PAGE FROM THE KAISER'S DIARY.

Mr Walter Besant, in his Saturday Notes in the Manchester Examiner, gives an extraot from a letter by an illustrious visitor : " Very pleasant week on the whole; They showed me their army — a pretty toy, on which they spend as much money as I do on a real thing — and their navy, which looka like business, )rrt it ought to bo twice as large for safety. And I saw a handful of volunteers — a foroe whioh Bhould be made the army of home defence if I had it. Ab it is, they have no offioets and no organisation. The English are a ouri* ous people. Nobody dares to propose amoasure because! til not wanted for the safety of the nation, but for the safety of the party. The people who make the real greatness of the country— its traders, its manufacturers, its men of science, art, and literature — of which I read so much at home, were oarefally kept out of my sight, for some jealousy whioh I do not understand. They pretend that these people do not belong to tbe Court That is absurd, How oan a court oxiet in this country, enriched ly these people, and governed by a popular asseuiply, where men of science, ait, letters, aud manufactures do not form the most brilliant portion! This I do not understand. At home I ebould tremble for the stability of the crown did I not gatber all olauses round the throne. Yet I saw not one of all tbo names that are honored all over tho world, especially in Germany. This omission struck mo as the most sur« priuing of all I saw in this remarkablo country."

Scarcely a vroek (says the Post) now paasea without a case of destitution arising out of the late strike coming before the Wellington Benevolent Institution. Last week an er-Htrbor Board employee, whoeo family on* Bisted of a wife and eight obildren, waited on the Trustees, and asked for relief, stating that ho owed his landlord fourteen weeks' rent, his children, were badly clothed and without boots* If the institution would provide tha ohildreu with boots and one or two other necessaries he thought he coald niaonge to sorape together sufficient food. Asked by thn chairman why he joined in the strike, the man said ho did not knoff, but it was the unanimous resolve of thirty permanent men employed by Harbor Board, He wa* earning eoven uhi'hogs a day, wet and dry, before the strike, and was offered re. employment a few days after knocking off, but, he added, " I should have been killed if E had gone back." "You prefer to allow your family to atatvo," obierved the Chairman. It was resolved to grant rations and hoots toe the children, the TrutUoea intimating thst they could not assist htm aa reearda the baok rent. Young Mother (displaying tho baby) 'Do you think ho looks like hia father, Mr Oldbuy?' Mr Oldboy— ' Woll, ye'oa, thoio isa family resemblance ; but it ieu't Btnking enough to worry about.'