DIFFIDENT HUMANITARIANS. Great Intentions, but Little Backbone.

Free Lance, Volume III, Issue 113, 30 August 1902, Page 8

DIFFIDENT HUMANITARIANS. Great Intentions, but Little Backbone.

THE average Wellington citizen is a retiring person who hates to-have the grea" light of publicity shed on him. This conviction was brought home to us the other day aftpr attending a me ting of the Wellington branch of ihe S.P.C.A. The Inspector read his report for the current month. He had destroyed the usual number of festering horses that nobody owned, and that people were too tired to bury. He had viewed the waterless fowls that came lo Wellington in ships, and which were consumed by tbe poultry-lover-, of the city. He had received letters about the tired beasts turned out on the hills around Wellington that the gay young sparks caught and galloped about all day Sundays, and so on. • • • " What are you going to do about these cases ?' ' the secretary asked several times. "Nothing," answered the Inspector. The reason is not far to seek. It is the fierce light of publicity aforementioned that st ps that Inspector. People in Wellington are as tenderhearted as people elsewhere. If they see a Karori milkman flogging his spent horses up a hill they write to the Inspector. If they observe a carter hammering his team through a Katwarra bog with a swinglebar, they write to the Inspector. If they see, as they have d ne, a h rse torn and bleeding, as a result of the use of a trace-chain roughly patched with jagged wire, and used time and time again, they write to the Inspector. As a footnote, they all say, " Please keep my name out of it. I don't want to be a witness in the Magistrate's Court." ** * - Numberless cases of cruelty in Wellington go unpunished, because tender-hearted people are too diffident to come forward and act as witnesses in any cases brought. The said ten-der-hearted people when they thus complain do no more than merely harass the Society, and effect no real good. The Society is doing some very excellent work, but it is unable to substantially minimise the cruelty known to exist if it cannot get convictions and punishment for offenders. V- * * Every week in Wellington some person writes to the S.P.C.A. with a harrowing tale of some observed case of cruelty. Every week the same old footnote. For an Inspector who is not fitted with electricity to catch people in the act of committing cruelty is impossible. Every person who is too diffident to step into the witness-box to try to lessen these ofiences, and get offenders punished, is aiding and abetting the offenders. There is nothing to be ashamed of in boldly defending dumb animals, and it is to be sincerely hoped that the retiring persons, whose wrath is simmering in silence, and who merely break forth into private letters on these subjects, will give over writing, and act as their conscience- dictate.

The Hotel Cecil resounded on the evening of August 27th to the sound of Yorshire mirth, for the Yorkshire Society of New Zealand held its annual banquet in that far-famed hostelry. The menu would have delighted the heart of the veriest epicure, and the legends on the "carte" would appeal to any Geordie. Blunt, if nothing more, was the intimation that roast lamb, sucking pig, York hams, and ox tail were "Gooid owd marrer makers," and the assertion about the sweets that, "Theease '11 mak yer chops watter." Curiously, however, New Zealand Yorkshiremen do not talk that wa" to any distressing extent, but may relanse into the old dialect when telling yarns about "Owd Sir Titus Salt and his luxooriousness." * * * When the guests were "fair stall'd," which is Yorkshire for satiated with good things the "speykin" commenced, and "Yorkie" or "Cousin Jack."

"Cockney" or Hibernian, had a chance to revel in his particular vocabulary. Mr. J. Charlesworth, the vice-presi-dent, was in his happiest vein, and many speakers said the nicest things in the nicest possible way. The irrepressible "Charlie" Wilson, Parliamentary Librarian, got off several smart things that the papers have not heard (or, at least, printed) before, and claimed for Yorkshire and Lancashire the laying of the Empire's foundation. • » • Sir Robert Stout's polished utterances on the brotherhood of man were listened to with the pleasure that all the Chief Justice's remarks always give, and the Hon. 0. Walker and Mr. John Duthie (candidate for the Wellington seat) helped the proceedings vastly, x'he Acting-Premier, the Hon. Col. Feldwick Dr. Barraelough, and many other well-known gentlemen, either proposed or replied to toasts, and the jolly Droeeedings were interspersed with songs from Mr. J. Prouse, Mr. R. Boot, Mr. R. G. Applegarth, Mr. H. Smith, and the Chieftain Rangiuia. Mr. H. Fielder, of Manners-street, is at present engaged in the all-absorbing pastime of selling household goods and furniture at prices that make the average housewife want to leave her pots and pans to get to work on the price-list. The ®aid orice-list, like good wine, "needs- no bush," and is easily found if you look through the Lance for it. One fact that should appeal to the furniturebuying public is that the whole of the furniture being sold at Fielder's sale is made on the nremises. The trade is agreed that the English imported article is good to look on, and that the French polishers at Home are good tradesmen. The trade is also agreed that the colonial-made article has better timber and better work under its polish, and that Fielder's price is right. • • • Mr. Fielder has a large place, but he wants elbow-room for hi® workers, and he is taking this opportunity. In the spring, a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of furniture, and his footsteps should turn him towards Fielder's, whose enterprise is worthy of copy, even by a City Council. Trams pass the door, and will stop if you ring hard enough. • • • The Gerardy concerts, details of which cannot be obtained for this issue, commenced on Thursday night. The booking has been very brisk. M. Gerardy left such a favourable impression in Wellington during his 1 last tour that success for his second, or any subsequent, visit is assured. With Miss Eleota Gifford and Herr Gottfried Galston to assist the great virtuoso, the "master" and his talented company must make i the tour even more popular than the last one. • * * Van Burg's Dramatic Company are causing the Federal Hall to lose its old look. The interior has been altered to suit the comoany, which onens on Saturday in "When London Wakes." The company is busy with its rehearsal®, and promises to justify the reputation that precedes it. At Christehurch, "When London Wakes" ran uninterruptedly for- sixteen weeks, and, by the preparations made here, Mr. Van Burg evidently intends beating that record.