Sossip from Sydney.

Free Lance, Volume XIV, Issue 723, 9 May 1914, Page 22

Sossip from Sydney.

-Deab Chkistabel, —- KTJRNELL, the historic headland of . Botany Bay, where Navigator ~ Cook stepped ashore 144 years ' ago, .was more or less draped with bunting on April 25th. Though the 28th is given as the actual date, the Government wisely chooses a Saturday after- . noon-,' as near as possible to the exact day.: for the annual celebration. ■ - '■'*. *~*-•* • The Yorkshire Society here, individually and collectively, take a special, interest in the Cook anniversary. A glow of pride apparently makes the men of • that' county feel that, if not first cousins to the. great sailor, they are only removed by 144 years "from having taken a prominent part in the early settlement of this country. Not content with xne big Kurnell event, when the State Governor, the Admiral, and local ' politicians outvie each other in praising Captain James Cook, R.N., and his sauc-v tub the Endeavour, the Yorkshire enthusiasts assist at a postscript celebration. *-** ' * * This is backed up by the Sydney Historical Society and the Australian Na- , tives' Association. The latter.is largely composed of rampant busybodies who regard Australia as the .pre-destined workshop and playground of the native-born <aS' opposed to the aboriginal and the British colonist) Australian., This is the - Association"which, in Victoria, has a strong flavour of extreme Socialistic politics. To it, we chiefly owe the sentiment that Australia ■ has "no ' use" for the Union Jack. * * * ** Hence the evolution of a special flag for an infant nation, which is in its defences, so dependant on the orestige of Mother Britannia, that were the "Union Jack lowered in northern seas, we should be snapped up by the most able and numerous foreign power that happened to be looking towards our emnty continent. * *. * # ' The Historical Society is a more sane and useful body. Though it has many bones of contention in the loosely-kept early records of New South Wales, it honestly digs hard, and produces much valuable information. One of its members. Mr. J. H. Watson, presumably a Yorkshireman, gave a fervid oration at the little r>ost mortem celebration on April 28th. This was held in Hyde Park.•, beside Cook's fine and commanding statue. "Give a Yorkshireman a halter," said he, "and he'll soon find a horse"—a. queer way of impressing the fact that a man from Cook's county never failed to 'find anything he looked for. * * * * Alderman Pritchard, a leading light of the New South Wales Australian Natives' Association,. aroused the wildest . enthusiasm in the infant breast—the infant nose being glued to the fringe of these unimportant speeches.. His suggestion that the actual date of Cook's landing should be kept as a public holiday, instead of the Saturday afternoon next to it, was received with shrill cheers from the juveniles present. How; this worthy advocate of another holiday to. swell our already lengthy list, would contrive to make an extra carnival dav of a Saturday or Sunday—when the 28th fell on either of those days—one cannot presume to say. Dr. Gilruth, who is in Sydney this week, had lunch with the Governor and Lady Edeline Strickland during his brief .visit here. He is beginning to grasp the stinging nettle of Northern Territory affairs with more tact than he seems to have shown at first. The North was up against a stranger, and wanted as its Administrator a well-known Territory official who had explored its hinterland and knew the ways of its people. It is about the hardest billet in the Commonwealth. The fact that Dr. Gilruth is a strong and forceful son of Anak hasn't ■ smoothed the way. However, seething rebellion against his possibly autocratic . rule appears to be fading into the more negative qualities of passive resistance. That the Administrator is a man of high ideals no one doubts. But he certainly has scratched the old pioneer the wrong way with a long curreycomb now and '-again. * * * * Your energetic representative here. Mr. W. R. Blow, of the Tourist Agency, is arranging a private view—or taste—of "New Zealand wine. The idea is to get a little publicity for Dominion wine, as it is practically unknown here. At present, I understand, the duty on it would in any case make it almost prohibitive in .Australia. But, should!-a neighbourly spirit eventually prevail and reciprocity come into force, New Zealand wine might enter into friendly competition even with this essentially grape-growing "State.. . ". * * » '» wine ceremony in the iNew Zealand Government Bureau here

will the Dominion an unusual advertisement. Sydney people regard the Auckland district as. entirely-de voted-to .the geyser industry, with kauri timber ..as a .side-line. Dr. Fiaschi,-an eminent viticulturist and wine-grower, and Professor Blunno—another expert—are . amongst the elect who are to smack their lips overji few. bottles of wine from the Waerenga' Experimental Farm,, Te Kauwhata. ■ • ' '* . * * For the last year or two, a few aesthetic minds have been much exercised! over the late Oswald Brierly's great picture. "H.M.S: Rattlesnake in a Storm off the Isla'rfd of Timor." Many years ago the famous English marine painter came to Australia —I believe he was on the Rattlesnake—and for a time was the guest of the then owners of a Mosman mansion (near Sydney), called "The Rangers." Bit by bit the beautiful acreage of _ grounds which once surrounded this picturesque stone house was sold, till at last the small suburban villa crept up to the retreating fence that only enclosed an ordinary-garden. . * * * * The Rangers, built in the days when servants were cheap . and plentiful, was too large, too scattered, and altogether too old-fashioned for these hurried davs when hired help is not only scarce, but expects to have every modern short cut to labour at its finger ends. The house itself went through the hands of many tenants, and experienced strange vicissitudes of fortune. On its debit side, also was a fine full-flavoured reputation 'for ghosts who rang bells, and otherwise misbehaved themselves when quiet folks wished to sleep peacefully in their beds.' , The.fact that ."The Rangers" must eventually be pulled down to make way for modern bricks and raised the query: How can Brierly's rjicture be save£ was P ainte< * on the end wall of the long dining-room, and took up the whole space. When I saw it, about 8 years ago, it was in perfect preservation and # a magnificent specimen of the great marine artist's technique. You could almost hear the hissing of the tyohoon on the seething waters, as the old" Rattlesnake reeled on her side in the storm. Of late, it has not been very carefully protected; though artists recognise its enormous value as a work of art A week or two ago. the Rangers fell before the inevitable demolisher of old and obsolete buildings. Extraordinary care was toVen to pack the wall, on which the Kp.ttlesnake picture had been painted hv Brierlv. in concrete, and it is believed to have been a successful "save/ 5 A suggestion that the historic wall'should be built in to an alcove in the Mitchell

Library is now a stirring seruel to this romantic story. * * ■» * The wedding of Miss E. E. Joseph, who has many friends and relatives in New Zealand, was to have taken place on April 22nd in London. I have borrowed this news from an English paper, which is so obliging as to add that the bridegroom's name is Gabriel Egles. He is a cousin of the bride. * • * * * Mr. and Mrs. Harold Beauchamp have been seeing something of Sydney durin°their visit here. As; chairman of direct tors of the Bank of New Zealand, he has. of course, had a good deal of business to see to," in connection with the possible change of address of the local branch. . * * * * Mr J H. Gunson, chairman of the Auckland Harbour Board, is holidaying here. He has had the best samples of April weather we can offer to travellers' —brilliantly fine days and nights with a cri6p snap in the air. . * * * * Another Dominion visitor, Mr. R. Wood of Palmerston North, is also a bird of passage to our big city by the sea. Mrs. S. Hughes, a smartlv dressed bvdney woman, who is a fine amateur i m' and is now ta fc in S seriously to the Tango—as danced with - o-race and discretion at the Imperial Salon—wore one of these very new Paris hats, with a

ttauc-draped frock, 011 a recent afternoon, ahe was taking a lesson from ■Bentzen, an American expert who is said to have, taught some of New York's four hundred" to tango. Mrs. Hughes hat looked insecure, but its dashing poise on one side, with a kind of bunched-up effect of. rosettes at one side, was evidently firmly pinned to her scalp' lhe crown of this.chapeau was flat, ■pearly all the .trimming was under the brim on one side. It was very quaint and pretty at a fashionable dancing lesson but I doubt if we shall see many or these French ideas as ordinary wear. * * # *' Carl Bentzen, by the way must be making a large income. Some of his priceless time is; spent at. the National Ineatre. In his otherwise disengaged hours, he teaches Society how to tango at the Imperial Dancing Salon. Two, three, or more guineas for an hour's lesson from Bentzen is said to be the price frequently paid by rich women who are obsessed with the Tango mania. It is a_ stately, complicated affair as this New *ork dancer teaches it. '.There is not even a family likeness between his version of tins much-discussed dance (not even the bend at the knees) and the 1gar hooliganism that was called Tango when it first.struck this astounded city all of a heap. . * * * # . • . Your city engineer, Mr. W H Morton, is passing through Sydney on his Tj : ay to Melbourne. There's some mention of his. going on to Adelaide before he returns to. Wellington. "' * • * * *."'.•. The_ purple hat. which had a wild car1Z ■?oio Ul,e dudn ? the last months of oui 1913 summer, is again lifting up its gorgeous brim. It lifts it more suddenly than when we saw it last. The highcrowned 1914 shape tosses its brim hfcrh up-.iu the air. In the latest models it nas soft rosettes of silk, satin, or-velvet piled up in the old-fashioned style to look as if they rested on the hair'on one side. * * * * •The Bristol Trade Commissioners, Mr Riseley and-Mr. Manning-Lewis, will have search their vocabulary for a new. halo to hang round New Zealand— their present address. While in Australia they loaded our frequently maligned country with such a generous meeof of praise that we are still blushing at such unaccustomed compliments. They are of course, keen business men. Most likeW they'll regret they cannot do a DomiSo geySers bef<>re %y leave the Yours discursively, ' Bowa.