TALK IN TOWN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIV, Issue 5018, 15 December 1877, Page 1 (Supplement)

TALK IN TOWN.

"Sir, we had talk."—Dr. Johnson. le ' ° S ta ' ie 8 WSlk 111 Q ueen " a ' rce t."—Ditto [Written for the Wki.klv News ] While the socialogist, philanthropist, and parson, are doing their best by precept, and sometimes by example, to lessen or exterminate the evil of drunkenness, it is gratifying to find that they are aided by men in the position of miue managers, who, I learn, are striking terror into the minds of workmen by making examples of some of them. For instance, the Monetary Golden Reef Mining Company's manager has acted with decision. He telegraphed the other day " Tunnel tight, and have therefore discharged a few of the workmen." There is in this vicarious punishment something exceedingly inconsistent with justice, and even the most devout Good Templar would protest against tyranny of this nature. Had the men got tight and so neglected their work, there might have been some show of retributive justice in dismissing them ; but because the tunnel got tight (by the way, that is a novol phenomenon ; how comes it ?) it seems worse than Jeddart justice to sack the workmen.

Ajfriend, who is trying tojgetmetobuy some mining shares, is looking over my shoulder (like the modesty of his class), and explains that the tightness of the tunnel has reference to the additional hardness of the rock, which lessens the amount of debris taken out, and requires fewer men to remove it. Just so, but what is a simple outsider like me to know of tight tunnels ? and why should not the Golden Reef manager avoid speaking in parables '! It is like the ticket of the lecturer, sent as a compliment to an admiring friend:— "Lecture on Fools. Admit One." I have been almost let in myself, but I did not buy the shares from my informant.

Racing time is near, and the preliminary arrival of pleasure-seekers, racing men, trainers, jockeys, and bookmakers, marks the approach of the summer days and the festivities of the Christmas time. Soon shall we hear, at Elleralie, the song of the lark soaring at heaven's gate, and iu the sweet sunshine, mingled with the harsh cry of the welcher, "Fifty to one against Cherrybim, bar one and that will bring us quickly to earth again, and earthly burrov.ings, with our small bet 3, our little sweepßtakes, our gloves, etcetera, with the smiling gracefully-dressed owners of certain bright eyes that lose bets with that charming glance and nonchalant air that more than makes up for the certainty that they will never be paid. Then comes the bell, the preparations, the start, the rush, the stand-post on the first round, the eager breathless thousands watching the struggle, the cheers, the cries, the flutter, the excitement, the final strain in the strait, the neck and neck, and Cherrybim wins by a nose, and decamp welcher. It may sometimes be very naughty, but it is very nice to watch all this, and I do not wonder if a touch of the racing fever occasionally touches one who feels the impropriety of the fascination, but cannot resist its influence.

"Circumstances alter cases," or let me say "geographical positions alter opinions." Horse-racing is usually classed by clergymen in general, more especially by Dissenters, as one of the amusements to be shunned. I recollect, a few years ago, hearing a young minister who was imported from an outdistrict in New South Wales to this province, declaim against the racecourse in no measured terms. I won't mention nis name, nor give even a "hint on" subject. I left the district in which that minister located, and in less than twelve months afterwards 1 was at a race meeting in a country district. Here I met my reverend friend, accompanied by lady friends, in a smart trap, and apparently enjoying the joyous scene before him, as well as the good things with which the hampers in that trap was stored. My reflections were sad. What would the devout deacous of that minister think of his appearance on such a scene, and with what holy horror would they hold up their hands ? But I was comforted by the reflection that by increased experience he had learned that religion did not debar its votaries from the pleasures of life.

Some clergymen, however, advocate horseracing and practice it. There was the late English vicar, who kept a splendid stud aud ran horses, and who, being requested by His Lordship, the Bishop of Lincoln, to give up either his living or his horse-racing, gave up the former and kept his horses. He is now gone to another sphere where, like the Indian's dog, perhaps his faithful horse will bear him company. But it was only the other day, in a district in the province where a clergyman called the attention of his congregation to the fact that the local races were about to come off, intimating that he intended to attend them, hoped the weather would be fine, advised them to follow his example and go likewise. He was duly on the course aud evidently enjoyed himself. Sonie of his congregation said he's hot on racing. 'Deed no, rejoined au old lady, I never saw a " caulder."

Touching clergymen, our respected friend, the reverend member for City West is rather in a quandary. 11 is congregation have asked him either to give up his kirk, which is mortgaged to himself, or give up his political career, lie tlally refused to do either, so he is in a better position than the other reverend neutlemau who vacated his pulpit and stuck to his stud. A correspondent asks me to iusert the following quotations from Dr. Waliis's education speech as reported in Ifanxard, which certainly displays a broad grasp and an apparent acquaintance with Plutonian regions. In Hansard, page 19:1, this is what is reported from Dr. Wallis :—"I say there is no devil in all hell who is more afraid of the Bible than are these advocates of secular education; in that respect they beat the devil himself." This shows how the Doctor lis 3 travelled, and where. Again, page 19G, " \ have spent a great part of my life in the £ tudy of religious subjects, and one thing*. I will say that I have never discovered one false religion. There is not such a thing. They are all true, aud Christianity is the truest." There is a courage in this which is enviable. After that, what of Mormonism and Devilworship ?

At the South Newton reunion, recently, the Rev. Mr. Macnicol, carried away by the popular current, expressed his regret—somewhat late in the day—that Dr. Wallis was not a member o£ the Presbytery. A clerical frieud once expressed to Bishop Wilberforce hiß hope that Spurgeon might yet bo " bagged " by the Anglican Church. His Lordship deprecatiugly replied, "My dear sir, remember the injunction, * Covst not thy neighbour's ass !' " I would commend "Soapy Sam's" new rendering of the Decalogue to Mr. Macnicol's serious attention, without at all inferring that we have fallen upon the prototype of the hero of the Tabernacle.

The genuine "Priest in Absolution" is the editor of a newspaper. To him comes Buffering Humanity with its wants, its weaknesses, and its aspirations. The Statistical section of the Social Science Congress has in a series of exhaustive calculations shown by the beautiful mathematical accuracy of the "Law of Averages" that the first impulse of nine Englishmen out of ten, in the event of their meeting the devil, would bo to send for a policeman ; and in the second, to post off with a letter to the editor of the Times, describing the details of the rencontre. " A Heavy Father " in this city has a grievance, and he presses forward to the literary Confessional with his trouble. It appears that he resides in a fashionable suburb, with the singularly appropriate name of Coiujuent Place; and that Damon and Phyllis are wont to prolong their Platonic communings there at eventide, a practice which narrowly resulted in frightening his wife and daughter into hysterics while returning late the other night from an evening party, believing it to be a case of " second sight," or at the least, that they had seen a ilopperdanger. "A Heavy Father" admits that Solomon —no mean authority on such matters — says " there is a time for everythingbut lit ha 3 come to the couviction "that the witching hour and his garden-gate are neither the time nor the place for the outgoings of young souls, and the blossoming of Eden's plant." lam afraid there is neither redress nor consolation for him, and the highest

philosophy would be to accept the inevitable. It is the "old, old story," ever " siuce Adam war a kid." For to-day, as when the Serpent was cavortin' around in Eden — Beauty's our griof, but in the ore. We mint, wo stamp, and then adorn. Mehcury.