CALAMO CURRENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XX, Issue 6811, 15 September 1883, Page 1 (Supplement)

CALAMO CURRENT.

The peoplo of Queensland, like the people of New South Wales some time ago, are now grappling with the peat of small-pox, and the Btory of the way they got it should be a lesson and a warning to all colonies engaged in the work of introducing immigrants. Happily New Zealand's record in respect of immigration has been n fair one on the whole, the wretched history of the Oxford, with its blended negligence and misfortune, affording but a prominent exception. Bnt the way in which the passengers by that unfortunate vessel moy have contracted plague, and the way at least in which infectious disorder may at any time be introduced, i? shown iu the case of th-i s s. Duhe j of Westminster, which has brought smallpox into Brisbane ; for it has come out in evidence that one of the female immigrants had beeD shipped two days after she had left J » small-pox hospital, her discharge having been accelerated by the considerate thoughtfulness of her medical advisers, who deemed that her convalescence would bo promoted by the healthful, bracing breezes of the Atlantic. That this opinion was correct was proved in the sequel, the convalescent patient reaching the oolonv in splendid health ; bnt, anhappi'y, the malady from which she was relieved was ptssed to her fellow-pas-sengers, with fatal results, and th« Rteimer arrived a pest ship, the doctor himself being among the sick. Wlien it in remembered that small-pox is not a mere passing visitor, but has a permanent standing in th 6 mother country, that it shows itself from time to time in almost every considerable centre of population, and that the lodging-houses of shipping ports are exactly the class of spots in which all the conditions for its propagation are to be fonnd, the wonder chiefly is that we have cot long ago made ita acquaintance. It is to bo hoped, however, that Queensland is the only colony the laxity of wh' se arrangements can permit its immigration service to be utilis d for recruiting the strength of patients coming direct from a small-pox hospital.

The soreness in the relations of the Educational Institute and the Board of Education is neither pleasant to look upon .nor bet.efkial to anyone conerned. Whether it be that the Board is hectoring, or the teachers are touchy, the result is the same, and it '.vonid be the duty of any well-meaning man who can, to devife a remedy and heal the wound. Now, at the laat meeting of the Institute a hiut was given, in all delicacy, and with becoming reserve, which if acted od with similar conrideratu delicacy, would apply the balm required. A teacher told of the treatment he had experienced in the mother country, how the nobleman who was the Chairman o' the Board of Education of the district used to iuvite the teachers to his hospitable mansion and there regale them once a month with the cup that cheers but not inebriates ; and how, uoder the genial influences of the hour, not only were feelings blended in harmony, but varied treasures of education lore were brought to light to the great benefit of society. Now for the happy thought. In fact it is so obvious that it is needless to express it:. But from the various notices, orders, resolutions, that have proceeded from the busy brain of the chief of the Board, teachers may have formed the impression that he is a very ogre. Nothing further from the truth. He is quite the «ontrary to those who know him ; and how could a correct impression of the real nature be conveyed so well, or sympathetic accord be so . promoted, as under the circumstances, so delicately and so neatly suggested by the speaker at the Educational institute.

The embroglio over the wandering Waverley has thrown a new light on the value of the publican's iicense. Hitherto the valuation of this item has been so involved with considerations of situation, building, and the like, that no one uninitiated in the mysteries of the trade had any reliable means of appraisement. But now that the Waverley las been wandering in a disembodied state, the chance has been giveu of considering this vital element in hotel business, apart from all accidental accessories, and though the valuation in this case has been arrived at in a rough and ready way, we learn that a license per se is value for £500, and worth fighting for at that. The disturbing element in arriving at a correct estimate in this particular case, is the fact that the price "was iixed at random, it being quite possible that if the City Council, always assuming that it had the right to sell, had put the thing up to public competition, it might have touched a far higher figure. Indeed, some people say that if the Council had been moved by a real desire to benefit the civic treasury in this transaction, it was its duty to have allowed such competition, and obtained the highest price it might have brought. However that may be, we see that a license itself, without a local habitation, is worth at a minimum £500, and as these licenses are given by the public, represented hy the Licensing Court, for a sum of £50, the question naturally suggests itself is whether the community receives a duo return for the privilege conferred on mere application. And now that citizens have resolved that no new licenses shall be granted, at least for a time, and may not improbably renew the resolution, the likelihood is that the value of the article, being a sort of monopoly, may te largely enhanced. Why, then, should the community not reap the full benefit of the privilege it confers ? Anypne can see that from this sonrce, if there are no preventing circumstances, a very great increase of revenue mii»ht be obtained, and it is worth consideration whether the increased funds might not legitimately go to the relief of lunacy, pauperism, and other products of a high state of civilisation, which are properly considered to have an intimate relation with the consumption of strong drink.

The Salvation Army, in Auckland, appears to to have settled down to the methodical ways of the recognised religious organisations, and in securing an allotment for fifty years, on which to erect a barracks, seems to have entered upon days of piping peace. Whether it is that the novelty has worn off, they have expended their ammunition or obtained an unconditional surrender from the enemy, certain it is that a strange stillness has succeeded to the bellicose and martial bearing which the army bore at its entrance on the campaign in the Northern metropolis. It is possible that the absence | of hostility on the part of the people may have had an enervating effect on the spirit of the invaders, and deprived them of the needed stimulus to w,-irlike prowess. However this may be, there is one thing made strikingly manifest by the history of their movements in New Zealand, and that is, that our hoodlum population compares very faviurably vsith their congeners in other parts of the colony. In Ducedin, the other day, the advent of an accession to the ranks of the invaders was the occasion of an outbreak of the larrikin element, which shows that either that section of the community is peculiarly ferocious, or the tffurts of the Salvationists have not been as yet attended with success. Not only rotten eggs but stones were frealy thrown, and the screams of frightened, fainting women presented a scene discreditable in a high degree to the social life in Dunedin. Such a scene as that we have not witnessed. It may be the better organisation and better spirit of our guardians of the peace, but apart from this, it is not the first evidence that we have that our promiscuous gatherings of the population exhibit a more orderly spirit than in the South, and that we have not developed that spirit of lawlessness which makes the Southern hoodlum a terror.

Any signs of the Doric? This is the sound fl"ating in the atmosphere, the burthen weighing down the spirit and depressing the energies of the people of Auckland. Friend meets friend in Quean-street, and scarcely is time given to remark the salubrity .•of the weather, when the queation uppermost in every mind is put, " Any signs of the Dotic?" Everyone has Doric oil the brain, even the staid skipper whose mind has been inured by danger gave wings to fancy, and peering through the night saw tlie phantom ship driving through the darkness. There is something moving in the thought of a whole people swayed by one overwhelming idea, seized as if by a mental epidemic. It fa ay be the excitable temperament that is born of a semi - tropical clime, or it may be from general ennui at the long deprivatioa of the excitement of one common

I sencat'on. Mining manias were wont to l supply tba needed pabulum, and there is not I a doubt that the pnblic will be all the better | for having their mental energies at tension with excitement about the' Doric. But, surely, it must be because every eye is peering away through the haze, and scanning the horizon for the Doric, that the public eye haß missed the arrival of the Redmond. A few short months ago, and the advent of this redoubtable agitator was looked forward to with alirra and horror. Spectreß of dynamite and blunder bus were hovering in the air, and men's hearts were failing them for fear, and for looking at the demons of discord that were to be loosened on the land. But now Redmond is here, and those visions of terror, where are they ? It is all owing to the Doric 1

Everyone moat regret that the friendly crusade of the football team has been marred by misunderstanding. Every evidence appears to show that our representatives were i« the right, bnt a storm has Bupervened at Wellington after their departure ; and it is significantly told by telegram that moneys have been paid there on the st'ength of the victory of the Wellington team. There is the origin and fonntain of the evil. It is not thespri'.of generous rivalry that has aroused the excitement at the political capital ; but tt>e intensity of the feeling exhibited, even through th« \V. llington journals, bas had no other source than in the uccarsed betting and gambling spirit that has found ita way into iuterprovincial tournaments, of whatever kind. Everyone f> els that good may arise from a healthful rivalry between the provinces, aud that excellence of every kind may be promoted bv the generous and fiiendly emulation. Bnt it mußt be generous, and to be friendly it must be purged of the baleful influence of the betting ring, which appears to seize on every contest as a fitting sphere for plying its oraft.

The champions of orthodoxy and heterodoxy ha\ e been pounding away at one another now for a week, and the settlement of the trouble seems as far off as it was at the beginning. Those who in fancy compared the coming encounter unto that of David and Goliath have been disillusionised, for the "stripling " in whose interest sympathy was so excited, instead of taking the typical sliug and stoues from the brook, dragged into the arena the moßt ponderous armour, and in offence and defence for the manner of it, it is impossible to see the difference between the other and which. The noble seven hundred who greeted the mailed warriors as they stepped into the field were there to the close, apparently with interest unabatod, and it may be pretty safely and with their convictions on the subject unchanged. Whatever may be the benetits of theological discussion, it has in these days the disadvantage generally of no visible results. Each party backs his champion as tho champion of his own pa'ticnlar views, and merely looks on the conflict as an effort more or less successful to hold tho ramparts behind which his own belief has been entrenched. Orthodoxy is my doxy, and heterodoxy is anybody else's doxy, 'and anything but a drawn battle, in which each side claims the battle, was not to be expected. This is in a scobs a satisfactory wind-up to a fight, because every one goes away with a feeling of gratification that his champion h*s maintained the positioh. The stripling has not lodged the stone from the brook in the forehead of the Philistine, and the giant has not crushed him beneath the weight of his ponderous mail; and the armies of Israel and Philistia still stand face to face in battle array.

The Public Library has been the subject of much criticism, as to the curioos odds and ends of which it is composed. Contributed, as its materials are, from diverse sources, it is miscellaneous in the fullest, sense, aud, such, is regarded as best representing the different tastes of the community. But it is a singular fact that, amid the whole collec tion, there is not to be found a single Bible. Are we to regard this as significant of the public taste in reading, or how does it come to pass that in the various additions and collections by purchase nobody h»s thought of a Bible ? It cannot be said that it is from any rarity in the work ; for it is commonly said that a Shakespeare and a Bible are the possession of every Knglishman that reads. Shakespeare is there, but the Bible is not. Would anyone supply the deficiency, if it were but for the credit of the establishment? Pollex.