LOCAL GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 6996, 19 April 1884, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP.

-i " Let me havo audieoco foi » word or two." • —Shaktpere. The Salvation by-law, about which sueh a fUBS was caused a short time ago, seems to have dropped completely out of notice. Those who, in their hot haste, denounced the by-law as a weapon of the devil, have returned to sanity, if not to the TeuCommandmonts. They have ceased to trouble themselves about it, because they have found out that the by-law is not at all the thing they supposed it to be. The Englishman's proudest privilege, "the right of free speech," which we were told, in accents disconsolate, was to be destroyed by the new by-law, has not' even been touched. Speech is as free as ever it was ; indeed it is occasionally a good deal too free. Ears polite must often be shocked at the language heard in Qneenstreet. As for the Salvation Army, they " carry on" as though there was no such thing as the by-law in existence. Their motto is the defiant challenge Nemo me imprint laces3it—"touch me gin ye dar." They pursue the noisy tenor of their way, and nobody interferes with them, save the impenitent larrikin. The people of Auckland are a tolerant and liberal-minded lot, which is a fortunate thing for the Salvation Army. In Melbourne tbeir parades have been forbidden, and in Sydney there is a growing feeling in favour of a similar step. The other day one prominent clergyman in that city stopped his service to enter a vehement protest against their uproarious proceedings out of doors. "We are powerless," he said, " to prevent these noisy street parades, but I do think that before long -even Christian patience will be exhausted, and-something will have to be done to stop the practice of parading the streets and disturbing public worship. They know this hall is lighted for worship, and yet they make, or seem to make, their loudest uproar when they pass the doors."

After this homily let me turn to lighter topics. We are at present suffering from a surfeit of amusements in Auckland. . We have the greatest spectacular drama of the age—barring Claudian—at the Opera House ; we have two monster circuses, each claiming to be the "biggest show" ever seen in the Southern Hemisphere ; and better than each and all we have the ever-welcome Kennedy family at the Choral Hall. All of them are doing roaring business. At the Opera House at a quarter to eight o'clock "standing room only " is the notice which meets the eye and saddens the heart of the late comer ; at the gigantic hippodromes, we have it on the unimpeachable authority of the newspaper reporters that each evening the two places are crammed from sawdust to canvas ; and the Choral Hall is cr.owded to the door every night by an enthusiastic audienoe of Scotchmen and others, eager to hear once again " the auld Scotch sangs in the braid auld Scottish tongue." Furthermore, there is that curious specimen of natural history— a live sheep with six legs—on view, and this also is a great draw. 'J. here never whb such " a varied assortment" of entertainments all in full swing at the same time since the beginning of Auckland. It speaks volumes for our prosperity." Auckland is the only large city in New Zealand, where money is plentiful at the present time. While elsewhere people are crying out at the badness of the times, we are floating merrily along on the flood tide of prosperity, and making our money fly in all directions. The'puzzle is to know where it all comes from. From the freeness with which it is spent it would almost appear that, like the conjuror, we caught it in the air—that we had only to make a grab at nothing to catch a bank note. This is a very comfortable state of things if it only continues. No wonder we have shows galore. Auckland is their paradise at the present moment. They are frozen out in the South, and ao they make for here. You generally find the showman where there is the most money. He is an infallible trade barometer. When he pitches his tent for a lengthened stay anywhere you may be sure that there is a gold mine somewhere about.

. Mrs. Hampson has left Auckland for the purpose of resuming her mission work in Victoria. She will remain in Tasmania for a short time, afterwards proceeding to Ballarat, where she will commence a series of addresses. About September she intends proceeding to America, and will probably go on to England, That was what she meant to do last year, but the weather proved too cold, and compelled her to abandon her proposed visit to the old country. JN'o man is a prophet in his own land ; neither is a woman a prophetess. Here.in Auckland Mrs. Hampson makes no noise. When she .speaks in public, which she does but seldom, there is no stir made about it. She attracts no crowds of enthralled listeners. This is not a little curious when compared with her success in Victoria. There it was nothing less than phenomenal. Enormous audiences gathered to hear her speak ; the newspapers devoted columns to reports of her addresses, aud descriptive articles about her meetings. Her earnestness aud eloquence were the theme of every tongue. She swayed the multitudes as Demosthenes swayed the Athenians. "Let-us go," said the latter after hearing' the orator " and fight against Philipafter hearing Mrs. Hampson the Victorians were filled with a desire to fight against Sin and to lead better lives. According to the newspapers (by which I always swear) immense good resulted from her mission ; and her re-appearance is eagerly awaited in Victoria, It is strange, is it not, that a woman who is such a power for good in Australia should, here in Auckland, which may ba said to be her home, be no more, or very little more, than any other womaD.

I opened my paper the other morning and was startled and made inexpressibly sad by seeing the announcement of the death of poor M. de Kempeneer. Ido not suppose he was known, even by name, to half-a-dozen people in Auckland. 1 believe lam the only one here who knew him intimately. Yet it is not until he has been many days in his grave that I learn from a paragraph in a newspaper that he is dead. When 1 bade him lon voyage fifteen months ago on his departure for Sydney his last words to me ; were, "I shall be coming back and taking you by surprise." Ha como back, and lie has taken me by surprise, but in a manner that he little dreamt of. For. some short time before he left for Sydney he was engaged at the Auckland Museum preparing specimens. He was an osteologist by profession, and possessed great skill and experience, partly acquired in Brussels, his native place, and partly in America, where he had resided for several years previoui to his coming to New Zealand. Unfortunately he found his services here of no use by reason of the impecunious condition of the various colonial museums. His abilities and high testimonials were appreciated by all competent to judge of then), but "no funds" wa3 the answer he got wherever ho applied. It was the same in Sydney. But Baron Macleay found him out, and for some time he was engaged in-arranging and fixing his largo and valuable collection of specimens of natural history. The intense he;it, however, was too much for him. After wandering about Australia ho returned to New Zealand, and the Auckland Muse-im being at last in funds, was returning to resume his duties here, when his health gave way, and lie reached Auckland only to expire. Poor de Kempeoeur ! He often used to talk of his dread of dying far away from his native land and his kinsfolk. But that he was wont to say would never happen. "I was born to die in Brussels " was his usual antidote in times of despondency. He had a passion for travel, and it was his intention to visit Japan, China, and India before returning to Belgium. His ambition was to become acquainted with every country in the world. When he had dono that he meant to- settle down in his beloved Brussels. But all these dreams aro at an end now. He was a quiet and singularly unobstrusive man, a most pleasant companion, and altogether a good fellow.

When Sir George Grey does anything there are always a set of people who are determined to see some other reason for his action than that which lies on the surface. They cannot understand the Knight of Kawau doing anything withou having a set of "motives which are not on the surface. And so it is with this postponement of ,his visit to the South, and his return to Kawau with the Japanese. Some- people will have it that, learr r ag of Major Atkinson's projeoted trip to Canterbury, he determined to wait till he had devoured Mr. Montgomery, when he would come in and devour lem both. At all" event, it is quite clear from the high he.-'th a""d spirits of the Q. O. that he sees ; a Donnybt k Fair in the next session, and

thafche is determined to hit-a good many heads. ■ ■ v ■ ■-.■..■ '•■.;'-. The topic of the. week has_been racing— racing in Australia, racing' in Canterbury, and racing at EUerslie. - Indeed,* it' would appear as if the chief interest of life is horse racing. Those who complain of hard times and tight money markets cannot be serious, judging from the freedom with which money has been speculated all over the colonies during the last few days. Well, perhaps so ; but the number of small bankruptcies which follow these racing speculations puts the matter in another light. I would not like to be a starter on a racecourse. I don't think I should like it at a good salary. I am certain I wonld not undertake the duties for nothing, or under the guise of promoting sport. There is no more thankless office that I know of, and there is neither profit nor.pleasure in the office of bullying jockeys or being bullied by them, being subjected to the gross insolence of an unreasonable mob, and perhaps to their violence. When the Auckland Racing Club wants a starter, I shall not be an applicant for the position. The Autumn Ea.ce Meeting' wai, on the first day, an unqualified success, the second day was an exhibition towards its. close which I hope never to see repeated. The dispute as to the Consolation Race gave rise to a great deal of ugly feeling and ugly conduct. Oat of four which the starter dropped his flag to, three went and one hung on the post. The excited crowd cried to the jockeys that there was no start, but one more sensible than the rest, or perhaps unable to pull in his horse, went the course, and won. Then followsd a disgraceful scene. Those who had backed other horses, hounded on in a great measure by interested bookmakers, stormed and raved, threatening to demolish the totalisator and punch the officials. The unfortunate clerk of the course, who displayed more boldness than discretion, barely escaped a mauling, through the superior tact of his frienda, and the secretary barely saved his own skin and the property of the club by paying away £218 to people who were not entitled to it. It is satisfactory to know, however, that the ringleaders are known, and they will be taught that they cannot in this way take the law into their own hands, and demand " your life or your money."

The club has decided to pay the stakes on Mitrailleuse. Ihey ha.d no choice left, for after the starter ruled that there 'was a start they were bound to pay. Then some of those who backed the ether horses had their money refunded. These were . the noisy, obstreperous, and violent ones. The club has decided that they will not refund the money to those who have not been paid. This is queer, and I think the club would have best consulted its own dignity by paying all and pocketing the loss. Their present action offers a premium to rowdies. The orderly and well behaved, who were quite as great sufferers as the others, must put up with their loss.

The conduct of the officer in charge of the police was the subject of severe animadversion, I understand, at the meeting of stewards on Thursday. The ijiorthy secretary, in describing his orders and conduct, manifestly mistook the whole proceedings as a Salvation Army march. He described the gallant advance of the police and the retirement of the mob. Then came the retrogade movement. The gallant officer sung out "Retire," and the constabulary obeyed. The secretary said that had it not been for this they conld have "held the fort." By the way, holding the fort at this time was rather "important, for amongst the crowd were some who will now learn with disgust and disappointment that there was upwards of £1400 of the club's'money in the totalisator house at the time it was in danger of beiug wrecked.

Talking of recent raoing, brings up some old reminiscenses of racing in Auckland in the good old days. The late Mr. Hargraves, of Kaipara, used to tell a good story about the first hurdie race that ever took place in Auckland. Mr. Robert Graham, the late Mr. J. S. Macfarlane, and Mr. Hargraves were then " light weights." Mr. Hargraves, in telling the story, used to say that eleven started ; he would not say that they were all thrown at the first jump, but they all came off, and he being the first to remount, won the race. It is but fair to Mr. Graham to say that he denies having ridden in this race, or ever having ridden in a hurdle race, but in his young days he had something to do with the turf. He rode a mare, of which he was very proud, from seven o'clock in the morning, to and from the Tamaki, driving stock, and on arriving back at Auckland he entered and rode in a race which was about to start. He won the race, defeating Mr. Alfred Buokland.

How to handicap a horse so as to bring him back to bad company is a problem which still puzzles the best horsey man. What do they think of this : Mr. James Williamson, now the Hon. James Williamson, owned the first imported racing mare in New Zealand. Pitted as she was against hacks and scrubbers, she o£ course won all before Her, and the handicappers piled on weight after each successive win, until at length she had to carry IS stone. We have not heard whether the mare'aback was broken, but, oh, ye handicappers of the present day, what do you think of handicapping in the good old days ? MIsRCtfTIO.