LOCAL GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7341, 30 May 1885, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP.

"Let me have audience {or a word or two." — Shakapere. The correspondence which has appeared in the columns of the Hkrale> within the past few days, and about clergymen, brings to mind a funny story which is told in a book just published by the Rev. Mr. Mozley, being the recollections of a long lifetime., It reflects light on the relation! of the Church and .Dissent, and shows the great prudence of a clergymen of the old school, as well as his strict notions of orthodoxy. Mr, Mozley tolls of art English clergyman, who, from fear of contagion, refused to go to baptise a child who was believed to be dying from small-pox, and advised its friends to call in the Dissenting minister. Afterwards the child ' recovered, and then this clergyman sent for the parents, told them that the Dissenter's baptism was gpod for nothing, and got them to allow him to baptise the child over again. It is a pity that out of our ecclesiastical squabbles we cannot have anything so humorous as this.

Perhaps some clergymen will take a word of advice from me. At all evente they will have it whether they think fit to make nee of it or Dot. Everybody has heard thra phrase of an English statesman who spoke of the " ignorant impatience of taxation." Clergymen entertain an "ignorant impatience of criticism." I am afraid there is something of succession in this, whether apostolio or not. The feeling has come down from a former age. But in the present day nothing can exist except it lays iMelf out and makes its account to be criticised. And for the reason that everything rests upon public interest. If clergymen think that nothing they do should be called in question or remarked upon, they must accept the other alternative, namely, that nobody will feel much interest in what they say, or attach much weight to it. If they crush down criticism, they will crush down interest. Nobody now-a-daye will listen to what they dare not criticise. If ministers encouraged their hearers to criticise even their discourses, we should have » much larger proportion of the intelligent part of the community in the churches than we have now. Above all, it is s> most fatal muUke

for a clergyman to defend himself, from the pulpit, from something be has said or done elsewhere.

The mail steamer to take away the mail to San Francisco came in at about midnight on Monday, and for aa hour thereafter the air over the whole town was filled with the shrieks of the whittle. Otherwise the night Was still, and miles and mile* away, beyond Mount Eden, the horrible shrill yells were heard. Strolling down the wharf at that "uncanny" hour, I asked a man what was the meaning of all this noise, when be answered, " Oh, the skipper want* to let the Post-office people know so that they may come down smart in the morning and get the mails on board." A most laudable object, no doubt, but is it not rather too much that 30,000 men, women, tnd children ehould be awoke from their slumbers at dead of night by these blood-curdling shrieks ? Who can tell what disturbances of the nervee may have been caused ? What uneasiness to the sick and tender ? Have the resources of civilisation been exhausted that we must fall back upon mere horrible noise ? Can the dozen or so of officials not contrive some other method, by telephone or otherwise ?

Standing among the spectators looking afc the volunteers the other day, I was compelled to listen to the ribald and jeering remarks of certain young gamins, who had ascended a tree for the purpose of better observation. Now and then one of the newly-formed corps of cavalry would prance past, looking smart and neat on his well-groomed, serviceable troop horse. One waa received with a cry by the aforesaid boys, " Oh, there goes Hallaby's butcher boy !" Such a cry at such a moment is very awkward, but never mind, you all looked much better than anyone 'expected, with such a short period for drill. You will one day be one of the craok corps of the colony.

On the whole the review pass ed off very well, notwithstanding two or three ludicrous mishaps. The gallant trooper who kissed mother earth looked lather crestfallen when his steed oareered over the field, leaving him lamenting. No one envied " the feelings of the Hibernian volunteer who, five minutes after the feu de joie was over, let drive on his own account, having previously tried to get his rifle to go off at half-cock. Scarcely had the shouts of laughter died away over this unlucky accident, when another volunteer, going past at the double, dropped hie piece on the grass, and not daring to drop out of the ranks .' under the Argus-eye of Colonel Whitmore, left it there, and went on, holding to the old adage, "He that fights and rune away, will live to fight another day." I see that the Wellington volunteers have been distinguishing : themselves by firing their spare blank ammunition, on returning from the Queen's Birthday review, out of the railway carriage windows, and that the officer commanding has had the pluck to put them under arrest. Some years ago a number of Auckland volunteers, returning from a revie*w at Bllerelie, similarly distinguished themselves. All such freaks are simply larrikinism, and men who go in for soldiering should regard them as such. If officers of companies, and especially non-commissioned officers, knew their duties and performed them, suoh discreditable scenes would be impossible. * ———— ___^__

To meditate and moralise on the causes and effects of tha great and increasing preponderance of female' over male teachers is not my place in this column, but there is one aspect which touches closely a matter of 'social and local interest. The Board of Education lately drew the attention of the head-master of a school (Graf ton-road Sohool, I think, it waa) to the want of discipline, which had been evidenced in some inquiry which hivd been made. Now the head-masters of large schools must be men, and if young men will not go into the profession, if the lower ranks are crowded with girls, the choice for head-masters will soon become very small. Discipline is the first necessity for a school. If the pupils are not taught that to begin with, they will learn nothing. No matter how enthusiastic a child may be to acquire knowledge, it will be impossible for it to do so in a school where discipline is not maintained. But where can the Board of Education get masters capable of maintaining discipline, if they are allowed only a very email ohoioe among young men ? The matter is a very serious one; for if headmasters cannot be got who oan maintain discipline, the education system will be more effectually injured than it could be by any other means. Parents ought to be careful, also, how they sap the discipline of a school, by rushing off to the master with a complaint whenever any boy comes home and says he has been struck with a oane. Boya are seldom or never caned when they are innocent, and any parent who champions a frivolous complaint is doing his offspring a great injury, besides breaking down the discipline of the school. Sohool committees also ehould be very cautious in adopting and baoking up complaints of nndne punishment. Let them always remember the motto of Matthew Bagnet, in one of Dickens' novels, " Discipline must be maintained," and many others of the same kind, such a« that " Order is heaven's first law." But let the Board see to it that in the enthusiasm for female teachers they do not prevent themselves from the possibility of obtaining head-masters fit for their first duty and responsibility.

Whenever a great Frenchman dies—an event which, fortunately, does not happen very often—we can always be certain of one thing : M. Villeval will write his biography. The misfortunes of hie country continue to be this lively gentleman's opportunity. Gambetta dies : M. Villeval is to the front with his Dictionary of* Biography to tell us 'all about him. Victor Hugo dies : M. Villeval and his Dictionary are again forthcoming. When the sepulchral bell tolls he steps forward, hat in hand and book under arm, and, with a Paul Pryian introduction, " I hope I don't intrude," proceeds to relate the oareer of the departed luminary, from his christening to his burial. I am afraid we are obtuse enough not to appreciate these in memoriam exeroitations of M. Villeval; that we regard them as savouring of egotistical impertinence and an assumption of superiority which, were it not ludicrous, would be sublime. Then the ex cathedrd air he puts on ! As if he were the French Academy rolled into one! It is all very amusing. Witness his apotheosis of Victor Hugo. M. Villeval goes out of his way to " correct a misstatement," which he says appeared in the Herald. The Herald, it seems, had anticipated M. Villeval'a effusion. It had actually assumed to allude to Victor Hugo's life and labours. And it said that after having sent his resignation to the Speaker of the National Assembly, M. Grivy, M, Hugo then sought refuge in Brussels, bat way expelled from the country. In 1871 he returned to Paris, &o. "Nothing," remarks Victor Hugo's countryman, "is more in Accurate ti.*n this statement." M. Villeval knows a great deal better, or at least he imagines he does, which is pretty much the same thing, But man bon ami, where is the "inaccuracy?" Viotor Hugo, as all the world and his wife knotfr, wont to Brussels, was expelled by the Government, and returned to what: yea cell "his beloved country." Whoreia, then, is the statement incorrect. What do you mean ?or do you mean anything ? There is, however, one consolation left us. M. Villeval'a biographical occupation's gone. There are no more great Frenchmen who have yet to die. Victor Hugo was the last. • Mebodtio.