LOCAL GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7503, 5 December 1885, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP.

" Let me liavo audience for a wor.l or two." —b'BAKSPERR. In Thursday's paper I received a severe scolding from Mrs. Aldis, to which I must make a brief reply. Mrs. Aldis denies that she expressed any opinion upon tho decision of tho Board of Education in reference to the equal payment of male and female head teachers, but as she goes on to express a very strong opinion, aud that just as I represented, I may let that go. She proceeds: —" If women are employed, it is plainly right that, for the same work, they should rcceive the same pay as male teachers. Because some members of the Board have taken this view of the simple justice of the case, and have acted upon it, you have permitted your contributor to charge them with having done so at my bidding, a falsehood involving an insult to tho gentlemen in question, which should not have found a place under editorial sanction in a paper making high claims as a leader of public opinion." Tho passage in Mis. Aldis's letter was: — "The Board 0' Education, by their resolution last week, that the salary of a head teacher, if a woman, shall be twenty per ceni. less than that of a man occupying the same position, have given an example of the truth of the former of these propositions " The two propositions stated by Mrs. Aldis were, that the form of employment offered to women gave 110 encouragement to immigration, and that " a city which, has disgraced itself by the adoption of a law by which a woman suspected of the perpe - tration of that which i" no crime in the eyeof the law, can. without public trial, be privately sentenced to suffer a gross persona! indignity, is 110 lit goal for immigrant women." These wero the two propositions stated side by side : aud certainly in lm argument Mrs. Aldis gave no reason to think that she considered one as of much inferior weight to the other. As for the statement about the Board of Education having acted at the "bidding" of Mrs. Aldis, all that I did was to use the phrase, "The Board of Education, administering public money, has 110 right to lend itself to any woman's rights fad, at the bidding of Mrs. Aldis or any other body." If the Board of Educa- | tion determines to pay a higher rate to women than the market price, solely on the ground of women's rights, Mrs. Aldis, a? the strongest advocate lor these rights in this community, is entitled to the credit, as we conceived it, of getting them to take that position. As to Mrs. Aldis's statement about "brutal infringement of personal rights," which, according to her, every woman in Auckland is liable to, 1 would rather not reopen the subject.

"It is Dot," says a Spanish proverb, J " that of which we are directly accused which injures us, but that which is implied," and the truth of this must he apparent to those who give the matter serious consideration. That oft-quoted speech of lago, " Who steals my purse, &c.,"' was intended to modify insinuations rather than assertions, and he, villain though he was, had sufficient insight to see that even the doubts of Othello were more damaging to his reputation than direct accusations, which would have given him a clear mark at which to level his bullets of contradiction. How often do wo see the truth of that remark of Butler, " A mau can bo accused by asking a question about him.'' And are we all sufficiently careful not to injure our neighbour by innuendo? Is it not done every day alike 111 our churches, our offices, our streets, and worse than all, in our homes? Truly it is cowardly, it is uncharitable and unkind, and it is unjust Smith meets Drown in the street and says, " Didn't you notice that Jones was very attentive to Mrs. Robinson last night?" and Brown replies, "Is that the first time you have noticed it ?" and, before a week is over, Dame Rumour—that most unkind and un truthful old lady—has it that Robinson is a cuckold and Jones a libertine, though in truth there was nothing wrong in their converse. and both are most worthy people. Is a merchant not sometimes ruined by such a question at " Is it true that Messrs. So-and-so are in difficulties," or by making the same insinuation in any one of a hundred ciufurt-nt ways, without making one literally incorrect statement, or indeed without making a statement at all ? Let each one of us, then, look for the mote in his own eye, and, if he finds it, let him pluck it out with a bold hand. He will feci himself lighter by a great load of uncharitableness and injustice, i and will have ascended several steps on the ladder to heaven.

And the thought suggests itself that we have not been justified in our insinuations against the private character of the illustrious Sala. Inasmuch as that gentleman writes fcr the public, we are quite entitled to criti-ei-e his writings and lectures, whether those criticisms are favourable or otherwise ; but the Press of the colonies, with a few exceptions, has abused our visitor right and left. It ia certainly questionable if this gentleman was far wrong in his judgment of those members of th i Melbourne Yorick Club who waited on him at his hotel to press him to attend a banquet after he had sent a message to the effect that he was too ill to attend. Such conduct was certainly in very bad taste, and did not enhance the dignity of those members either in the eyes of our visitor or those of the gentlemen of the colonies. No words can express the contempt of the better part of our colonists for the writers of those low, scurrilous articles and doggerel verses which have sullied the columns of some of our journals; and Mr. Sala may rest assured that he has not, in the opinion of a large number of colonist', either forfeited the title of gentleman or disgraced bis profession.

The totalisator has become such an abominable nuisance at our race meetings that those who previously attended the course for the sake of witnessing the racing alone are now seeking other amusements on race days. It in impossible to imagine the source from which the numerous pounds which the greasy larrikin " pops on" his favourite spring, bat it is shrewdly suspected that they are not come by honestly. I'm afraid we are giving our young boys a very injudicious and hurtful love of gambling, for which we will miller when times are harder, and they have more difficulty in getting their pounds to invest. Were it not that there is powerful influence behind it, it would, doubtless have been stopped ere this, but I hope yet to see it closed and the ready-money bookmaker turned oil the course. The ordinary bookmaker, if properly licensed and kept within certain bounds, is quite sufficient to satisfy the general public, and is certainly lea* objectionable, both as a tempter of youth and as a crowd collector, than the totalisator, which needs speedy legislation to suppress.

The visitors' book in the Auckland Free Public Library is worthy of careful perusal, owing to the quaint and curious suggestions contained therein. One visitor complains that " there are not enough books for boys," and another, a vVanganUi man, wants a square meal, and therefore asks if board and lodging could not be furnished gratuitously. One of the suggestions put down in the book since the unemployed agitation broke forth, is a somewhat curious one :—"Could not an office for procuring billets for ' unfortunates' bo associated with the Library ?" Since Mr. SNni'tw'f.n, tl .j ti. 'c, -il librarian, p>t bis / , ~ (. ,<.• . 'i ' ' . he !' -is t l—-"\

Mursell, the Revivalist, was wont to advertise his discourses under such "catching" titles as " Such a Getting Upstairs," "What Aileth Thee?" "Fire "Attention !" "Love's Labour Lost," " Who's That Knocking at tho Door?'' It was thought that ho had exhausted that style of nomenclature, but that must be a mistake, as the following incident will show :Two ladies were passing up High-street the other day, when their attention was attracted to a placard in a shop window, headed with largo letters. " For sale, 'The Wedding Garment, and how to put it on.' " That was enough for them, and over they went, when, to their horror, they read underneath in small type tho words, " being a guide to reconciliation and repentance, by C. Uodiugton aud 6. E ftlason." They repented that they had come over, aud they were anything but reconciled to the ruse, still they simply chuckled in their sloevo, and said, " Well, I never !" and moved on, wiser and saddor about that " wedding garment, and how to put it on."

There is a good deal of talk about the unemployed just now, and yet fresh avenues for labour are beiug brought under notice daily. Hero is 0110 from a " wanted" advertisement " : " Wanted, a boy to milk and groom a horse." It is needless to say the billet is still open.

Tho telephone has its advantages, but it has also its disadvantages, and of the latter tho following anecdote is an illustration : — An Auckland medico, the other day, while in town at a chemist's shop, rung up his own residence, but received the reply "Engaged." After waiting some time he again rang up, and knowing that thero was no one in his home but Mary Ann, asked her how his telephone came to bo engaged. The murder then was out, and at the time his telephone was "engaged" Mary Ann was holding high couvcrse (telephonically) with a gentleman cook residing at L'arnell. The doctor gavo a warning to Mary Ann that she must court gentlemen cooks through some other medium than his telephone. Mekcutio.