LOCAL GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 8962, 28 January 1888, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP.

•'Let me have audience for a word or two." — Shnk»ptnLast Monday's issue of tho Hu:kai.i> contains, as usual, an account of a "race meeting" held on the previous Saturday. But reading on, I find it stated that " there was a very small attendance," that "there was literally no betting," and that "the totalieatore were very little patronised." What a blessing it is that evile tend to cure themselves by their very excess ! lam not going to enter upou a tirade against racing, because I occasionally enjoy mysolf very much at a race meeting. But it appears to me that of late there has been developed a class who make it a business to get up race meetings iu order to draw mouey out of tho public. The general publio are a very patient crowd, and submit to a great deal, but they are apparently beginning to resent the liberties that are beiug takeu with them. They are beginning to fail to respond to the weekly cnlla now being made upon them. They are beginning to see that these race meetings are not got up to afford amusement or even sport, but simply as a, business. Let us by all means have three or four, or even four or iive race meetings in the course of a year, but quietly drop all these meotings which aro built up on the gate money and the totaiieator.

A few days ago a statement appeared in the Hkkald about a charge having been made for water at St. Hehers. This w»» indignantly douied and utterly repudiated. Some of the residents " declared that no such incident has taken place this season." Now, it happens that I can give undoubted proof. A few Jays ago a picnic party weut to St. Heliers, mid one of the gentlemen started with a small billy to get a drink of water. Lie approached a two-storey house which stands not far from the landing, and. asked a man if lie could get soma water. The man pointed to a well, where my friend went, and found there a boy, who tilled the billy and made a charge of sixpence. The money was paid aud duly pocketed. So that about the fact there is no doubt. The residents at St. Heliers don't need to get indignant. A drink of water is sometimes well worth pay ing for, but the fact in that iu New Zealand, where water is plentiful enough, peopio don't like to pay for it. Provision should be made by those interested in St. Heliers that all visitors should, at all events, have water for the taking.

Honourable members of the House of Representatives will hiive to take care of their reputation, A few days ago a paragraph appeared to the effect that the Inspector of Industrial Schools was waiting for the expiry of a mouth in order to sue an honour able member for the maintenance of his eon at one of trie institutions under his charge, while we had an account from Wellington of how Mr. Sydney Taiwhanga, who represents the Northern Maori Division, wae hued for hie lodgings during the session. Judgment was obtained, but the magistrate would not allow Mr. Taiwhaug* to make the explanation he was desirous of gifing. This is a pity, and must be a disappointment to the public. The statement would certainly have involved sjine sabtle reasoning which would iiave been worth hearing. I have heard of lieu* having bsen given on the honorarium for board aud lodging, and it is obvious that Mr. Taiwhanga will nave to do something of the sort. But all this is rather discreditable to the colouy, and doubly eo to the native race, whoiie representatives in the House ought to set an example, and not bo subject to the mean and civilised vica of not paying their just debts.

1 observe that there has beon a good deal of talk about a man who escaped from the Lunatic Aeylum, who made his way over to Waitakerei, wno was employed on the farm of a settler there, who wae intrusted with iiivarms, and who was never suspected to Oβ in any way out of his mind till a fortnight or three weeks after » couple of keepers arrived from the Asylum to take him in charge. It seems tnat his friends, and even the settler at whoso farm he lived ami worked, were willing to take him out, aud be responsible for him, but the doctor, who is absolute dictator, says no. The man has, it seems, a delusion, or, as some would call it, a fad—something in referenca to electricity. Well, I know a great many who have delusions about electricity. I know many men who have all strong, wellmarked delusions, and if all these were to be locked up, Auckland would lose many of its most usidul citizens. That is, mind you, I regard their notlous as delusions, founded on no evidence whatever ; but tuen, on the other baud, they may regard my strictly logical thoughts as delusions also. For instance, I. know some people who are " gone" on faith-l'eaiiDg ; I know several Anglo-Israulites who see in every event which transpires merely the unravelling of prophecy delivered thousands of years ago ; I know some people who become excited when I talk of the Sun's work. We are all a little off when the wind sits in a particular quarter for ua. In such a case as this, mignt the doctor not be wrong? might he not be influenced by the fact that the man ha« made his etcape ; that he has petitioned .Parliament, and put him to some trouble?

No doubt the road-roller is a very useful implement. No doubt also it is convenient that it khould start work on the streets under repair at an early hour, before there is much traffic. Bat it comes in for very severe remarks on tho part of those people who are enjoying a good sleep about six o'clock. The noiso it makes is territio in loudness and force. It is not like a vehicle which is heard and then pisaes away. It patiently grinds away, making the ground tremble as if there were an earthquake, in the same iitreet from, say, six o'clock till half-pant aciven, whon the exasperated listener flingii himself out of bed in despair.

I don't understand why the City Council should display so much tenderness to the Seventh-Day Adventist preacher who vio lates the municipal by laws by assembling regularly a congregation in a tent, and then aeka the Council tor leave. The argument of the majority of the councillor* is that he Iβ doing good. Do these councillors mean to nay that they believe it would be better if all Christians were converts to the opinion that they ought to beep ."Saturday as the holy dny, for that seems to be the great point with the presiding genius of the tent. He does not profess to have a mission to reclaim the fallen, he does not go "slamming " amongst the destitute and afllicted. He simply pounds away amongst those eccentric characters who run after every new thing in religioD, however trifling. But there are a number of people who think they could do good to themselves or others if they were allowed to break the city by-laws and endanger the lives of people. The plain and simple ground for the Council is to decltue to go into the theological question, and to gay, " You are welcome to do as much ae you like in the way of endeavouring to convert the citizens to Seventh-day Advantiat notions, but you must comply with the law as to erections in which assemblages are permitted." A few years ago we h»d Mormon propagandists, who held that a belief in their doctrines was essential to salvation. Would the Council bave sanctioned a Mormon conventicle in a tent under the idea that the doctrine of plurality of wives was fitted to do good? It is a very dangerous thing tor the Council to give the to their own by-laws. If they do so, it is a reflection ou themselves for making them. Sorely Wellington will nob now dispute the fact that it is pre-eminent for hurricane blasts of wind. People living elsewhere were in that belief long ago, but Wellingtoniane have always stoutly resisted the impeachment. They soem loth to believe it now. They say that M it is an occurrence absolutely unique—wholly without precedent in railway history. It remains a wonder and a perplexity that the wind should have been able to exercise such tremendous power as to hurl loaded trucks off the rails." They used to point with pride to the fact that their wind guage registered less than Auckland, the fact being that it was placed ia a deep, secluded, and well-sheltered hollow. But there in no getting over this proof of the power of lihe wind at Wellington. It is wonderful to see how the Wellingtoniana profess to be surprised at the occurrence. They ought not to have been astonished, joocing that some years ago a boat which was lying on tho beach wr.e lifted up bodily, and falling at some distance, killed a woman. Jn Thursday's issue of the Herald there were throe obituary notices, and oiugular to

say, all of old people. One had died at 73, another at 73 and nine months; the third, at 72. Bat a more remarkable thing still. A friend informs me that; the other day lie went np to Parnell in the 'hue, and that there were four Wbll-known citizens iu it whose united agos made 300 years. K. was aged 75 ; B, 75; L., 78 ; G., 72. They were all hale and well, and testimonies to the mildoees and salubrity of our climate.

Mrs. Fawcett Storey, the Sydney lady who has lately favoured us with some lectures on cookery, was rather startled by a note which she received from a North v hore resident during her course. Among other culinary triumphs which she achieved was the turning out of " potato croquettes." This item in the programme caught the attention of a North Shore man, and he thus wrote, on behalf of Devonpoit, to the feminine Soyer :—" Honoured Madam, —I notion in the papers that you are lecturing on cookery. Could you give Uβ a receipt for potato oroquettes, as we are fond of soft tack and olher vegetables?" The lady's feelings may be more easily imagined than described.

" The schoolmaster is abroad," but a notice in a shop window in a western suburb of the city would lead oue to suppose that he ought to be at homo. A popular medico was walking along the street when his attention was arrested by some placards in a green- 1 grooer's shop. On taking a hasty glance at the notices, all he could gaap out was, "Good Heavens ! and is it for this that we pay half a million a year ?" This is what he read :-"Bread, 21b lofe, 2Jd ; hotter, 7d ; appells, Id lb."

The Calliope Dock approaches completion, Mr. Lanigau having only a few trifling touches to do to put a finish on it. He is at present, - with that eye to the utilitarian which characterises the go-a-head, encceisful contractor, cutting up the supports of his coffer-dam into the sizes and forms whioh will be most useful for disposal in the market, ami thus tilling his coffers. The chairman of the Harbour Board went over to the dock the other day when operations were goiug on, aud remarked, as he viewed the scene, that " Lankan was turning the dock into a sawmill !'' Nothing comes amiss to the bubH contractor. It is believed, if locked up in an empty room with a mate, he would make a " rise' , on him by swapping j.icliots ; while, if shipwrecked on a desert lslaud, he would go round next morning and sell maps of the country to the oldest inhabiUut. Mr. Lauigan got into the dock business with two years' hard labour in front of him. liis time is nearly up. Hβ was "blasting " all last week st the entrance to the dock. Merootxo.