LOCAL GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9184, 13 October 1888, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP.

" Let me have audience for a word or two." 'Shaktjiere. Questions are raised occasionally at homo which are repulsive and yet attractive, questions whioh there seems no use in discussing, questions which are of great practical benefit to be discussed. One of these was mooted some years ago, a book having been written on the subject, and all the reviews and newspapers had a turn at it. It was, "Is Life Worth Living?" The jocular reply was given, "It depends 0:1 the liver," and really a large number of philosophic minds amongst the writers seemed to think that, life was simply the sum total of the view taken of it, that if the bodily functions were all working harmoniously together, life was enjoyable under almost all circumstances.

But now another question has been started—and started this time, wonderful to say, by a lady. It is, "Is Marriage a Failure ?" The lady who wrote the article in the Westminster Review is Mrs. Mon.i Caird, who is married to a son of the late Sir James Caird, who was famous as a practical farmer and an authority on agriculture and trade. She is, it is anid, happily married, and is in no way a "shocking example." Yet she argues the question whether marriage is not h failure, and whether it would not be better to go back upon some kind of "free love" union, in which, if the parties felt they were not well assorted, and thought it would be an improvement to have a change, they could separate and look out for other mates. Some of the newspapers at home have been filled with letters on this, which is decidedly the biggest of social topics. Wives have written, husbands have written, old maid.s have written, bachelors have written. The miseries of union without love are pictured ; it is -shown how liable both parties to a marriage are to bu deceived, to deceive themselves, and then they wake up and rind they are unoongenially mated, and are miserable for life. No doubt there ate host? of unhappy marriages ; but would the remedy proposed noh be worse than the disease ? Is not the real remedy the improvement of the men and women who cuter into tho marriage relationship, so that they shall be careful and discreet in the choice which they are to make for life? I should like to see pub lished some Auckland opinions on the silbj ject, just to observe how they compare or contrast with the marital experience of England ?

There was something of dramatic force the other day in the action of Mr. Ooldic, when, at the meeting of the South British Insurance Company, he pointed to the frame in the board-room containing cabinet photographs of the directors of the company. The group does not look as if the shareholders had elected their directors exclusively because of their personal beauty ; and it is quite evident that, even if the company paid for this adornment to the board-room, it has not gone to any extravagant expense. Mr. Goldie noticed that the portrait of the late Mr. Chamberlin was conspicuous by its absence ; and it may be well to inform him and the world that Mr. Chamberlin, with that carefulness which distinguished him through life, sent for his portrait when he seceded from the directory. As tho photograph was Mr. Chamberlin's property, his request could not bu denied, and it was taken from the frame and returned. Mr. Peacock, who had become one of the directors, had his taste offended by the vacant space in the frame, and he forthwith had his photograph taken and duly inserted. I think I may speak for the bulk of the shareholders, and say that, if the directors can manage to be a little more liberal to the shareholders in the next half-year, they will be allowed to decorate the board-room with even more expensive works of art than it at present boasts of. If, on the contrary, the directors do not come up to the mark, then they had better all send for their photographs, and make room in the frame for a new set of faces.

I notice that Mr. Kennedy Macdonald, of Wellington, splinter? a lance in the Herald on behalf of what he calls "the slandered Protectionists" of that city. He emphatically denies, in his letter to Mr. Mowbray, the secretary of the Auckland Industrial Association, that any of the invited guests at the Wellington Protection banquet were called upon for subscriptions towards wiping out the deficit. It may be quite true that the managing committee did not ask for such subscriptions, but there is ample evidence that some of the Auckland members of the Assembly, invited guests, were solicited to subscribe to meet the deficit, und that they flatly refused to do so. If they choose to tell the story, they are in a position to do so. It is but just to add that if all the members of the Wellington Protection Banquet (Jo-runittee had shown the energy and ability >; Mr. Kennedy Macdonald, there would have been no deficit) to squabble about

The question has been askod in the Herald why is it that the Sailor's Rest is so poorly patronised by the class for which it was established. A reply was not given to that query at the time, but a correspondent now furnishes it to me. It is that the HailorH say the institution is killed with kindness (mistaken, of course), that they do not mind the religion taught there, but it is the great number of Indies who go there. Although the sailor loves the lass, he does not like her everywhere, and at all times, in the Rest. The place is said to be inundated with women meaning we'l; no doubt women who have no home duties, whom social amusements have tired, and who turn for recreation and excitement to this new work, and spend their lives at the Rest. Rumour has it the services for sailors are largely composed of women, the Bible classes principally composed of lady teachers ; the teas managed by ladies, the evening's amusements largely shared by the fair sex, who sing to the sailors, give them flowers, wait upon them, and devote an amount of time to these men that many a husband, father, or brother would like a little of. The result is that the sailors havo little time to themselves nb all. This is ono side of the case, and is good till the other side is told. I shall be anxious to see what the ladies have got to say on the subject,

Sometimes, says the correspondent, the sailors—the good ones—are told oil' on escort duty of an evening. One lady was thus being escorted homo, and tho conversation was overheard. She was holding forth on the Devil. Now, that was a topic tho sailor may often have broached in a mixed manner, but surely to hoar a lady hold high converse on his sable majesty must havo boen a novelty to him.

At a recent meeting of the Home Mission Society, the Rev. Mr. Beatty said that the natives of Kent had now to subscribe to redeem the heathen in London, and that if the state of tilings now growing up in the centres of population in New Zealand continued, in thirty years tho people of Waikato would havo to fulfil the same kindly office for the heathen in Auckland. It looks very much as if that sort of thing would come about in a very much shorter space of time than that, as it was intimated by the Rev. J. B. Watkin, at the Freeman's Bay Mission Hall last Sunday evening, that the Tongans (who have only had Christianity introduced into their island half a century ago) intend subscribing to the mission funds for the reclamation of the larrikins and hoodlums of Freeman's Bay. When the Tongun thus comes to the rescue of tho benighted Caucasian, tho latter may well be regarded as " played out." The moral of self-help and self-reliance is taught the attenders of the Little .Bethel by establishing tho rule that the collections are to be distributed in charity in the immediate neighbourhood. That is tho only way in which they can ba made to understand the meaning of the phrase, "Cast, thy bread upon the waters, tor thon shalt find it after many days." The cost of Yunninsj the ma chine is, therofore, left to the benevolent promoters. The latter pay a high compliment to the Salvation Army, by modelling their services on Salvation Army lines, even down to the very peculiar collection-b oxes.

What is a tirst offender ? The other day a small boy was caught stealing sacks, and brought, before the Beach for sentence. Ho was released as a first offender, on six months' probation. A week afterwards he was tripped up at the old game, and the Bench a;_rain do lit with him as "a tirst offender by doubling his original tence. It is believed that the justices who could conceive such a happy thought must hail from the Emerald Isle. MERCUTIO.