LOCAL GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9307, 9 March 1889, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP.

"Let mo have audience for a word or two." — Shakexpere. It is said that some of the most intimate friends and most enthusiastic admirers of tho Premier consider that the To Kooti irruption, although it has been a heavy blow to the prestige and reputation of Ministers, is not without its redeeming points. It] is true that tho Premier was detained for about ten days at Onnond, where he was engaged in conducting the warlike demonstrations which his colleagues had been denouncing. Bub then wo must consider what mischief, ho was doing when ho was interrupted by To Kooti's incursion. Ho was engaged lecturing on tho beauties of tho property tax, and making such conspicuous failures everywhere that if ho had continued he would assuredly have met the House next session in a minority. Sir Harry must bo quite conscious of this, and indeed it is reported that, on a review of tho wholo circumstances, ho is inclined to think that it would have been well if To Kooti had started for the East Coast before that famous speech at the Auckland City Hall, in which the Premier was so unfortunate. Sir Harry can never forgot that his most indubitable claim to the gratified recollection of his fellow-colonists rests upon his martial renown ; ho smells tho battle afar off, and perhaps is a little disappointed that there was not even a bush skirmish.

As for his colleague and friend, the Native Minister, he, no doubt, is of opinion that his last grand coup, in which he (to use a vulgar expression) euchred Mr. Napier, compensates for much previous humiliation. Mr. Napier had prepared, in an open and perfectly ostentatious manner, a legal battery of appeals and writs of habeas corpus, by which To Kooti was to be released in spite of the Government. But Mr. Mitchelson, by virtue of the (alleged) illegal sentence of the Resident Magistrate at Onotiki, had a grip of Te Kooti until he made a bargain with him that if he did not see a lawyer he would be at once released. The Minister was also kind enough to exert himself to find bail, and to see Te Kooti oif at the Newmarket station. Who can sa}-, after this, that we havo not a paternal Government ! But, if any of us unfortunate Europeans had been sentenced to find sureties or go to gaol, would any Minister have exerted himself to get us out of trouble by finding bondsmen ? Sydney Taiwhanga, although a member of the Legislature, was not acceptable as a bondsman. This was an insult to the House, and I hope that Sydney will bring the matter up next session. It is true that a few months ago Sydney had some trouble about a judgment summons in Wellington, but that ought nob to have stood in the way,

Another thing which must give Ministers gratification as philanthropists is, that Te Kooti has been induced to don the blue ribbon. I do not wonder, considering all these things, that it is anticipated that at the next general election Te Kooti will be a candidate for a seat in the House. Taking into account his influence as a priest, and his power as the originator of a litany and a form of worship which has lately spread over a large part of the North Island, his election would probably be certain. He denies, I understand, that he was an active participator in the Poverty Bay massacre, and perhaps he might demand that a commission should be appointed to investigate " Te Kooti-ism and Crime," with a triumphant result of showing that he had been calumniated.

Lastly, about Te Ivooti, what a picturesque and romantic scene that was when thu aboriginal warrior sab under a leafy bower on the banks of the Waiotahi River, waiting , patiently for the stroke of fate, while Police Inspector Gooclall, armed with a warrant, had. a violent quarrel with Major Porter as to whether the arrest should be made. How did it come that Ministers sent two authorities in command, each with diametrically opposite orders as to what should be done ? Ministers surely owe some explanation to the public of this scandalous scene.

I see by the latest papers that Her Majesty has conferred the honour of Knighthood on Sir Myles Fenton, the general manager of the South Eastern Railway. This is a new departure, for, although knighthoods have been conferred on great railway directors and magnates, this is the first occasion on which such an honour has been conferred on an executive officer managing railway traffic. I mention this matter in this column in order to encourago Mr. James McKerrow and Mr. J. P. Maxwell to a zealous discharge of their duties, and to a consideration of the public convenience. I do not see, for my part, why any one who manages the railway commerce of the colony for several years satisfactorily should not get a title as well as a Minister who manages by Parliamentary manccuvreing to keep office for a time, blundering every day of his official life. Titles, indeed, in New Zealand seem to have been given for bringing the- colony into the slough of despond in which it is at present struggling. Aucklanders are quick enough to learn most things, but according to all those who come here from populous cities they are very dull about the " rule of the road," and are content to go bumping through life and along Queen-street in a very rude and rustic way. A correspondent recommends that the following version of the rule should be printed and hung up as a wall card in the public schools: — In riding or driving 'tis a paradox trite, If jou keep to the left, you are sure to be tight, But in walking the street it is.just the reverse, If you keep to the left, you'll bu very perverse. It is difficult to teach an old dog tricks, and so it appears that wo grown-up Aucklanders will not learn. But the Board of Education might be moro successful with the rising generation.

The minister of Alexandra-street Methodist Church, the other night, displayed a revolver which had been given to him by a young man who been on his way to tho Domain, to blow out his brains, but who had beena.rrestedbythesingingonthestreeb,and who therefore gave up his weapon to signify that ho was a changed man. I can quite conceive that anyone with thoughts of suicide in his mind, and consequently in high mental agitation, is in the condition when music aii'ects him. But I don't like the theatrical business of giving up the rovolver. That young man ought to have gone quietly and sold the revolver, and have put the proceeds in tho plate, if he did not particularly want tho money for his own necessities.

I am very much concerned to find that) the character of New Zealandcrs as a truthful people is becoming aspersed in Australia. Some blame may, no doubt, attach to us, but in most cases that I know of the blame should be laid on tho shoulders of enterprising Australians who know who they have to deal with on both sides. A gentleman now in Sydney writes :—" I am sorry to say that your iN'ew Zealand mines have got* a evil reputation i» £y<Aoey-

Capitalists are so doubtful of the truth of any published statement of yields, &c. ; and from tho saltings and the falsehoods of some company - floaters, and from dearbought experience, tho names of your goldfields stink in the nostrils of people here. We can't take the word of a New Zealander for anything,' said a man to mo tho Other day." . Wo have got into all this difficulty because we have not yet been able to find a system to extract the gold; but ib seems that -the Sydney people believe thab thero is no gold, and that all the assays wo hare'presented aro simply got up to gammon them. Tho only chance our mining experts have of getting out of the difficulty is to find out a successful smelting process, and then wo will all bo vindicated. An article has just appeared in an English magazine, written by Mr. Oscar Wilde, entitled "Tho Decay of Lying." I have not read it, but probably his uncharitable theory is that lying, as a matter of aesthetics and as a fine art, has taken refuge in tho colonics. Tho Roy. Mr. Gulliver, who has been lecturing in St. Paul's for the last three Sundays on " Religion and Science," has been somewhat suddenly shut down upon by his ecclesiastical superiors. I don't so much wonder at this as at tho fact that with his known opinions he was ever allowed to begin. If Mr. Gulliver had hired a hall and delivered these lectures, it would have boon all right, but it is most surprising to find them uttered from tho pulpit of St. Paul's, from whence a very different kind of mental sustenance ia usually administered. While tho Bishop and tho liov. Mr. Nelson wero absont at Duncdin settling various matters of temporal concern for the church, the ilock at Auckland wero being told that tho Pentateuch was not written for a thousand years after Moses, and various other things of that sort, which, although familiar to all who have road the works of German scholars and those who havo followed then. , ., wero startling novelties to many of us. Will the Rov. Mr. Nelson set himself to undo tho mischief ho has permitted ? My friend Mr. D. F. Evans, tho auctioneer, apparently understands tho merits of advertising, and this week, having taken an artist into his confidence regarding tho disposal of Pine Island, on Wednesday next, ho suspended over his auction mart a landscape scene, which only requires to be seen to be appreciated. That it is appreciated goes without saying, when one looks at the groups of pedestrians who stop, gaze, and pass on. Tho fact is, " thore's millions in it." When I look at the realistic scene which the artist has placed upon the glowing canvas, I think of Josh Billings' description of his " swuot and pensive retirement":—" Tho land is divided by nature and art, into pasture and tillage, into Stern abruptness and tho dalliance of mosstuffod ineddors. Fruits of the tropicks in golden buty melts on tho bows, and tho bees go heavy and sweet from tho fields to the {jarnoring hives. Its hennery was built expressly for the birds of paradico, while somber in the distance are cort glimpses of the dorg-house." The local George Robins knows that advertising is the lubricant which makes the wheels of commerce go merrily round, whether it be by printer's ink in the columns of the New Zealand Hkralh, or in advertisements of "another colour,'"aud ib all goes to show that ho is not such a D.F. us might be imagined.

The great Archhill Chinese cow caso is at nn end, and fizzled out in the discharge of the half-dozen Mongolians who were alleged to have mutilated the cow. There was a great deal of "match-blowing" over tho affair in Court, until the proceedings became rather sulphurous, but not so much so as the language of the detectives on finding that their Mongolian, prey had slipped through their fingers, " but thereby hangs a tale." There were close on one hundred Chinese in Court during the hearing of the case, so it will be seen the "yellow agony" is getting somewhat pronounced in Auckland.

Last Sunday it was the duty of the Rev. J. S. Hill to preach at Mount Eden to those whom Bishop Cowie onco euphemistically referred to as " the spirits in prison." When Mr. Hill cast his argus oye over his congregation, he was rather startled to find Te Kooti among his hearers, that worthy probably beinjr desirous of making a comparison between the Hiuhau and pakeha karakia. The rev. gentleman had intended to " raise Cain," if he was able, and hold forth on " Sin and its Consequences," but found that it was rather awkward in the hearing of Te Kooti to give out tho text, Genesis iv., 10 : " What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground/' There was no help for it, but to withdraw the text "without prejudice," as Mr. W. J. Napier would say, and, harking back on an old discourse, bring out of his treasury things both now and old. Whether To Kooti appreciated the delicate little compliment thus paid to him did nob transpire.

" What may happen to a school teacher in New Zealand," was very aptly illustrated in the letter of a teacher to a Board of Education the other day. It read more like a story by Bret ITarte about Denver or Lcadville than an episode in the life of h teacher. He stated that lie had been in a certain district, but was desirous of re-en-gagement elsewhere. His fruit trees had been pulled up, and his fences pulled down, some specimens of ores which he had collected for the Paris Exhibition had evaporated, while on returning homewards one day he found the door of his dwelling open, and the body of the owner thereof lying inside in an advanced state of decomposition. It was jocularly stated at the Board, by way of comment on the letter, that the present teacher in this locality was suffering melancholia, and wanted a change of air. That this should bo bo seems passing strange, as in a district in which such lively proceedings were going on, e%"en Rip Van Winkle himself would have been roused up. Mrkcijtio.

The growth or formation of rings in trees is a very interesting study ; and the subject crops up in the last report of the Agricultural Department of the States, in the section devoted to forestry. Referring to annual rings, it is asserted that they exist in all timber trees grown in the temperate zone. Their structure is so different in different groups of timber that from their appearance alone the quality of the timber may be judged to some extent. For this purpose the absolute width of the rings, the regularity in width from year to year, and the proportion of spring wood to autumn wood, must be taken into account. Spring wood is characterised by less substantial elements, the vessels of thin-walled cells being in greater abundance, whilo autumn wood is formed of cells with thicker walls, which appear darker in colour. In conifers and deciduous trees tho annual rings are very distinct, while in trees like the birch, linden, and maple, the distinction is not so marked, because the vessels are more evenly distributed. Sometimes the gradual .change in appearance of the annual ring from spring to autumn wood, which is due to tho difference in its component elements, is interrupted in such a manner that a more or less pronounced layer of autumn wood can apparently be recognised, which again gradually changes into spring or summer wood, and then finishes with the regular autumn wood. This irregularity may occur even more than once in the same ring, and this has led to the notion that the annual rings are not a true indication of ago, but the double or counterfeit rings can be distinguished by a practised eye with the aid of a magnifying glass. These irregularities are due to 6ome interruption of the functions of the tree, caused by defoliation, extreme climatic condition, or sudden changes of temperature. The breadth of the ring depends on tho length of the period of vegetation; also, when the soil is deep and rich, and light has much influence on the tree, the rings will be broader. Tho amount of light, and the consequent development of foliage, is perhaps the most powerful factor in wood formation, and it is upon tho proper use of this that the forester depends for his means of regulating the development and quantity of his orop. The premature decay of beauty in many of our women, and the rapid advances of ago, argue an unhealthy condition of the system or a palpable neglect of their sanitary status. What in commonly known among sex as "ennui," is nothing more or less than lassitude resulting from some defoctive or ganism or special affection. In matters not how delicate the frame, how sensitive the system, how exquisitely strung tho nerves, moderate doses of Udolpho Wolfe's Schiedam Aromatic Schnapps will eradicate the caus.es »ud product) the most J>eiwttcjutri results. s