LOCAL GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8156, 18 January 1890, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP.

<tX^eta ve audience** a "Orforjwo"

V, cMOTJ like to interview Lord Onslow, E Tm*gt°n, and Lord Charles Scott to their views about celebrating the Jubilee. They must think we are a queer So to get up a squabble about which J*7 is to be observed. The whole aad "Le fault lies with the gripping aad Z*soia« spirit of Wellington. From the Stag of the colony, the 29th of January-the day on which Governor Hobpan landed as the representative of Her Majesty in this colony-has been celohratad , t Auckland. Wellington has kept a* a holiday January '2-2, the day when the first settlers of the New Zealand Company reached Port Nicholson. Canterbury has also kept the day of the foundation of the Canterbury settlement, and Otago the annivereary of the landing of the Scotch settlers. Nobody would find any fault if the Tieo ple of Wellington kept their anuivtrsarv as they have hitherto done, but this year a claim has been made on their behidf bv certain rabid journalists that the landin.' of the settlers there, which was done entirely without authority, and with no sanction from the Imperial Government, was in reality the foundation of the colony, and that we ought to discredit and contemn the landing of Governor Hobson as an event of no importance whatever. The grandpes I have referred to must feel a little wearied st being dragged from one place to another to be present at the celebration of the same event, and to be told at each place that this is the real and genuine thing.

In one respect I observe that Wellington is to have the best of Auckland in celebrating the event. It is to have tho Salvation Army band to conduct the procession. I suppose the Salvation Army baud in Wellington is like the bands of that body elsewhere. They will not be able to play the usual patriotic tunes, and Lord Onsldw and Lord Carrington will have to join in the refrains of the airs so familiar to all who frequent the streets, and to give voice in especial when the cymbals are banged.

I have already made it manifest that I jim in favour of the early closing movement, although I have been somewhat inclinetl on various occasions to oppose it when some foolish people proposed to have the shops shut by force of law, to have policemen marching up and down Karanga„ha;>e Road to see that no shop keeps open after a certain hour. I think that it would be much better for all concerned if those grocery shops were shut at six or seven instead of consuming gas to enable purchases to be made which could as well be made hours before in daylight. But I go in for freedom in this, and do not believe in the strong arm of the law. Take it this way : There are far too many of those shops. If half the men and women who are employed in them selling groceries, drapery, jfca, were away in the country producing somethingsum, flax, potatoes, oats, or anything which people could eat or send away for money —the colony would be a great gainer. If the police are to be called in to shut up the shops at six o'clockif they are to regulate the hours of the shops—l do not see why they should not be called in to regulate the numbers of the shoos. 'Die multiplicity of these shops— there being many more than there is any need for—is a great evil in every way. It deprives the colony of the labour of a number of men who might be producing something, and it is the sole and entire cause of the late hours. The late hours are caused by eagerness to do every scrap of business that is agoing. If half of the shops were closed, there would be good trade for those who remained without their having to keep open till ten or eleven o'clock. Why then should the police not be endowed with the power to close every grocer's and draper's shop which they considered unnecessary? They have just as much right to close up a shop altogether as they have to close any place of business at six o'clock.

Then, as to " boycotting," some at the meeting said it -was an ugly word, that it should not be used, but that a combination should be got up simply to pass by those shops which kept open late. There 'is a distinction without a difference. For my own part, I feel strongly tempted to boycott those men who have become bankrupt, or who are frequently making compositions. I regard the non-payment of one's engagements as a much more serious crime than keeping open after six o'clock.

It is to be regretted that the gentlemen nt the public meeting who took charge of the early closing movement should have shown so little judgment and prudence. In rejecting Mr. Irench's amendment, that the hour of closing be ten o'clock on Saturday, and insisting on nine, they are timpiy courting certain defeat at the very outset. Any reform, to be permanent and enduring, must be moderate, and carry be hind it "the force of public opinion. The time may come when the public will be educated up to nine o'clock Saturday closing, but it is not yet ; and in striving for too much at once they will lose what was possible, as the temperance reformers know to their cost. The true policy to be adopted is not to have spasmodic reforms —fluctuations of public opinion—but to go for what is moderate and reasonable in the interests of employer and employed; and having got it, put the foot down squarely, and keep it there. Six o'clock all the week and ten o'clock on Saturdays would be a platform which would commend itself to the great majority of the public, bub anything beyond that at present would lead to a revulsion of public feeling, which would throw Lack this social reform for years to come. What does nine o'clock mean 'i It practically means this, that we say to the working-man you may not spend your money with the butcher, baker, grocer, or draper on Saturday night after nine o'clock, hut if you have any money left then, you can go'to the publichouse, which we allow to remain open till ten o'clock to give you a chance of getting rid of it !

Those gentlemen who write plays and popular novels in these days do not seem to know much about the nature of a villain. la play after play exactly the same type of man is offered as the villain, and they must ill seem transparently wrong to anyone who has considered the subject. The stage villain is quite a conventional character. Look at the man who fills the necessary part of rascality in " It's Never Too Late To .Mend." The good young fellow who loves the heroine, and who is beloved, has, of course, no money, while the villain is rich. But the villain also loves, and feels die divine passion so strongly that he is ready to go to every extreme to be able to marry the heroine. When, at length, he is baulked, he exclaims, " Deprived of the only woman I ever loved 1" and rushes off the stage in despair. Now, what I contend is that any man who loved so deeply would ta purified and ennobled by his love, and *ould be quite incapable of committing the cruel and criminal actions of the villain of the piece. I don't remember any such character in Shakspere. He knew human nature much better than that.

A correspondent signing himself "BiPed. " sends the following valuable addition to the dog and lion's head controversy : — 'Dear Mercutio,—That animals other than those of the (jenux homo do sometimes mistake the ' shadow for the substance,' I was for°Wy reminded of on reading that ' true story 'of the dog and stone lion's head. I had a favourite bull-terrier in the old country who one day fell into a like mistake. I had hung a life-size bust painting 01 a woman on the wall of my sitting-room, when who should trot in but my canine chum. On seeing what he mistook to be a giantess, he rushed towards the wall, with hiding back, growling, and showing signs °i great anger. To quiet him I took the Picture down, when he turned away with evident disgust to think he had been so bejooled. He never bothered himself about that picture again."

One would naturally think that when •"en left the service of the Government, aft giving the best of their days to the country, that they would be parted with *™» feelings of regret when the time came ° r .^ ev erance; that they would go back to v u life with words of kindly commendaiv aud. their «xamnle of fidelity and

faithful service held up as an example to thoir juniors. A New Zealand Government, in its police force at least, does exactly the opposite of all this. If an officer has got to go, through age or infirmitysometimes he goes without these disqualifications is simply run out on his head by the official chucker-out, and relegated back to civil life with every mark of contumely and disrespect which official malice can suggest. This style of thing is regarded in the biggest wooden building in the world as " maintaining discipline," and creating awe in the rank and file, whereas it maintains nothing save petty tyranny, and creates nothing in the full private save unutterable hatred and contempt. It was but the other day that an officer in the South, at 55 years of age, ami with 24 years' service, wont back into civil lifo, to light the battle of existence, rather than submit to the official degradation attempted to be imposed upon him, and to which his comrades had, perforce, to submit. Perhaps there never was a time since the police force was transferred to colonial control when there was such profound dissatisfaction and smouldering discontent as at present pervading all ranks. No man feels sure of his post for a week, and all stand in dread uncertainty as to when their turn for the " happy despatch " may come. Promotion or disrating is dependent upon that mysterious influence which, like the wind,* bloweth where it listeth, and Constable X knoweth not whence it cotneth or whither .c goeth. There are scores of good men now in the force, with life-long service, who would leave it to-morrow without a regret but for the ties of dopendont wives and children.

The art of handling mon and governing them successfully is not acquired in a day. It is weakly believed, apparently, that this gift is always bestowed with the lace on the cap and the epaulettes on the slwulders. The tailor can give these, but only nature can give the qualities of head and heart which enables a man to rule his fellows wisely and well. He may otherwise acquire the art, of " bullock punching," but not of government. The police force seems to be getting to the bullock punching stage; its morale is destroyed, while of txprit cle coiys there is none. Ido not protend to say who is to blame, but the Defence Minister or Chief Commissioner who will alter the present state of affairs would deserve the gratitude of the men and the thanks of the country. One thing is certain, that the question of the condition of the police force will be ventilated on the floor of the House next session.

Over thirty yeirs ago it was my lot to know a " happy" regiment. It was ordered home from the colony after its term of foreign service, such of the men as desired to muster out being allowed to settle here. At its last roll call some four-score men clustered round the colours before marching for the troopship. The scene that I then saw first gave me an insight into the feeling that teaches soldiers in the supremo moment how to die, and to follow their officers with "a light heart" up to the cannon's gaping mouth or the deadly breach. Bronzed, grey-bearded, but soldierly men, had come in from the bush thirty and forty miles to that last parade, and, stepping on to the barrack square, reverently doffed their caps, and went up and kissed the tittered colours under which they had fought and bled, and wrung again the hands of trusty comrades of yore, with whom they had suffered and triumphed, and whom they would see no more till the final roll-call. It was then I understood what esprit de corps meant, and its magic power over the souls of men ; but the man who would expect to see such a feeling in our blue-coated army, after having had a glimpse behind the scenes, would be only tat for the Whau '.

I notice an advertisement in the Herald, the peculiarity of which struck me:— '■ Wanted, a verger for Holy Trinity. Apply timber yard. This is rather suggestive of a " wooden-headed" official being desired, and verges upon the ridiculous.

The way in which Mr. Charles Warner was "wigged" by the fair wrestler with his professional conundrum will, it is to be hoped, prove a caution not to trifle with the feelings of a woman in pursuit of " a fiver." It was just on the cards that she would " ' Bust' up the show."

One of the recent items of cable news is the death- of the morganatic wife of the Duke of Cambridge, Miss Fairbrother. The deceased lady was well known to several persons in Auckland, one of whom, indeed, was in her service. The Luke was in command of the cavalry forces of the Dublin Military District when he first made the acquaintance of Miss Fair brother, who was then an actress fulfilling an engagement on the Dublin stage. One of the daughters of the Duke by " Mrs. Fitz-Gs.-orge " (as she was termed) —a beautiful woman—is married to a distinguished general in the British army, who commanded his regiment in the Crimea, and w;is subsequently stationed in the lonian Islands on the staff of General Garrett, at the time of Sir Henry Stork's governorship. One of tho sons, Lieutenant Firz-George, was in the Galatea, and came round these colonies with the Duke of Edinburgh on his first visit. Mkrcutio.