LOCAL GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 9010, 15 October 1892, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP.

*"Let me have audience for a word or two." , t should like to see all things go smoothly on the occasion of the reception of the Governor, and that being the case, I would venture to ask Colonel Boyle to allow the procession accompanying His Excellency to pass through the grounds of Government House. In all functions of this kind the custom has been to leave His Excellency on the verandah; and the - citizens of Auckland, democratic in most things, are conservative in liking to follow an old-estab-lished custom. It is an appropriate and orderly style of doing the business that His Excellency should get on the verandah, and say good-bye, and then the procession passes through and out afc the other gate. As to the objection that the luggage will be in process of being taken in, there is nothing in that. The Governor and those who accompany him will be at Government House before the luggage vans. By the time they have gob up the people will have all cleared away. By all means let us have the Friendly Societies, and everybody who can muster a flag.

I see that the women of Christchurch have marched in procession to the house of a preacher, in order to ask him to clear out of Christchurch, as in their opinion he was doing harm to the morals of the community. I have no idea what this gentleman's religious teaching consists of, but it is certain these ladies have given him a splendid advertisement. But would it not have been better and more Christian-like if they had tried to convert him, instead of merely asking him to leave Christchurch? If he left that place he might come to Auckland, and we cannot afford to have any more of that kind of thing here. The preacher to the Students of Truth replied " that he should not leave Christchurch till carried to the cemetery," which it must be satisfactory for us to hear, if he is really as bad as the ladies represent. But if he is really injuring public morals, surely the law can deal with him, and then the ladies may ;arry out their purpose by having him carried to the Christchurch gaol.

Last week, I had a word or two of advice to give to the Anti-Theosophists at the Young Men's Christian Association, and this week I may offer something of the same kind to the ladies and gentlemen on the other side. They seem inclined to rest their whole case on whether or nob Madame Blavatsky could work miracles. It has lately been declared that miracles are the difficulty of Christianity, and very earnest attempts have been made to get rid of them. And now here are people asking us to swallow a whole record of the stupidest miracles as beiDg achieved by Madame Blavatsky ? O, poor human nature ! Theosophy, as I have said before, has a history from ancient times. 1 do not know any more enticing body of literature for those who care about that sort of thing than what one can read in the Neo-Platon-ists, and a succession of writers down to Swedenborg. It is a mystical, hazy sort of reading, the greatest harm of which will be to make people unfit for the practical affairs of life. Bat it is rational enough in its way. And why should Theosophists, with all this body of philosophy at their command, peril their whole case on Madame Biavatsky and her miracles ?

No one would have thought, looking at the crowded houses the Opera Company have had, that Auckland was still in process of suffering a recovery from a severe depression. Everybody seemed as happy as crickets ; they were made joyous by the flowing music and the witticism of Mr. Lauri. Care seemed completely banished beyond the walls of the Opera House at all events. And yet a friend told me, that a friend of his told him, that a pawnbroker told him, that men had pawned their overcoats to go to the play with. (Readers will observe that I take care to show that I have no immediate and personal dealings with my uncle). To pawn one's overcoat to go to the theatre, does not look like an increase of national thrift, but then social amusement must be had, and besides summer is setting in, when overcoats »re a superfluity.

How was it that during his last hours Tennyson should have employed himself in reading one of Shakspere's plays ? The statement must have startled many, and I 3wn to being somewhat surprised myself. But when the end approaches in extreme Did age the mind is weak and fluctuating, and perhaps happily does not recognise what is coming. It was perhaps natural that, in there circumstances, the faculty awakened in Tennyson should have been merely the poetic fancy and imagination. No one who has read " In Memoriam" can say that Tennyson did not fully recognise how the human soul should face the problems of life and death. But why "Cymbeline?" If ib had been " Hamlet" or "King Lear" I could have better understood it. " Cymbeline" is not a profound play. It creates for us one exquisitely delicate good woman, one of the most beautiful of Shakspeare's female characters. Nobody else in it is worth much. 1 , . The great problem, I understand, agitating a large number of persons in the community is, when they are to receive their nominations to the Legislative Council The new Payment of Members Bill has nade everything very agreeable. Members now receive their payment monthly by cheque from the Treasury, so that when a man gets the information that he is " called," it is accompanied by a month's pay at the rate of £150 a-year, and a gold pass enabling him to travel free on all the railways. Why did I not become a Labour agitator and a Liberal ? Why did I not make myself conspicuous in that society which agitates for Home Rule to Ireland ? Somebody said in the House that Ministers had made promises to five hundred persons throughout the colony. I should think this likely enough, judging by the number of names 1 have heard mentioned in Auckland. Supposing that 250 promises have been made to the North Island, then our share must be 125. A correspondent propounds the question, if so many appointments are made now, can the next Government appoint an equal number, and then by and by we will all be elevated into the House of Lords, each man having a nice little salary and a gold pass? I am quite sure that the aim of life of many now is to become professional politicians. An old book says that "many are called, but few chosen." In this instance, it may bo that many are promised, and few called. A lady writes to me in a state of considerable agitation of mind and stomach. She has read a paragraph in the Herald, in which it was stated that the Chinese, when they wanted bo preserve a body, placed it in tho middle of a box of tea, and that in this way it would keep for years. My fair correspondent is so startled that she has not used tea since. I really don't think that " Mater" should alarm herself. Perhaps the tea would not be injuriously affected, and of all the millions of boxes thab leave China only a most infinitesimal proportion could ever have been used in such a way as thab, if there is any truth in the story, which I am very doubtful about. Bub, at all events, " Mater" can have recourse to Indian tea, about which nothing of this kind has been said at all events. Bub, perhaps, if the statement in question effects a decrease in the tea-drinking of some ladies it will be a benefit. Excessive drinking of the best of tea does more harm than will ever result from these queer preservative methods of the Chinese. I am in receipt of a copy of the Charleston Herald, containing an account of the recent picnic of members of Parliament to the Wesb Coast. The residents of thab locality evidently think very, little of any of the members except their own men. The •Article states :— " The male portion of the party, with the exdeption of Eugene and Richard, were very ordinary-looking specimens of humanity, bub their style of architecture and general make-up conveyed the impression that they had enough carrying

capacity for all the hospitality that the Buller could shove into them." A full account is given of what was eaten at the banquets by Colonel Eraser and others. After these distinguished honorarium recipients left, the coin they had left on the West Coast was audited. lb was found that one man had got the whole of it, having sold a packet of Old Judge cigarettes to Colonel Fraser and shaved Mr. E. M. Smith for half-price. The picnicking of last session was on a somewhat extensive scale. Members get a Government steamer, i and go off with their wives and other female relatives. They go to some place where the residents want a new harbour or something of the sort, and there they are banqueted to their hearts' content. Mrs. Aldis quotes my saying that I have often received good impulses and impressions at the theatre. But, she argues, we are " all members one of another," and are bound to refuse all seeming good to ourselves which can only be gained ab the cost of ill to others. She concludes thus :— Most of the churches of Auckland have become possessed, apparently, with the idea that amusement is a necessity which it is their part to provide. With their socials, their concerts, their bazaars, their Bands of Hope, their-boys' brigades, and, in some instances, their theatrical representations, they have trained their young people in selfnleasing and in the love of excitement, and nave small right to be surprised when the lesson bears its natural fruit, and their disciples go to seek these things at the hands of trained performers. Churches and religious systems in all ages have had to take account of the fact that human beings seek for entertainment socially. Ido not think that the church concerts and Band of Hope meetings feed the theatre; they are rather rivals to it. The jubilee celebration of the arrival of the Scottish pioneer settlers by the Duchess of Argyle and Jane Gifford on the 9th October, 1842, was in every way a magnificent success. There was not a single hitch, nor a single " incident" to mar the pleasant recollections of the historic scene, thanks to the forethought and organising capacity of the hon. secretary, Mr. J. J. Craig. Mature, which had been profuse of her tears on Sunday, dried them up on Monday, and gave the jubilee colonists "Queen's weather," in order that the photographic groups taken by Mr. Hanua might prove the complete success they are. A word of praise is due to Mr. Adam Brock, convener of the decoration committee, for his unique floral designs, and lie spent two days at the Choral Hall on his labour of love;

I do not wonder that the "nuld bodies" on the platform, when they looked on the maze of floral decorations, with the gaslight streaming on them—a bib of fairy land— and then thought of the little raupo whares in Mechanics' Bay at the foot of the hill, which were their homes fifty years ago, began to hum " This is no My Ain Hoose, 1 Ken by the Biggin o'b ! " The Maori canoe in from; (Waiomo), must have carried their memories back to tho time when the tide laved the strand of that Bay (Waipapa) —when the bay was lined with canoes from end to end—their owners trading from their tents, and kept jocund with song and jest and dance. Change is written upon all. The native hostelry is silent, dingy, deserted, and no more will be seen there the " lords of the soil," or heard the sound of native* hymn, song, or dance, for the children of Nature have faded away before the hardier colonist. At) every turn at that Jubilee gathering one was brought face to face with tokens of the Olden Time. In that hall I met men whose hand I had nob grasped for 40 years. Three of those present, some of them grandfathers, had been Sunday-school scholars in the class of our first Colonial Treasurer (Mr. Alexander Shepherd), while one grandmother with whom I conversed had been a Sunday school scholar of old St. Paul's, and taught by Lady Grey. Nothing struck me so much as the halesome look of tho old Scottish matrons, " Duchesses" and " Oiffords," and their faces were pictureslarge-framed, broad - chested, fresh - coloured, muscular women, fitting nursing mothers of a young nation. They contrasted strongly with some of the specimens of womanhood in the hall, of the bumble-bee pattern, pallid, illdeveloped, and largely consisting of " bustle and boots." The earlier product of Nature's handiwork was the result of healthy exercise, largely out-door, a natural mode of living, and— I must say it—parritch ! The later type is, more's the pity, the outcome of the artificial life of latest nineteenth century civilisation.

We shall never see such a gathering of old pioneer colonists again, and in that respect it is historic. 1 hope to see every old colonist of 50 years and over, furnish to the hon. secretary, Mr. J. J. Craig, Fortstreet, before the 31st instant, the final date for closing the roll, the particulars desired by the Jubilee Committee, namely, Christian name and surname, age, date of arrival in the colony, name of ship, and number of descendants. This is the last opportunity of making up anything like a tolerably complete roll of the pioneer settlers] of theiprovince of Auckland, of half a century's standing, and the roll will be invaluable to the historian, and also (if I must appeal to the selfish feelings of some) for tracing kinship, heirship to property, etc. It is intended to have the names and particulars inscribed on parchment, and deposited in the Auckland Free Public Library, for reference in the time to come.

One can understand the feeling of those old settlers as they met on Monday last and shook each other's hands, some for the first time for a quarter of a century, and even a longer period. It is the feeling of veterans after a long campaign.. These men (and women) had lived together, suffered together, and some of their band had died together ; and imbued with such a feeling, one can understand how Mr. and Mrs. J. A. Wood— and 81 years of age respectively — came GOO miles (from Christchurch) to be present on the gladsome occasion. The Duchess of Argyle and Jane Gifford people brought to this land with them not only a love of Scotland and its customs, but the national qualities of industry and selfreliance. As soon as the little piece of Government work — cutting down the Crescent and erecting the stockading for the Courthouse and gaol — was finished they spread out into the country, by degrees purchasing their own sections and becoming the leading farmers in the Tamaki, Otahuhu, Mangere, and Papatoetoe districts. There was no clamour, periodically, for Government work, for allowance for clearing their own land, free fruit trees, passes, or running to Labour Bureaus. One may look in vain in the books of the Charitable Aid Board for the names of them, or of their descendants, and the same may be said of a later Scottish settlement founded in Auckland, that of Waipu, by the Highlanders from Nova Scotia. The pioneer Scottish settlers relied on themselves and on their own right hands to carve out their future, and did so in the spirit Browning has inculcated— The common problem, yours, mine, everyone's, Is not. to fancy what were fair in life Providing it could be—but, finding first What may be, then find how to make it fair, Up to our means—a very different thing. One of tho oldest colonists ab the Old Colonists' Jubilee Demonstration on Monday was Mr. E. M. Williams, who has been in New Zealand since 1823. He translated the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, ab the Bay of Islands, and was present when it was signed in February, 1840. In April, 1840, he was appointed by Governor Hobson to accompany Major Bunbury, in H.M.s. Herald, among tho several islands, bo obtain the signatures of natives to the Treaty. The mission occupied three months. Mr. Williams has in his possession the Blue Book, with facsimiles of the draft treaty, and documents. In September, 1840, he accompanied the first Government party to Auckland, and was appointed by the Governor interpreter, clerk of court, postmaster, and assistant to the manager of Public Works, Mr. William Mason, who, he states, was the firsb Mayor of Auckland, bub now resident in Dunedin. Mr. Mason pub his wooden house brought up in sections from the Bay of Islands —in Official Bay, and they were the two firsb men bo sleep in a wooden house in Auckland, ' The next to Uyu in Official Bay was

Captain D. Rough, harbourmaster; Mr. Felton Matthews, Surveyor-General; and Dr. Johnson, Colonial Surgeon—hence the name Official Bay Mechanics' Bay, from the workmen being quartered there ; and Commercial (or Town) Bay, as being the place where the stores were put; George's Bay and Freeman's Bay were so called after Mr. George Cooper, sen., and Mr. Freeman, who pitched their tents there. _ Mr. Cooper was one of the crow who pulled in the Surveyor-General's gig at the regatta of Sept. 18,1840, commemorative of the founding of Auckland. The Maoris at that time had plantations of potatoes on the presentsite of Government House and grounds, and Mr. Williams purchased the crops on behalf of the Government, in case some of the Europeans might make free with the potatoes, and thus bring on strife between the two races. Government House was brought out from England in sections, and the timber stacked on the bank about where the N.Z. Insurance Buildings now stand. A fire broke out in the vicinity, and extended to the stack of timber, but by great exertions, carrying buckets of water from the sea, the progress of the fire was awes ted, and only the ends of the timbers wore scorched or charred.

Mr. Williams went to Akaroa, and when there went ashore with Major Bunbury to call a meeting of the natives, but they wero jealous and suspicious. They could make out Mr. Bush, who wanted some of the chiefs to come aboard H.M.s. Herald. Tho cause of their suspicions was that the brig Elizabeth, Captain Stewart, had visited Akaroa three years before to procure flax and pigs, when Rauparaha's people, who were on board, massacred all who visited the ship. Tho natives in consequence of this tragedy, refused to go aboard of H.M.s. Herald. Major Bunbury wanted to create confidence in the native mind, and Mr. Williams offered to remain as a hostage while a chief went aboard. The natives agreed, the chief went aboard and was well treated, and shortly afterwards they all went, getting plenty of flour and sugar, which they voted to be kapai! Mr. Monstedt, of Birkenhead, writes backing up some of my statements about the fair sex, which another correspondent had accused me of having said for fun, or for argument's sake. He then proceeds :— And with regard to Eve, I should as one of that venerable lady's descendants, feel it to be my duty to take up the cudgels in her defence as eagerly as if she were my own mother-in-law. As, however, no special charge was made against her, I shall content myself by relating a pretty little incident which occurred as you will see—and which even Milton has omitted. 1 LOVE YOU. When mankind's mother, forced by fate Went weeping out of Eden's Kate, Which closed—aye, closed forever, She glanced back o'er that beauteous place, And with sad heart and mournful face Divined the sufferings of her race Upon Time's rushing river. Chilled by despair, her faith nigh dead. The last bright ray of hope seemed tied, And Lost, Lost, Lost! !I" resounded ; She saw with dread the " gleaming sword." Then turned she to creation's lord From whom some simple sound she heard, Wherewith her woes were hounded. lie took her hand within his own. And in despair-defying tone, Pronounced these words : " I love you I" Whereat a thrill of joy ran through Her aching heart, forgetting woe, She murmured like an echo low. This fond reply, " 1 love you I" Her peerless form, with manly grace, He folded then in close embrace, And tenderly caressed her ; From unseen harps strains seemed to swell, i Earth's hosts and angels felt a spell, . And seeing bliss with mortals dwell, The Cherub thus addressed her : " Tho' lost fore'er is Paradise, Yet, you still hold a greater prize, Of which none shall bereave you. Your race shall feel its bliss thro' time, As well in youth and age as prime And Eden Bud in every clime Within these words—' I love you 1* " No sound so sweet shall greet the ear Of mankind, nor shall words more dear By human lips be spoken. Yet your fair daughters this shall know— Not aye where accents smoothly flow, But falt'ring speech—sighs—silence, trow— They are the true heart's token. " Thorns doomed upon your paths to grow ; Behold their lovely roses '. Now K'en thistles bear fresh (lowers. Henceforth, Love be existence, soul; Tho earth be blest fiom pole to pole, The air be tilled, the waters roll With Love's majestic powers !" Mercutio.