LOCAL GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9307, 16 September 1893, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP.

"Let me bare audience for a word or two." — Shakespere. The ladies of New Zealand, now that they are in the political sphere, must expect to be reminded of sins of omission and commission by myself and others, who are professional public censors, ami who have made a study of the moral law. I begin my duties by reminding them that thoy have been guilty of that offence which has been ranked from of old as one of the worst sins of the calendar—ingratitude. They have had meeting after meeting, they have talked about presenting bouquets to those who voted that they should be endowed with the suffrage, but they have not expressed any sentiment of gratitude to the venerable Father of Women's suffrage, Dr. Wallis. He remains in his quiet retreat at lonia, amongst his books,"looking over the upper reaches of the Waitemata. Perhaps — who knows? —he muses over the changes of popular favour, and especially the fickleness of the sex to which he devoted a considerable portion of his political life. Dr. Wallis tried the Auckland electors at the last general election, but although he was an advanced Liberal a few years ago, he will not join the crowd which is galloping to Socialism, and so he was nowhere. He might try it again in December next, and he certainly ought to get the vote of every woman on the roll.

I took up a volurao of Hansard of 1880, and there I find that in that session Dr. Wallis made a motion in the House that all women who were freeholders should be placed on the electoral roll. This was a very modest proposal surely, nothing at all to what we have now, after those few years, in actual operation, when every woman— good, bad, or indifferent—it there are any of the latter classes—lias the right to exercise the franchise. Dr. Wallis made a long speech in support of his motion, more complete than any speech that lias been made on the subject since, citing John Stuart Mill, Mrs. Fawcetb, and other writers on the subject. He occasionally soared into lofty eloquence, as in a passage which commenced thus :—" The day was beginning to dawn—the light which was now visible in the east would grow brighter and brighter. The greatest and most promising movement of the ape had begun." Dr. Wailis had to experience that it was just begun, and that his championship of it would have some effect in extinguishing him politically. Apparently, it was thought the correct thing in the House at that time to chaff this modest proposal about women's suffrage out of existence. And who does the gentle reader think was put up to doit? Why, Mr. Seddon, the present Premier, the "man who brought in the Bill which gives the franchise to every woman in New Zealand. Here is a specimen of the style in which Mr. Secldon thought, it expedient at that time to deal with this question : —" He thought the hon. gentleman (Dr. Wallis) should have hesitated before ho disturbed the amity of the relations between hon. members and their wives. If trie Benedicks of the House stood up anil talked hour after hour on this motion, their wives would for a certainty tell them they would have done far better by assisting to get through the pressing business of the colony, thereby shortening the session, and reaching homo in decent time. As to the principle involved in the Bill, he would simply say this, that notwithstanding the boasted enlightenment of the nineteenth century, the minds of hon members were still so dark as to refuse to admit the force of the arguments of the hon. member for Auckland City West." He then went on to show that women did not want the suffrage, as was evidenced by the fact that although there were five or six women in tho gallery when Dr. Wallis commenced, only one remained to the conclusion of his speech. In fact, Dr. Wallis's motion was treated as pure waste of time. It was not even divided upon. Mr. Seddon went on with his sneering remarks till the hour of the dinner adjournment arrived.

But times change, and we change, and the very man who led the laugh against Dr. Wallis now introduces a Bill to give the franchise. But certainly the leaders of the movement now ought to go down to the wharf and meet the Riverhead steamer, and present the doctor with a bouquet of the sweetest flowers that can be gathered, is a that they are not ungrateful to him v?ho was the herald of the dawn.

What is vaguely-talked about a3 "the Great Liberal Party" seems to be in a continual state of ferment, and one never knows what may issue. A vague and mysterious shape has lately emerged, which may grow in strength and power or which mav perish like an untimely birth. I refer to ""The Auckland Independent Political Reform Association.' Whatever thi3 new body may be I am safe in saying that the members were once all men of the right colour, for they have assured the House of Representatives that they "all voted for the Government at last election." They go on, however, to say that " none of them intend to vote tor it at this election." They have assured Mr. Earnshaw, who has broken off the Ministerial trammels, that they will " see to it that the Auckland contingent after the next election would be men like Mr. Earnshaw, possessing the moral courage to express their convictions, and not favouring creatures like some by whom they had the misfortune to be represented at the present time." The word " favouring " is, I believe, a telegraphic mistake for "fawning." What a denunciation! Hereare a number of men, all of whom voted for Liberal candidates at last election, now denouncing the men of their choice as "fawning creatures" of the Ministry. I have no intention of interfering in this quarrel, which is a very pretty one as ib stands. Those who speak as I have quoted ibove ought to know all about it. They we behiud the scenes.

The Temperance party complain that they have been grossly deceived, and perhaps their complaint is true. But they deserva to be deceived if they take any candidate, any politics, any character, if a man merely makes a promise. What is the use of their taking a promise from a man when they must know that ho is making it for a purpose, and that ho has no intention of keeping it? They have been deceived in the past, and ib would appear as if they were as ready to be deceived in tho future. I have been told of a candidate who has swallowed all the temperance pledges,and whoowns several public-houses. The "temperance party will vote for him. In acting thus, they are playing pitch and toss with the best interests of the country.

It is quite apparent that in making tho new nominations to the Legislate Council, tho Government did not consult the Temperance party. In his speech the other day, the Hon. Mr. Oliver said the teetotallers were more noisy than strong. He put a somewhat fine point on it thus :— "He did not think the volume of expression on the part of the teetotallers was in proportion to their power." He went on to say that "he took leave to doubt the largeness of the total abstinence party ; he did nob know of one teetotaller in the Legislative Council, and comparatively speaking he was acquainted with very few such in private life." And worse than this, the Attorney-General said he agreed with Mr. Oliver.

A correspondent appeals for my assistance to have such an alteration in the law as shall make justices of the peace elective, and also members of the Crown Lands Board. He contends that justices should be possessed of some further qualification than being well off, or enjoying the influence of the member for the time being. Some of our Justices are certainly not up to the mark; bub I doubb very much whether a popular election would mend , the matter. Then that would admit the principle of electing the men who are to administer justice. If the Justices are to b e elective, why should "tug Resident Ma-

gisbrates nob be placed in office in the same way? We have too many elections as ib is, and they are nob so very satisfactory after all.

I have in hand, from a correspondent, a brief piece of moralising. Ho says that, in England, " the champion talker" rules, and passes a Dome Rule Bill with loud hurrahs and a free fight in the House of Commons. Twenty thousand industrious artisans ask him for employment, and he can do nothing to help them. In the United States the "champion worker" is on tcp, and there Cabling guns have to bo brought out against'those who aro out of employment. The climax is thus reached : " The champion thinker, where is he ? Ho lies low, and says never a word. His time is not yet." It is time this champion thinker were arousing himself. He must both speak and work before he can have any effect. Perhaps the champion thinker of the future will be the woman. Who knows ?

At tho last meeting of the St. ban's Literary Society the local Madame Adele Crepaz(Mrs. McKinstrey) read a paper in which she spoke strongly against according women the franchise. Here is a specimen of her reasoning : —

Do the bulk of women desire it; if so, why ? I think that anyone who is a thoughtful and intelligent reader of women will bear me out in my statement that the majority of women desire the franchise not. because they care aboutor realise the importance to themselves or their children of using it aright, but simply because it is something new, some little novelty which will break the monotony of every day life. No doubt some women among us will try to use their vote with the discretion of any man, but when the excitement of the thing lias worn away will the franchise be used? Why are our leading men anxious for women to have this power ? Is it because they feel themselves incompetent to govern the population, and therefore must have the aid of the other sex, or is it that we are lapsing back into barbarism, when the women were the workers? This almost seems to be the most likely of the two, as we are told that history repeats itself, and judging from the work that women are undertaking, one wonders more and more what men will find to do in the next generation. lam sorely afraid we are now making a rod to whip the backs of our children, for any interference with Nature's laws will bring its own punishment, and by the lavish expenditure of nervous energy and feverish excitement of general elections, public meetings and so on, by our,women, we shall have our reward in seeing our children nervous, sickly, and lacking in all that tends to make a perfect man.

If voting once in three years at a general election is to be the break in the monotony of life for a woman, then her fate is sad indeed. As to interfering with Nature's laws, John Stuart Mill disposes of Mrs. Melvinstrey in one act. He says : — " Nature may be very well left to take care of herself. One thing we may be quite certain —that wha,r. is contrary to women's nature to do they never will bo made to do by simply giving their nature free play." If Mrs. McKinstrey is a wise woman she will take the gift the Parliamentary gods have provided, asking no questions for conscience sake, and use it wisely and well in the interests of her little world—the home.

The women of the Auckland Franchise League are greatly incensed about tbe petition to the Governor, praying that he will not assent to the Bill giving women the franchise, not so much at the act as at the little tricks connected with procuring signatures. Of the petition itself they are pretty much of the opinion of Captain Grinling, that when you get to the back of it, it is partly froth, partly beer." When the ladies discovered on the lists the names of brats of boys who have not yet " got that down upon the lip which bespeaks drawing towards a man," they instinctively felt about for " that slipper," and were ready to haul the erring offspring across their knee and strike home, as the Roman. matrons did two thousand years ago. . I trust that Mrs. Matson, to talk of municipal voting, will not accept her defeat by four votes as final at Parnell, but will come up to time on the next occasion smiling.

The inquest on the body of poor Donald McKenzie, who poisoned himself by taking two bottles of chlorodyne at the Rising Sun Hotel; and subsequently died at the Hospital, was remarkable, not so much for the evidence which was given as for the facts which never came out in evidence. From the statements published the unfortunate man about half-past eight p.m., "shouted" for some people in the hotel, but only had lemonade himself. He then poured the two bottles of chlorodyne (one of which had been procured for him, and one which he had got himself during the afternoon) into the lemonade and swallowed the fatal draught. The landlady then ran to the chemist, back to the hotel to find the unfortunate man un conscious, again to the chemist, and telephoning goes on to get Dr. Walker, both at the chemist's (when it seems he was not at home) and again for him when the chemist returned to his home, Ponsonby. It was twenty minutes to ten, nearly an hour afterwards, before Dr. Walker arrived.

The rule in cases of poisoning—a common sense rule—is to get the nearest medical aid, and, next, to inform the police authorities, so that they may be early on the ground, to ascertain the real facts surrounding the death of the person, and also his condition when he committed the rash act. What occurred? Dr. Bakewell, a duly-qualified physician, on that night was sitting in his office, within four doors of that hotel, and states that no application was ever made to him for medical aid, although he would have been in attendance upon McKenzie and treated him for poison within five minutes of the fatal act; that McKenzie had endeavoured to gel! chlorodyne from him that afternoon, and that seeing the man's condition he at once refused to give ib to him, and that McKenzie had applied to two different chemists with an equally unsuccessful result, for the same reason which decided Dr. Bakewell's action. McKenzie informed Dr. Bakewelf that he had been drinking heavily, and that he had had no sleep for nine nights, and begged him to let him have the chlorodyne, but the doctor refused. Dr. Bakewell was never summoned at the inquest, and his evidence was never elicited. Now, as to the police authorities. Sergeant Bernard lives about 200 yards from the hotel. Although the affair occurred a little after half-past eight no information of the poisoning reached him till a quarter to two o'clock in the morning, and then by accident. The Hospital authorities acquainted the lock-up-keeper at the Auckland police station, and he at once roused up Sergeant Bernard by telephone. But for the action of the Hospital authorities and the lockup-keeper, Sergeant Bernard would never hare known anything about the case till going on duty in the morning and after the man was dead, while any opportunity of getting on the ground or knowing the man's condition at the time of the fatal acb was hopelessly lost. The moral of my narrative, which I give nob only for the benefit of the Rising Sun bub the public generally in a case of poisoning, is always get the nearest medical man, and also take the police into your confidence ; it will be the best in the long run.

The Rev. S.P. Prior played successfully the other night in Pitt-street the drama of" Mew Way of Paying Old Debts," and wiped off a circuit debt of £100 in one act ; even the Rev. Jas. Blaikie (who shares Mr. Prior's horror of debt) will not object to a sacred play of this description. Mr. Prior said he had been in business, and he always liked to see his premises spick and span, and no dirt about. Debt he regarded as dirt, and wanted it swept away. He was slightly illogical in his simile, for he wanted the faithful to come " clown with the dust," and actually declared he had a prior claim to it! I commend the excellent method of getting rid of an incubus Mr. Prior adopted, to some of his ministerial brethren. There were no pious swindles — no lucky bags —no touting misses— who worry young men into spending a pound on a lottery, and give them back in prizes a toothpick or a baby's rattle—bub instead the trick was done by st capital lecture, which the lectures

modestly valued at half the admission money, and some orchestral music which was worth the other half. Each adherenb carried off a " brick" out of the load, nobody was burdened, while they had a pleasant and instructive evening's ontertainmenb thrown in to enliven the operation.

Bub Mr. Prio who is a bib of a wag, had tho best of bis audience in one part of his lecture. Describing Alfred the Great as an illustration of the dogma that the child is the father of the man, he referred to that monarch as one of the greatest that had ever ruled England.

" Would to God," said the rev. gentleman, " that we had more rulers who had his spirit and bore his stamp. There were no larrikins in his dominions, and it would not have been possible to see the spectacle of a young man kicked to death, as at Miller's Point, Sydney, because of his humanity, and of his being opposed to larrikinism." At this, as larrikinism came home to his hearers, the audience cheered. " Don't cheer," said the rev. gentleman, with biting irony, " I don't know that you are any better in Auckland. I read in your journals of a young man being pounded bo death ' on the ropes' in tho arena, and of a grand jury which, forgetful of its sacred oath to administer the law, failed to enforce it, and men could nob be gob to do and say tho right thing in the right place. You are not a bit hotter than tho people on the other sido. Don't cheer ! I would rather live under Cromwellian rule, under the autocracy of a strong good man, than under a Democracy which was unmanly enough, and cowardly enough, to see these things done, and be silent. I have beon watching our Democracy. Get your voto, and use it, bub if you do not use ib wisely and well, I would rather that you never possessed it. Ido not care for the rich more than the poor, nor for tho poor more than the rich, bub I do care that men should bo manlythat the law shall be enforced—that right shall be done." Mr. Prior drove his nail home " with the hammer of Thor," up to the head, and clenched ib with plain speaking. A holy calm settled on the pews, and the faithful with a fragrant recollection of the grand jury business in this virtuous city of Auckland, took his advice, and did not cheer !

Surely wonders will never cease. An esteemed correspondent sends me the following :—"Perhaps 0110 of the most clever of modern inventions is a self-acting automatic detective camera, worked by electricity, and made applicable for use both by night and day. It has beon invented by the wife of Mr. Edison, the prince of inventors. It is by "far the most wonderful and ingenious appliance of the day, and is adapted for large buildings left unprotected at night, as its expense when procurable i« not so very gceat.. One of these implements is about to be affixed to the new Salvation Barracks in Ponsonby Road, as the larrikin element is beginning to assort itself in the art of window-smashing with this structure. It is to be worked by the big sergeant. The mode of using the instrument is to charge each window with electric current, connected by means of invisible wires with the camera and magnetic needle contained in a disc. Should a window be lifted or a pane of glass broken, an electric search light immediately manifests itself and is at once foenssed towards the object discharging the propulsed missile, no matter at what distance, tho current being so powerful. Then by simultaneous action of the detective camera the object is completely photographed by an instantaneous process whether tho same is in tho act of moving or of remaining stationary. When this remarkable contrivance is in operation the first miscreant that breaks another window at the Bui-racks, will run a chanco of an early morning visit from Constable Russell, and notwithstanding the recent outcry that has gone forth ov^ 1 the Devonport affair, will be hauled out of bed and confronted with the incriminating photograph by the relentless police officer. It is proposed to place the instrument in a suitable position in the hall, where it will not bo tampered with ; with tho salutary inscription beneath in red letters, ' Be sure your sin will find you out.' In order to lessen the expense and to add to its advantages, it might be advisable to make arrangements to connect the invention with the Savings Bank next door, where it could be equally effective should there be a nocturnal run on the bank." Mekcutio.