ON THINGS IN GENERAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9720, 16 January 1895, Page 3

ON THINGS IN GENERAL.

LEGAL LIMELIGHT. Ghosts of the past are to be laid in our Police Court. That quiet, incisive manner, which Mr. Northcrofb, S.M., possesses in a high degree, is of very great advantage to him in his avocation. Bat perhaps his finest trait) is manliness, sense of fair play, and utter contempt for meanness. This was more than usually proininenb in the cases which came before him recently. With fine contempt he spoke of the practice of trying to damage a witness's testimony by calling up the shadows of dead and gone peccadilloes. A little boy was giving evidence, and in cross-examination he was questioned as to whether he had ever been before the Court. The Magistrate's reply did His Worship credit. Was it, he asked, fair that because a boy, perhaps a good boy, had committed 'an indiscretion, it might be because he was " dared" by other boys, that he should have it trotted out against him every time he went into a witness-box. Needless to say, the question was not pressed. The lesson may nob be entirely lost in future cases which come before our plain-spoken S.M. How would some of our legal friends—aye, and some who sometimes sib on the local woolsacklike the limelighb thrown on all their actions.

THE SUICIDE CRAZE. The General has been puzzling his brains over the appalling number of suicides in our colony during the last few weeks. The cause of ib is one of the things one does nob know. It used to be said in troubles of this sort " look for the woman," but according to reports the woman as a rule has been conspicuous by her absence. The rejected lover type of suicide appears to be dying out, though love and lunacy are said to go together. We have ib on no less authority than that of Shakespere that— The lunatic, the lover, and the poet Are'of imagination all compact.

Bacon called love a species of insanity, and Byron confessed that with himlove had been insanity. Bub colonials are not given that way as a rule. It seems to Joe rather financial losses or the discovery of his misdeeds that drive him to despair. 1 But the former must be the chief motive. When a Chinaman suicides because of bad times what chance has a European ? THE ADVANCED MAORI WOMAN.

Like their white sisters the Maori ladies have come to the conclusion that those whom they at one time called their lords and masters are not fit.for such an exalted position and must be deposed. As the outcome of the recent native meeting ab Napier the Maori women are going to take native politics into their own hands and checkmate European aggression. I wish they had tried something easier, for 1 would hare liked to see them enjoying the satisfaction of some success, but they are now simply bumping their poor heads against a stone wall. Fate is against them.

HUMAN NATURE.

Talking about women, I often think how little women change deep down in spite of the franchise and all those things which go to make up the " new woman." To illustrate what I mean, here is an extract from the diary of a man who lived 100 years ago —"Women grow more frivolous every day. Young ladies scorn housework and learn to embroider, to play the piano, and to flirt, while their mothers are engaged in all the drudgery of the household. They eschew all useful reading, and prefer French g novels to English classics. In selecting * husbands they choose dandies with social graces, rather than men with solid attainments. They are full of strange, whimsical notions peculiar to the age." This is very much like the growl of the pessimists of our own day. Truly human nature is pretty well the same in all times and all places. • Ib has evidently nob altered much in 100 years or so. ARE MEN LAZIER ? However, there have been changes in tha last hundred years. . Then the criticising was all done by the men ; now the women are turning the tables. They are sufficiently daring already to pick us to pieces. One lady writer says we are growing lazier with every year "of the world's progress. She says that a man nowadays expects the women folk to lead up to and talk of the subjects that interest without wearying him ; bo amuse, to distract, and to fascinate him, and to prevent him from feeling bored. Ib never occurs to him for a moment that a woman may be bored in his society—bored to death and sick at heart. I don't want to disagree with a lady, but I can assure any man in Auckland that if he expects all these things of a woman ho won't get them. He can disabuse his mind i on that point forthwith. The woman of to-day thinks that man was made for woman, nob woman for man, and I am sorry for the man who looks for things to bo otherwise. Blessed is he that expecteth little, for he won't be disappointed.

EIGHT HOURS. lb is recorded of an old Maori chief, whether it be legendary or historic, the General knows not, that when be first heard of an Eight Hours Bill, he asked what had his people done that they should t be compelled to work so long every day. If Mr. Reeves should bring in such a measure next session, some of our gold miners will be inclined to ask what they have done that they should be so restricted. Some of our tributers pub in a " good hard slog" right up to midnight on New Year's eve. And they would have given a bit to have gone on until midnight. They would have watched the old year out and the new year in, at work with pleasure, for every hoar meanb pounds, nob avoirdupois, but in bullion. And the owner was there to see the men did not work too long, and would have been very well pleased had they not worked quite as hard. Its a poor rule thab won't work both ways, and Mr. Reeves will have to devise a bill that will do the same. GRATITUDE. Gratitude has been described as " a lively sense of favours to come." Had fcho Minister for Labour been present afc yesterday's meeting in respect to the half holiday, he decidedly would have felt that it was nob an outflow of feeling for things that had gone. The best thab could be said for his Shops and Shop Assistants Bill, for one of the classes he averred he was going to benefit, was that it was a bungling affair. And this after he plumed himself so, on the other side, as to the labour legislation of the past session. . STARTING WELL. Volunteers as well as others are keeping unblotted the first page of the new year. There is a general desire on the part of officers and men to improve the status of their corps, and make the best of the present defective system of volunteering. When Colonel Fox returns to Auckland, if ever he does return, it is to be hoped he will be able to speak to the officers and men in less exasperating terms than those in which he addressed them during his recent) visit of inspection. A POLITICAL DUCKLING. Has anyone ever translated a book of fables into Maori ? If nob there is a modern iEsop amongsb the Arawas. At the meeting at the National Association Rooms on. Tuesday one native speaker spoke of the old poultry yard incident of a hen hatching ducklings, and then, when the latter dis. covered their ability to take to deep water, leaving their cackling mother to herself. The Hon. James Carroll was to the native mind the duckling and the Maori race was the hen—the rest The General's readers can infer. * WHICH? Which i? to be the day selected, for the half holiday ? As things "look ab presenb the whole of the fighting is being done by faddists. There are Wednesday faddists, and there are Saturday faddists, just a* there are prohibition faddist* And the poor public, which does not car 6 a straw for either fad, suffjrs at the finish. Bsfora Saturday is fixed upon as the day when assistants shall get their holiday, would U not be well to pass a law thab all wages should be paid on Friday ? Otherwise, how are the wives of working men who are paid on Saturday to get their families' Sunday's dinner? Is ib part of the labour programing that people may starve thab assistants mi»j . keep holiday ? • The Vzxxtut.