LOCAL GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9907, 24 August 1895, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP.

"let ice hare audience for & word or two."

— Shakuptre. Opr most remarkable local phenomenon is decidedly the mining boom. " How long will the boom last?" I asked a friend the other day. "Oh," said he, "till the crack of doom! Doom rhymes with boom, you see. But when the crack will come it) is hard to say. That is just where the beauty of the thing comes in. Everybody knows it is bound to come, and tho puzzling point is to get clear then." My friend went on to tell me that he had been visiting one of the localities of our goldfield. Only a very few men were at work taking out quartz, but a great number were busily engaged in putting in pegs. That is an absorbing occupation on the gOid6*sd now. The peggers-out are not content with three or four men's ground as i tbfy used to be in the old Thames days. Nothing will satisfy them under 100 acres or so. That i* the correct figure, they believe, for the London market. My friend took a look over the district one day, and he went round again in about a fortnight after. In the meantime the shares in all these claims hail doubled or trebled in value in the Auckland market. But there was no change in the ground. The pegs were there, and that was all; and one could see that the pegs were overlapping each other in many place?. And then there is a rectifier in the shape of the mining laws. There will soon be a cry against locking up of ground, and all owners of mining areas under the Goldtields Act will be called upon to man them.

In the old days of the Thames, it was always considered the correct thing to be able to show some quartz and, if possible, glittering specimens. But all that has to be done now, is to put in a few pegs in an unknown country. There is, it is considered, safe to be a reef somewhere in 100 acres. In most cases of new ground I observe that some money is put aside to work with in testing the ground. That is right and commendable. But about the utmost I can hope is, that there may be as many successes as failures in rinding payable mines within the present pegs. Curious stories are told of the luck of some of those folks who have been gambolling (or gambling) on the Exchange. A man who had carefully kept out of all share dealing, heard, while having his hair cut in a barber's shop, two men who were waiting their turn remark that the reef in such and such a claim was looking well. He made a plunge in the Exchange, knowing no more about the claim than he had overheard. He found out afterwards that he had mistaken the mine altogether, and had bought into a claim which had no reef at all. But it served his purpose quite as well, or better. He made a little pile by bis blunder, and now he wonders at people who talk about prudence and experience in mining. It is all luck.

The other day an old man went into the crowded Mining Exchange, intent on vending a cageful of canaries. One old habitue of the place—a *' rook," I suspect —eyed the vendor cynically, and said, " We don't want canaries, old man ; what

we want here is ' pigeons.'" The old fellow • said, "Yes, I suppose you've got 'quartz on the brain' in this shop." The observation seemed to liquefy another bystander, rvhose ears pricked up at the sound of "guartson the brain," and smiling serenely he said, " If it's all the same to you, mine's ft 'long-sleever.'"

I always thought that Mr. Seddon, for All his lavish talk about Liberal principles, had a great deal of Conservatism in his composition, and now I know it. The Divorce Bill was before the House on Wednesday evening, and although nearly all our Liberal legislators are in favour of it, Mr. Seddon denounced it in forcible terms. It would "undermine our social life," and the Premier was " pained that no one rose to oppose the Bill." Ib is wonderful to remark, too, that Mr. Reeves, who was supposed to have a leaning towards the practical introduction of those free-love practices which have been expounded in the Labour Journal, is averse to the Bill. That Captain Russell and Mr. Bell should oppose the Bill was perhaps only what might have been expected. But the Premier cannot make a Ministerial question of the Bill, and the advanced spirits are in a great majority. The second reading was carried by 40 to 6, the 1 render being one of the dozen. As the Bill was carried in the Legislative Council by 21 to 9, I suppose that, in spite of Mr. Sneddon's resistance, it will soon be the law of the land. Husbands and wives will then be at liberty to consider the position, and whether it is agreeable to make a change in their connubial relations.

I wish the Education Board would allow me to let them alone. Here again they Lave been making an exhibition of themselves because they cannot agree as to whether the inspectors have a fair claim to charge a riding-apron against the Board. An application is made to some members to initial the account, and when they object another is got to do it, and " the State" haw to pay. This looks a very loose way of doing business. By this means, and a little contrivance, everything will be charged to the unfortunate public, which one member of the Board has not the firmness to refuse to initial. There ihould be a distinct understanding as to what an inspector is entitled to charge for, ind he should not have the opportunity of hawking his accounts for requisites from member to member for sanction. If Edu:ation Boards do not take care they will be viped out some day.

There is a double quartette on the Hoard of Education, and one set is nob altogether in harmony with tho other. Thus it comes about that of late many very important matters have to be settled by the casting vote of the chairman — the ninth man of the party. If one set of four says a thing is white the other set is positive ib is black. And upon the executive head of the Board restß the task of deciding whether black is white, or white is black, not an altogether easy thing for him.

At the last meeting of the Board this pretty little game of shuttlecock with colour went on for a considerable portion of the sitting, and at four o'clock there was yet a lot of business to be got through. Now quartette No. 1 (the White) mostly lives in or ne;ir the town, while quartette No. 2 (the Black) has to catch the 4.15 train. Some time ago a resolution was passed that no business was to be taken after 4 p.m. unless by consent of the Board. At the last meeting the Whites had a lob of business they wanted to get through. Four o'clock struck. As the sound of the la3b stroke died away the Blacks rose from their seats, calling attention to the hour, and making for the door. " Oh," said the Whites, " we can go on by consent." "Can you ?" retorted the Blacks, " but you cannot take consent after * o'clock, because consenb is" business." Then the Blacks hurried off chuckling, while the Whites fell back into their seats breathless as the success of the more, and :onfessing that they had been had. And the Whites called spades spades for the aext half-hour.

The members of the Charitable Aid Board spent a very pleasant afternoon on Tueedaj in going through the applications for the post of lady superintendent at the Hospital. There were 42 applicants, and— they sent their photographs. Of course the members are all expert physiognomists; therefore it was incumbent on them to examine closely each face. One in particular was so pretty, and she had such a charming mouth; bat was ib sufficiently firm ? Another bad a good square chin, and looked as if she would stand no nonsense. Oh, bub it waa a pleasant afternoon! No wonder that after sitting three hours it was found there was no time to touch the 154 "Pplicationa fes CSgfe SS s-i-Aacaitiai? thin*

as a male clerkship. Of course these applicants did nob send their photographs, so three members — victims— were selected to go through the letters. Smart fellows those Charitable Aid Board members.

I notice that the genial "Tim Doolan" is turning his face to the east, and heading for Paeroa. He was desirous that the gay and festive " Flutina Flaherty, of Taypot Lane," should share his fortunes in that rising township, but although she was not overburdened in purse and still less in scrip, she declined the tempting offer. I believe Tim threatened to carry her away, lane and all, bub she quietly remarked to him, "It's too large an ordher, Mister Doolan."

It is a pity thab the project of turning the Auckland Bowling Club into a limited liability company did not come off. Some of the members, it is to be feared, approached the question in a spirit of bias. All the best Australian bowling clubs have been formed on the company principle, and have been found to work very well. It is possible that the project may be renewed under happier auspices, and so the club placed upon the high road to financial prosperity.

It was said that woman would nob use the franchise if she got it, but ib has been falsified both in this colony and in South Australia. The percentage of women voters in South Australia is 4243, as against 57 "36 of male voters, and there ar6 53,693 women on the rolls, as against 72,706 men. No wonder two Hospital nurses well nigh wrecked the Ministry. The South Australian women, like the New Zealand women, have taken the franchise seriously, and are going to make a serious business of it for " the horrid male creature."

"Mater Dolorosa" (Whangareil writes me touching "the decay of marriage." She is unable to give vent to her. feelings in prose on such a subject, and therefore embalms her tale of woe in a dozen stanzas, under the title, " Why Don't) the Men Propose ?" of which the following will serve as an example :—

WHY DON'T THE MEN PROPOSE?

Of ten unmarried girls, I am The prudent fond mamma ; Yet not one marriageable man Have I .secured so far Ah me ! those sad deceitful men, I make it (<joodne:«s knows) As easy for tlieui as I canThen why don't they propose ?

No matter what my tactics are It's all of no avail; Walks home at night don't pay, and strolls By moonshine, always fail. Ah 1 anxious is that mother's heart, And measureless her woes, When one by one the years slip byWhy don't the men propose ? So now I dire up trying to light Love's hymeneal lamp, I re:ip no harvest of my pains. The matches all prove damp. My eiils shall live and die old maid*, Unless the future throws A searchlight on the mystery dark— Of why men don't propose. Mercctio.