LOCAL GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11176, 23 September 1899, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP.

Jet mo have audience for a word or two. —Shaketpere.

Il is strange but true that certain politicians have gone the length of questioning the Premier's respect for truth. I find that in the last Hansard Mr. Seddon claims a lofty position which ordinary mortals would shrink from assuming. Mr. Seddon had moved that nil Wednesdays after the 30th of August be taken for Government business. As a persuasive to this, he said he would tell hon. members a secret, and that was that there were gentlemen in many electorates taking away members' supporters, and that he was anxious to let them get away to fight their battles. Mr. l'irani asked if the carrying of the motion did away with a promise made by the Premier to give a day for a Wednesday which bad been taken from private members. The Premier's reply was noteworthy. He said "that nothing but fulfilment, lime, or eternity could do away with his promises." Happy country, to be under the rule of one so immaculate and allpowerful !

The Auckland citizen can't " enthuse" worth a cent. It doesn't seem to matter much whether it is the Women's Political League, or the Trades and Labour Council, they are all tarred with the same brush. An appeal went out that "the birthright" of the city was being sold for a bless of pottage, and to rise up and resist such an outrage- When Mr. Hunt went the other day to tell the ladies bow the trick was being done, how many ladies faced him? Five! These were ultimately augmented to seven; but although the question involved their getting down town more comfortably and speedily to do their shopping and to return to their homes, than at present, where were the thousands of women residing in Auckland'; Why, nowhere, so far as the meeting was concerned. Mr. Hunt must have felt that he was as " the voice of one crying in the. wilderness." Then the Trades and Labour Council appeared on the cctne, and •here were petitions at every polling booth, in protest against the disposal of " our birthright." Of the number who signed that petition how many came to the meeting— •ir opponents of the scheme—24! The Auckland people have a weakness for waking up when it is too late. All the agitation which iji now going on might have occurred any time for years past, and where then was the Trades and Labour Council—!

' I have heard one or two funny stories concerning the late municipal elections. One of them shows that the ballot system must be a patent machine for manufacturinu' champion liars. One candidate did not poll w Hiiin nearly 200 of bis signed pledges of support. This reminds me of a memorable City East election for the House- One of the'candidates had pledged votes which gave him a majority of 250 over his opponent. When the poll"was declared be was 150 behind the man whom he had confidently hoped to defeat. His language concerning those electors was painful and free, and they never got the chance of humbugging and deceiving him again. The second story is of a. more humorous character, and relates to the very close contest for Karangabape ward, between Mr. Jamieson and Mr. H. T. Garratt. It appears that a small group of ratepayers— or four—towards the closing of the poll were going to vote for Mr. Garratt, On the way it was decided to go into a public-house and have a (glass of beer, so between irrigating tilth' thoraxes and yarning, they cut it so fine that ■they lost their chance of recording their votes. It is said that there is a tide in the. affairs of men, which taken at the flood leads on to fortune. lint the moral of this story is that if they had not tarried by the pewter pot their man would have been in, and "a majority of one" would not have given Karangabape ward its present representative.

Every credit is due to the energetic Mrs. J. C. Parr for getting in her candidate for Pnnsonby at the recent municipal elections, but I heard a yarn the other day which shows that there are ladies who could give her points, and are even more energetic than herself in claiming popular suffrages. Once upon a time a lady in New Zealand had set her mind upon filling an office, which was dependent upon the vote of a section of the public, She had wandered from Dan even to Beersheba io secure the votes which she required to put her in. There was one man, however, whom she had not captured, and whom it was desirable to capture. She became aware that his avocations led him to pass her home, at an early hour in the morning, boon she became familiar with that footstep which passed within hearing (at four a.m.) of her virtuous couch. Politics, like love, laughs at bolts and bars. One fine morning as the voter was trudging alon" as " the stars sang for joy," he was startled bv finding the lady (leaving her spouse to sleep the sleep of the just) throw lip the window of the top floor, and bail him in her robe de nuit for his vote! He was a bashful young man, but remembering from his early training that those who " walk in white" are on the top line of humanity, he pledged not his troth but Ins tote, and went on his way rejoicing. This is one of those instances, to quote the title of a popular novel, of "Ships That Pass m the Night."

The movement to celebrate the arrival of the earlv pioneer settlers by the Duchess of Ar<'v'le and Jane Gifford'in 1812, by an annua? memorial sen-ice, is gathering strength, and is also bringing about unlooKeti fur developments. I understand that Mr. John McLachlan, whose parents arrived in the Brilliant in 1841. in the Mamikau. has arisen with a just and righteous indignation, and wants to know "where the Brilliants come in?" He is contemplating, I understand, setting up an annual prize of £5 to the person who can prove they are the oldest survivor of the Brilliant, or failing that, the oldest of their descendants. This will keep the memory of the Brilliant expedition alive, and there is nothing that will burn that reminiscence into the memory like the prospect of a " fivir." It seems to me that Mrs. Covle will have the best chance of getting the first "fiver." The proposal is unique; in fact, I may say, Brilliant I It is now for the Duchess of Argyle and Jane Gifford clans to trump this card, and "we shall seo what we shall see.

At one of his missionary meetings m connection with the London Missionary Society. Captain Hore told a very pathetic story 'of missionary life in Central Africa, which goes to show that Death is not only the Great Reconciler, but the Great Leveller, putting all on the same platform. In a district, said the captain, where there were but two white men-two missionaries-a London Missionary Society missionary and a Roman Catholic missionary, the priest took ill, and got worse, and was doomed tor death. He sent for the Protestant missionary, and he went to see him and gave the dying priest such spiritual consolation as was in his power. When the priest died he read the burial service of his (the priest s) own Church over him, placed a rude wooden cross over his grave, and with his jack-knife carved the name thereon of the unfortunate man, who died thus, in devotion to duty, far away from his friends and his race, a stranger in a strange land." These are the incidents which redeem humanity, and make men pause when feel inclined to despair of the race, when they see what is done, productive of evil and misery, under the sun..

I notice that a parson last Sunday took for his text, "Baxter's Second Innings, Which goes to show that lie must have been "stumped" for a text. Possibly, like another parson who was a devotee of the willow, he finished the reading of the lessons of the day with, "Here endetli the second innings.'' I should feel inclined

to give the parson leg-bail after that, whose wits were wool-gathering. There is a story tola about another parson and the Melbourne Cup— that's another story! Most people will come, aftei reading this to the conclusion that the local parson was administering a homily on cricket. Nothing of the kind, "Baxter's Second Innings" is a work or story, which is not without its moral. Hence the- necessity of not being " too previous." °

The Rev. W. A. Sinclair, formerly of Auckland, but now of the Dunedin Central Mission, has been discoursing on "Lessons from the Football Field," based on the shocking accident which befel Armit, a Dunedm player, in an interprovincial football match. He said men could always play the game under proper conditions, but it was just there where a finger of warning needed to be raised. It was that element of roughness which caused the game to be in disfavour with so many, and which had led some of the American States to prohibit the playing of the game. There was always a danger of the game developing into a mere display of animal strength, instead of being a scientific exhibition of the true thing. This could be put down with the strong band of authority, while the one great governing rule should be the Golden Rule. Someone watching a certain player, said of him, " His life is football." There was something decidedly wrong when that could be said of any man. _ The ideal man had a sound body, a sound mind, and sound moral and spiritual life. Speaking of the element of danger which enters into all sports (and the turf has just claimed another victim), and of Armit himself, Mr. Sinclair said: —

It was true the element of danger entered into the game, but then that same clement was found in most sports, and it was probably true that more people lost their lives through cycling and yachting than through footballing. The risk attendant upon it had been painfully illustrated in their midst lately by the sad accident which had befallen one of their most prominent players, while the plucky and patient way ill which ho had faced his position had won the admiration of all. Tho popularity of the game, and of the player, had been demonstrated by the eagerness with which the bulletins had been read. Tho illness of no public man, politician or preacher, could call forth such a demonstration of interest and sympathy.

At the Salvage Corps dinner, Mr. A. R. Russell (chairman of the Auckland Underwriters' Association) took the company into ancient history in Auckland Fire Brigades. He said that the first one was commanded by Captain Daldy. who had associated with him some sailor men, who made very good firemen. Mr. Russell told a very good yarn of the clays of amateur salvage and amateur salvors. A fire had occurred in the city in a cottage, and the usual thing was for the first-comers to seize anybody's axe and begin to "save' tilings. A man who came up rushed for tin axe, and commenced hacking at the side of the house. The owner, as the fire bad been extinguished, remonstrated. The amateur salvor turned round and indignantly enquired if that was not the house where the lire was? The owner replied in the affirmative, but said that the tiro bad been extinguished, and the amateur salvor dropped the axe with regret, and with the air of a man who had been obstructed in performing a public duty. Another member of the company told a story almost as ludicrous, namely, that at a certain fire, in the olden time, in the two-storey residence of a merchant, the bedroom crockery was thrown out of the upstairs windows to save it, while feather beds were carefully tied up and brought downstairs to prevent their being injured, and the iron railings torn up to prevent the fire extending to adjacent property.

At the same function, ex-Superintendent Hughes, A.F.1?., in proposing the toast of "The Press," in the course of his speech mentioned some interesting incidents. He stated that at the opening dinner '<> commemorate the establishment of the first Press Club in New Zealand, in fact the first Press Club in the Australasian colonies, at that time Mr. Justice Chapman gave an outline of the early history of the New Zealand press. Judge Chapman said Hint the first number of the first newspaper to be established in New Zealand was published in London on September 6, 1839, and the second number was brought out April 18, 1810, in New Zealand, six weeks after the arrival of the Adelaide, the vessel which had the press and plant on board, together with an editor and two or three compesitors. Mr. Reruns, the editor, picked up on board the Adelaide an intelligent lad, Thomas McKenzie, who became his apprentice. Subsequently the paper was disposed of to Mr. McKenzie. who, under a new name, the Wellington Independent, conducted it, said Mr. Hughes, for many a year,

The International Congress of Women seems to have been a big innings for the New Woman. The scene is triumphantly described by one writer. " Man was there only in 'splendid isolation,' a dark islet in the midst of a foaming ocean of drapery." One lady, who is the grand-niece of Harriet BeecherStowe, described the New Home up-to-date, after declaring " that women worked for centuries, while men did nothing but kill things." Warming up to her indictment upon Fallen Man, she exclaimed, " Woman's work began through the maternal energy, then she worked as the wife or slave, which was pretty much the same thing." Then she started on the New Home, which will certainly still further diminish the marriage-rate, and consequently the birthrate. This is the Paradise pictured out for Algernon and Angelina:—"We shall need the private home for the private family, but there will be no more need to have a kitchen attached to it than a smithy, and cooking and scrubbing will lie no more connected with matrimony than the making of soap. One-half the world is in a primitive condition as long as it remains at home and performs for its own immediate relatives a variety of functions that should each be entrusted to specialised labour." A lady who, in her paper, endeavoured to impress upon her sisters that nature had placed barriers between the sexes, in their duties, functions, and responsibilities, which no laws and no legislation could ever overcome or overpass, was listened to with impatience, and the sentiments were simply hissed and hooted down. One turns from the "clotted nonsense," uttered about the New Home, to the paper on " Nursing," of a New Zealand representative (Mis. Grace Neill), with some degree of comfort, as showing that womanly women are still left to bless and cheer the world. As for such of our young men as are " on the marry," I imagine they will rot be taking any New Home, where "the kitchen is dispensed with," and " the cooking and cleaning have no connection with matrimony." Mercdtio.