LOCAL GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11825, 30 November 1901, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP.

."Let roe have audience for a word or two." —Sliakespero.

The battle" of the stone church was a very brisk one while it lasted, and it has ended in the right way. Within a reasonable time we shall have in Hobsoii-street, in place of the " shedifice," so despised by Dr. Bakewell, what ought to be the handsomest church in Auckland, in which, I hope, the Rev. Mr. Gillain may be spared to minister for many years. I wonder what Bishop Selwyn would have done had he been the occupant of the See at this time? You may be quite sure he would have been in the fray somewhere, if, indeed, he had not stifled it in the beginning. I quite anticipate now that I shall have the privilege of sitting in a beautiful and substantial church, with a large and harmonious congregation, unvexed by litigations. The people of St. Matthew's have the sympathy of their fellow-citizens. 1 observe in a Church Record that this sympathy is frankly expressed. St. David's Church is about to be removed, and a congregational meeting was held lately for the purpose of authorising the final steps in connection with the removal. Everything went well, and the editorial remark —'■ There was indeed cause foi devoutesfc thanksgiving. The very different experience of another congregation in this city in connection with its building enterprise ought to awake us more than ever to the grateful acknowledgment that the good hand of our God is upon us." Yon sec, a belief in apostolical succession does not save their episcopal brethren from being pitied, and from, perhaps, a certain measure of contempt. " The good hand of our God is upon us," but has not been with these folks in Hobson-sfreef. Some people may think that there is in this something of the tone of a remark made in the Temple at Jerusalem in old times.

We often hear of extraordinary proceedings by Justices of the Peace, but I think the most remarkable case I know was that of a few days ago, in the Auckland Police Court. Mr. Garrard, a well-known official of the City Council, happened to be » defendant in a case, and in the course of the proceedings rushed at the counsel for the plaintiff. Dr. Laishley, and knocked him down. The justices waited patiently until Mr. Garrard had been dragged off," and then calmly proceeded with the business. If this soft of thing were allowed -we should have a rough and tumble on the floor of the Court several times in a day. Mr. Garrard lias been brought before the Resident Magistrate on a charge of assault and been fined £2, and has been told (and I hope the justices will take a. note of this), that it the Resident Magistrate had been on the bench he would have been smartly punished at once by a sentence of imprisonment. Garrard's defence was that Dr. Laishley had called him " a scoundrel" in Court, If so, the doctor was much to blame, and the Court ought to have pulled him up. But lawyers don't generally get so excited on behalf of their clients.

How uncharitable we all are! Here we have been condemning Ministers for discharging men from the Main Trunk Railway, suspecting that they had a design to injure Auckland, and even hinting that the Treasury chest, like Mother Hubbard's closet, was bare, when really the object of Ministers was to preserve the morals of the men. We are told that, there being no licensed houses allowed in the King Country, horrible stuff is smuggled in there, and when the men drink it they are mad with delirium tremens and are _unfit for their work for days. These men, therefore, are discharged as a warning to the others, in mercy to themselves, and to preserve the morals of the community. Others, it ap-. pears have been actively engaged in the work of smuggling the bad liquor, and 'of course they must go. Ministers are determined to have only men of a high moral type at Ongaruhe, and if they cannot get them then the work must stand. This is another blessed effect of the co-operative systemthe Government have to " take charge of the moral behaviour of the men. If the work were being done by contract the contractor would see after it that delay did not take place owing to the conduct of the men. But what a blessing it is that we have Ministers who enforce upon us lessons of abstinence and sobriety!

I A book recently published m London on birds tells the following story:"There is in New Zealand an owl which from the cry it utters with startling clearness is known by the colonists as the ' more pork.' A few months ago two young Englishmen built a log-hut in the bush. They were quite alone, and for a time they had no meat except the flesh of wild hogs, which were brought to them by friendly Maoris. Of this they became as weary as did the rebellious Israelites of their quail. One night, after both had turned in, one of them called out, ' I say, what have we got for breakfasts'' Instantly a solemn voice out of the darkness answered him, ' More pork ! More pork! !' The settler ran to the window and looked out. He had heard the bird before, and seen it, but he had no idea what manner of fowl it might be. There was the speaker, almost within arm's reach. ' Well, I'm blessed,' he called to his brother; ' 'Tisn't a nawk, and 'tisn't a neagle ; it's a kowl !' " This story has been copied into some of the London papers. I should like very much to believe that it was true, but I should prefer to have further proof. Who will step forward and say that he is the hero?

Some time since the Sydney Bulletin laid down the following as the financial axioms of the Australian Governments:—"To pay your way, Borrow. To pay your interest, Borrow. To pay oil your borrowing Borrow again. When you are in doubt. Borrow. When you can't borrow, Owe." New Zealand in this, as in other matters, marches in the van. We might make up our mind to .stop it sometimes and be as content as possible if it. were not for the nuisance of having to pay interest.

One of the possibilities of public benefit underlying the working of the Arbitration Act has hitherto been overlooked, possibly because the trades that have been examined into have been exceptionally honest, But apparently the grocery trade must take care. At a recent sitting of the Conciliation Board at Wellington on a case brought by the Grocers' Assistants' Union, a witness stated that there was always a lot to learn in the trade, "the blending of tes and certain things to be done to the butter, for instance." The Conciliation Board might do something to vindicate its existence if it constituted itself an examination board into trade practices.

A resident in the Urewera Country lias sent me an anecdote which throws some light on ancient forms of Maori worship or superstition. A schoolmaster on the confines of the Urewera district had obtained tome plants from a nurseryman, amongst others a tamarix or tamarisk tree. An old chief lately came to look at the garden, accompanied by a youth who could read. The boy spelled out the name, which the old chief took to be " tamariki," and at once no concluded that the Europeans, like the Maoris, had a kind of worship well known amongst many ancient peoples. Having got this into his head, no amount of persuasion could alter his mind. Some time afterwards lie appeared with a youthiul couple. He explained to the schoolmaster that there was a certain tree in the forest, and by repeating certain incantations before it a couple who were not blessed with children would be graciously visited, and would.have all their hearts desired. This tree, however, had in their particular case been a conspicuous failure, and therefore he was determined to see whether the European tree would be efficacious. In this instance the

couple were in the direct line of descent from the most famous ancestors of the tribe, and their failure to continue the family would be a loss to the world.

A few evenings ago I went to see the performance of " Florodora " by the Pollard Company. I could not help thinking that there was a kind of feeling over the audience that the vogue of comic opera as a public amusement was passing away. I don't know that we should regret it", as it has been a most abnormal affair altogether. It reached its culmination in the splendid creations of Gilbert and Sullivan, and their successors have not struck out any new line which will cany the fashion into another generation. Home of the music of the new comic operas is clever and " catchy," but it is not up to the level of Sullivan, while the words are, as a rule, wretched, void of either wit or humour, and wanting in that element of grotesqueness which Gilbert was a master of. It is curious to reflect on the changes of what meets the public taste as amusement. In the time of Shakespere people went to the theatre and obtained instruction, and had their poetic and patriotic sentiments appealed to. We have had Shakespere revived several times since by the aid of gorgeous scenery and limelight effects. But we say we don't go to the theatre to be instructed either in history or in any phase of human nature. At " the time of the Restoration our forefathers rejoiced in lie comedies of Congreve and Wycherley, with all their grossness and obscenity. These would be- intolerable nowadays, but is it because we have grown more moral'/ I doubt it, when the favourite pieces of to-day are " the problem plays," in which "the woman with a past" is the heroine. I don't- know that the moral effect of such pieces is any better than the plays of Wycherley. But what are we to do for public amusements by-and-by? We shall have to take to bull-fights to give our nervous systems a fillip.

A few days ago some articles belonging to Mr. R. L. Stevenson were sold by auction here. Amongst other things a chair made of Samoan wood and constructed under the immediate directions of the great novelist himself. It certainly bears unmistakable marks of the amateur carpenter about it. This chaii was bought by Colon© l Burton. The evidence of authenticity ms clear enough, but. curiously, complete proof was at hand. Mr, Austin Strong, who has come here to lay out Cornwall Park, is a grandson of Mrs. Stevenson, and was in Samoa when Tusitala died. He remembers the chair quite well. It was daily used by Stevenson in his study, and sitting in it he composed probably the whole of his latest works.

Mr. J. B. Murray, the headmaster of the school at Kirikiri, thoroughly deserved to be dismissed for refusing to obey a direction of the Board whose servant he was. Arid any man who could write such silly nonsense as "he did iu his letters ought not to be trusted with the teaching of children. His statement is that he refused to have anything to do with saluting the flag because to do "is against my conscience." He justifies this by the statement, "What a people! They have torn down the banner of Christianity and set the flag up in its place. As if "anybody ever had the idea that the saluting "of the flag was a religious observance, was an act of worship.

If I were a judge presiding over a case in which a jury had to give a verdict I would be exceedingly cautious about manifesting any bias. No jury would know in which way I would give a verdict. Juries are naturally jealous on the point. They listen with, all respect to the judge who manifests no bias, but they do not like the judge to take their function into his own hands.

Rangitoto is becoming famous (for the number of octogenarians who have scaled its rocky sides and reached the summit of its highest peak. Only the other day we recorder how our G.O'.M., Dr. Campbell, celebrated his 86th birthday by climbing to the top of Rangitoto, and gazing once again on tho beautiful panorama that stretched out on every side far below. Till this week the doctor might safely be considered the oldest of our colonists who has performed this feat, but on Wednesday last a new record was established by one of our oldest and most esteemed colonists, Mr. William Webster, of Hdkianga, who is six months older than the doctor. He, with a very pleasant picnic party of old friends, climbed the rugged pathway to the summit in fine form and in good lime, and with no assistance whatever. His appearance on the summit was greeted with three hearty cheers, and many a young man in the party envied the old gentleman his steady, even stride and springy step. The ascent, indeed, seemed to require very little effort on his part, and he was one of the first back to the wharf. Among the ladies of the party whe reached the cone was another very old colonist, Mrs. Gittos, who was born in Hokiansja no less than 70 years ago. Such sturdy feats speak well for the stamina of our old colonists, and New Zealand may well be proud of them. Mercutio.