LOCAL GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12401, 24 October 1903, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP.

."Let me hava audience for a word or two." ? 1 . —Shakespere. I have been silent for some time on the Domain »nestion, because I am convinced that even should Parliament be beguiled into according its consent to Mr. Kidd's Bill the people of Auckland will never permit the perpetration of the monstrous wrong which the City Council and the district bodies have hatched among them. But the opposition of the City Council to the proposed poll unless it is extended so as to include the outlying districts., calls for a \vbrd or two. In the first place I cannot look with any great favour/Upon a, poll of any kind in reference to a question of this sort, because I hold that under no circumstances whatever should it be possible for the public to vote away if they so please, no'; only their own birthright, but the patrimony of generations yet unborn. But if there is to be a poll it must be a poll of the citizens of Auckland, and not of settlers in the Waitemata County. The Domain is vested in the citizens of Auckland. They are its legal custodians. The cost of its upkeep comes out of their pockets. They and they alone therefore must decide this matter. This surely is only reasonable ; it is only common sense. Suppose that Devonport was threatened with the spoliation or its domain in the pecuniary interests of the people of Auckland, Onehunga, and Mount Boskill, and it was proposed to take a poll on the question, does anybody who knows him believe for one moment that Mr. Alison would be in favour of extending the poll to these places? Not he. Thus what is sauce for the goose is not always sauce for the gander. The amazing thing is that the Mayor of Auckland and the Fathers of the City should be so blind or simple or so utterly reckless as to propose to throw their Domain lamb to the hungry pack of wolves clamouring outside the fold.

I am glad that the Trades and Labour Council, at its meeting last Wednesday, cried " Hands off !" in this Domain business. " Avaunt, ye harpies I" it exclaims to those who would cut and carve the Domain and give away slices as they see fit; "we will none of it." That is the ring that sounds sweet and true. The Domain question is essentially a working man's question. It is his Domain, his children's Domain, where he and they can go from the muddy, dirty alleys of the city and enjoy the beauties of Nature and breathe the fresh air of heaven with no one to order them off or to shut the gates in their faces. *' I always feel," said a working man to me the other day, " when strolling in the Domain, what a lucky fellow I am to be one of the owners of such a splendid estate." That's it. We are all owners; but let us never forget that the estate is entailed, and that in the years to come, when Auckland is a closely-built city, lik« the great cities we know of in the Old Country, the value of the estate to the working man and his children of that day will be a hundredfold more than it is now.

I suppose Bishop Neligan will have something to say about sport in connection with the formation of character before he concludes his present series of stimulating sermons. How prone it is to. loom up in relation to almost every question was illustrated by a speaker at the meeting referred to above, who, speaking of the Chinaman's cabbage garden which it is proposed to exchange for the fine breesy hillside in the Domain, said, " The great want in Auckland to-day was level ground for recreation purposes," suitable 'for cricket and kindred games. Now I have not a word to say against: any manly sport. I enjoy and encourage them all. But after all, sport, however beneficial, is not everything, the Alphaand Omega of life, the quintessence of human existence. The moral nature of man cannot be neglected altogether for cricket or football. The quiet eve, the contemplative mind, craves for the beautiful. And how beautiful the Domain Hill could be made requires but little imagination. V\itn a swampy flat, flanked by grimy factories and workshops, 'a landscape gardener can do little. But given a broad and commanding slope he can convert it into a thing ot beauty and a joy for ever.

I have read with a great deal of sympathetic interest the letters which have appeared in the Herald on the subject oi the pronunciation of Maori place names. But I am afraid there is no real remedy for the complaints of the writers. We do not speak Maori nowadays, and care nothing for native words or their correct pronunciation. And so each man pronounces Maori names according to his own fancy. I have no faith in what the public schools mav do to improve this state ot things, because thev seem unable to teacn the' children attending them how to pronounce English correctly, and I am certain they would make a greater mess of it were thev to attempt to meddle with toe pronunciation oi Maori. It is a good many years since I first drew attention in this column to the atrocious manner of speech which I noticed to be growing up among colonial schoolchildren. Since then it has become painfully pronounced not only among children but among adults, until now the colonial twang bids fair to become as marked a characteristic of our speech as the dialect ol the Cockney or the drawl oi the Yankee. And for this I blame the public schools. They have set no standard of speech or conduct. They had the opportunity, but it was allowed to pass, and now they are down to the standard of the. commonalty. Yes, by ail means, save Maori from our schools until at least they have learned how to pronounce English, and are able to teach our children to speak their mother tongue correctly.

Mr. Fowlds' cable message to Sit Henry Campbell-Bannerman repudiating Parliament';: expression of opinion.-on Preferential Trade has given rise to a large amount of correspondence in the Herald. Personally I am no more concerned about the message than I am about the petition of the three gentlemen of -street, but I have been amused at the insistence of some ot Mr. Fowlds' epistolary champions that "C.8." is the hea ' of the great Liberal Party, and would in the event of the Balfour " Ministry being defeated become Prime Minister of Great Britain. That is the chief point in thei. defence of Mr. Fowlds, a point which they evidently consider an effective answer to all who cavil at the message. But, bless their innocent and simple souls, they are all wrong. "C.8." is not and never was and never will be the leader of the Liberal Party. He is only the leader in the House of Commons of the Radical wing of the party, and a very poor leader to boot. As i'or "his ever becoming Prime Minister, I smile to myself. He has as much chance of that as I have of becoming a multimillionaire. There are three English poli- ? ticians of eminence and distinguished ability who, I venture to predict, will ;;-never become Prime, Minister of England. > . They are: Mr. John Morley, Professor i?.: Bryce, and "C.8." Why? can scarcely ■Pay in a phrase or two. * Partly because of Cheir fadism, their pro-Boerism, their little* Englandism, and other objectionable isms; but principally because they are untouched by the spirit of the age, and are- incapable of sympathising with the glowing aspirations" ot ? great and Ira- . perialistic people. MjSBCTOIo.