LOCAL GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12931, 29 July 1905, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP.

Let me have audience for a word or two." Shakespere.

JJU&Y rising is an old-fashioned virtue, ff liicli in these days is becoming rarer and ■ carer, but it is interesting to know that < among those who still practice it is the Chief Justice of the colony Sir Robert Stout told counsel in the Pearson wise that no matter what time he went to bed he could always get up at six or seven o'clock in the rooming. It is an excellent thing to jje able to do this, but I have come to the conclusion that early risers are born, not „■ made. No man who lias not the gift ever <rets up early, save under compulsion. Bed jg a bundle of paradoxes, as Colton long ago said in liis Laeon. .We go to it with reluctance, yet we quit it with regret; and ff e make up our minds every night to have it early, but we make up our bodies every morning to keep it late. There is no adamantine resolution in us.

I remember the first time I slept in a Lancashire town. At five o'clock in the morning I was awakened by the clattering of clogs on the pavement. It was the factory slaves on their way to the mills—men, women, and children. They had got-up by candle-light on a dark, cold, winter morning, and, shivering and breakfastless, were hurrying to their dreary work. It may be true that early rising not only gives us more life in the same number of our years, but adds likewise to their number; and not only enables us to enjoy more of existence in the same measure of time, but increases also the measure. I fancy, however, that the wearers of the clogs, could they have had their own way,would, notwithstanding the wisdom of the philosophers, have unanimously preferred to stay in'bed until at least the wintry sun had opened its dull eye upon the bleak and misty morn.

Personally I am-not an early riser. I like to get up when the day is well aired. But that doer, not debar we from chanting the praises of early rising. The man who gets up early for the purpose of putting in an hour or two in his garden before breakfast, will live long; the man who gets up before daylight to study or write will in nine oases out of ten achieve success. Nearly all the best work of our greatest writers lias been done when most of the world still lingered in bed. Sir Walter Scott rose at, five, and had done the bulk of his writing before most of the family had assembled for breakfast. Richelieu would often get up at two o'clock and write for five or six hours. Milton rose to his studies at four in summer and lire in winter. Jules Verne was at his desk at five, remaining at work till eleven. Robert Louis Stevenson began his day at four 0 clock in the morning.

The majority of people spend too much time in bed. In summer time in Auckland the most glorious part of the day is between four and five in the morning. The air is

, then clear, fresh, and invigorating. All nature wears its loveliest aspect, Ilie sky iis suffused with ' the exquisite colouring of •' the dawn. At- that beautiful period of the

■ day it is a joy to live. But the city is wrappped in sleep. Not a soul is astir, save , the milkman and the newspaper runner, or ■ a. jaded journalist, wending his homeward : way. • Yet Auckland should then be astir with life. The work of the day should then 9 have begun, so that at noon, when the heat is greatest, we might close our shops, and 'factories, aucl retire to some shady spot to ; enjoy a siesta as they do in the hast. Wc don't adapt our customs to our climate. We are asleep when we should be awake, and »wake when we should bo asleep.

All the Auckland members supported the demand for a wharf at Huia; but will the Government accede to their request. ISot a bit of it. Why? Because they know that however much they may be criticised by Messrs. Ridd, Baumc, Fowlds, and Lawiy they can always count 011 the votes of these members. That is the whole milk in the cocoanut. Let us see what was said, ana how it was received by the Premier.

Mr. Fowlds said that the settlers in the district were almost shut off from civilisation.

Mr. Kidd said that the wharf was an absolute necessity.

Mr. Baume said they were simply for hare justice. So far they had only .had the crumbs which had fallen from the table. The Auckland district had not received justice from the South Island Administration. Mr. Lawry spoke of the importance of tile Huia wharf. He had never known a single member of the Ministry who was not pr • Paired to do as much justice to Auckland as to the Southern portion of the colony. When Sir Joseph Ward expressed surprise to hear Mr. Baume say that Auckland baa not received justice from a South Island Administration, Mr. Fowlds interjected, "Well, it is true." Sir Joseph retorted by giving it " an absolute and unqualified con-, tradiction," whereupon Mr. Fowlds replied that his denial did not alter the facts.

. All this is very pretty, but it font deceive anybody. It is all very well lor Mr. Fowlds and Mr. Baume to pitch into the Government, and to declare that Aucklau is not getting justice, not even bare justice, while money is being lavished on the V\ est Coast by "the South Island' Administration." But why do they keep a .iff' raent in office that is treating Auckland in this way? Why do they speak one way and vote another? That is, what the Auckland people want to know.

Now for the Premier's altitude. H did he meet the demands of the Aucklan bers? He began by likening these memiters to a parcel of Kilkenny eats, m .characterised the discussion .asi a. _ wa of time." He laughed at the iulmnatwi s of his Auckland henchmen, and Jig 1 J . dared that Auckland was the only favouiea - spot in the country. And so the ww' d » Mission ended in smoke, as all di» ' ,•« must do until our members acquire a, s spine. These Wahruuigu explosions 01 theirs, though they sound terrible, are, a. Mr. Seddon knows from long f P e "f quite harmless. Who would be free•%Jem selves must strike the blow. In , P words don't count; the vote s the ri which to catch the conscience of A- 1 o * So long as he has their votes he doesit mind about their speeches, which a sound and fury, signifying " ollm ( g, M .„, rs is now so obvious to everybody tlia , yes Fowlds and Bourne only make themselves ridiculous by keeping up the faice. Mr. Lawry, he is beyond all the pwgjj of the faithful. He believes the prese Government to be the best of a Ij e "Governments in the best of a 1, 0 f worlds. When a man reaeliesthatbtag self-delusion we can only, like- the young lady in Moore's ballad, '' coldly r woU ld his gaze and weep. < Mi. 7 fflen . seem to prefer a Ministry of 0 ° but Well, everyone to his taste, of „ era if Mr. 'Lawry is so fond of a Souther a Government, why does he cling > DUsly to a Northern electorate.

Personally, 1 do not quite see why "' ts should not "eat" with his knife it hto. It is his own mouth, und Ins can knife, and his own food—at ea6 ar presume so—and it would be a J e ? g wit U World if a man could not do as lie v ■ ,y] his own. In fact, the habit wh „<-erestsurvives in odd spots is rather an nce iii2 one, as showing how everybody once

«e™«, ti IT 1- Wore there regard it a* 11 Bu man people'do not and reiV'Li , ° fi ? l,h I ,Call y as they might, V 5 wlw « they see it, being r„,i7 j ? the Possibility of. the unSt Sly if being made eve digger' Ufa

of'a ™ilY' 10 IS , 11 '? u oh the experience touristlSm SC^ 1 ms P ecfcOT who, at a Xlv h the - other da was made very ffnW 7 5 Vl3 ' a " vls at the dittner table. i g i°? U0 i™? so tated that he fordat J Ifa n school-inspection for the £ and finally inquired how the shovel2;f r C !T ? med to do it without retort I throat - -' IIS drew the crushing 1? *fj ■?} 19 eimy was a gentleman, and Now L? r 1 Justomfe ' To which our C Y Zealand pedagogue retorted': "Your customs may be all right, sir, lufc your manners are atrocious. 7

By the way why are so many school teachers so irritable? This was so in the days of Noah, and is yet. Is it the specially irritating nature of the work, or is it the possession of autocratic power that encourages surrender to whiffs of temper which m other employments generally have to be controlled? Ticket-sellcrs-anothev autocratic occupation, I may remark—-are also inclined to be irritable.

School teachers, as 1 remember them, used to scorn to know when they are in irritable mood., One very estimable gentleman always put on light gray pants when lie felt that he could endure very little. The appearance of that warning colour liscd to send our hearts down into our boots. We anticipated weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, 1 and were never disappointed. Another man I —who wasn't a school teacher, unfortunately for the novel—always put on a particularly gaudy smoking-eap, with a tassel, whenever he was going to lay down the law to his household. Possibly for another motive, to gain time and avoid hastiness, a good woman of my acquaintance never corrected one of her children without first puttiug on her best hat and taking it off again. I can't say,'_ from limited knowledge, that the urchins seemed to gain much by the delay.

We used to 'believe that every dog was legally entitled to one bite, but this comfortable and tolerant idea is evidently not the law in Auckland any more, If Smith's dog bites Brown then Smith must pay, even though Smith's dog has never been known to do . anything but wag its tail. Which seems hard 011 Smith until we think of Brown, and then it seems harder on Brown to be bitten than- for Smith to have to pay for it. The law is often queer, but it would; lie queerer still if every casual dog could enjoy a free bite at an innocent passer-by.

Some remarks of mine the other week on art and ugliness and what-not have called forth a charming letter ill praise of Auckland's beautiful scenic setting from ail old and! esteemed' friend in Wellington, Mr. I). M. Luckie, who many years ago, when the world was younger and maybe better, and Sir Julius Vogcl was in all his glory, quitted the storm and stress of journalism for the placid life of a Civil servant of the first rank. Mr. Luckie in the quiet and gentle days of yore was well known in Auckland, where lie was a power on the press. It is more than twenty years since ho was last in our midst, but lie has not forgotten the beauties of the earth and sky which have made Auckland the Queen of New Zealand cities. What Aucklander ever forgets, 110 matter where he be, the ineffable glory of our enchanting environments?. They haunt, the memory like ,an old, melody and are only made lovelier yet by time and distance. Here is Mr. Luckie's letter: — ■ '

Your adverse criticism of Auckland, Mercutio," gave me a feeling of regret, mingled with a touch of anger at its injustice; that is as I recall it and its environments as I knew and loved it more than 'thirty years ago. Of course the city lacked drainage and was smelly; the Ligar Canal still existed, and there were dirty lanes and by-streets which were both unlovely and insanitary. But these are merely local and civic annoyances. Look around you. Go to Dcvonport, ascend the highest eminence at. lakapuna and behold the opposite shore in summer lit with sunshine, the placid lake, with the Waitemata—" glittering water -and revel m the beauty of the prospect as I have done long ago, and you shall enjoy varied scenery, civic and sylvan.' that delights the eye and dwells in the memory as a gracious recollection. Not leas delightful are the views from Mount Eden, and still more charming are those from the top of Mount Hobson, while from the city itself, from the Domain and from the neighbourhood of Government House, the splendour of the scene, with the cleft peaks of Rangitoto. is, I think, for calm, soft repose and graceful beauty unsurpassed in the colony. I have seen the Remaikables of the Southern lakes and Mount Earnslaw, in their massive, rugged grandeur and cold, impassive wilderness, but they produced 110 sensation like to that I experienced day by dav when looking over the water at Eangitoto. I remember Sir John Campbell saying to me 011 his verandah that to him that 'noble mountain was a perpetual delight; its asn6ct was always changing as the , lionis ringed and each change was a charm, the f I? to describe it. And the sunsets ot sumnifir time and eVen of many winter days. ™ ,„ dorious to behold— flaming and pale luieii dow with tints of purpling and pale fmorald reminding one of the summits of %&&&&£ bare, low tide its it is „ en from Mount pcct at low tide as iit o|vr Eemuera and its Eden; and thoie is low iv bayS) wil]l long surroundings, Oiakei ana scen ery—rich raz . stretches of Home like and u . ipg land cattle, q sheep, mQgt beauli f ul deu ?; of Fn"land. I had almost forgotten p ar i. 0 f transcendent beauty of the t° «>ea-k -f n the wee, short hours" (not haiboui. , ...rtnifi ■he tautology, as «© sir.a, which T reca n many a night Scotchman knows), uflcd to walk down. SfiiS wi «r pl,y ™ wonders of the stars, while | The gentle moon was weaving Her bright path o'er the deep, and have °f to'the "leap of glassy ;vate s » . " st^ oke the surface ot £ SfS scatl«retl luminous particles. 1.1.,, i. iiviiiGTS mo to wlicit you Stiy about art and poetry in Auckland. It is about ait ana lulvc seßn Auck-iffi-assSSH watercolours, ®l ec ''^" D „ fatol . 8 I had only gratifying to the spec montUs> liTe d in Auckland wen thc beauties, but I was SO pleas attempted to .describe, some of which II dinner then given that m speak Lf^Xt^Auckland, by reaI ventured to predict" , Nature's loveliness sen of the '^J a ° f Sined to become which she eI i' ome 0 f the artist and the the New Zealand k°™£ o °J u(le shock you give, poet. Jud?e theni n( feasant memories by my sensibilities - "inarticulate aspiratelling „7t ' IL a ts, and that the verses ot tCse who are supposed to possess "The vision and the faculty divine lunch ( 6fa l shatS & » be true! MERCUTIO.