LOCAL GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13355, 8 December 1906, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP.

, . 'Let me have audience for a word, or two." S K;" • . - ■■■■■■-•. —ShakesDere.' <f, Mr. McGowan lias raised; a hornet's nest about his ears by his sweeping and empathic assertions regarding the Thames mines. The m buzzing on.the Stock Exchange has been | plainly audible in Queen-street. Why Mr. i McGowan should have said what he did is • what "no fellah can understand," as Lord ."Dundreary would have said. Perhaps lie doesn't know himselt. or perhaps he; was - smarting under an unlucky investment and • »in a moment of pique let himself go. : *. Ev'u ministers they liae been kenn'd In holy rapture A. rousing: ivhid at times to send " And.nail't wi'- Scripture. V;.' Anyway. Mr. .McGowan had better keep f. away from; Auckland and Thames until the storm blows over. {, lii this connection Mr. -Buttle, chairman ;',of the Auckland Stock Exchange, makes an . interesting statement. "Many gentlemen," he says, "have become rich through being ;'Ministers of the Crown." I have always b.?cn under the. impression that they be- . came poor. At all events when they have : . shuffled off this mortal coil they do not > seem to have left their ; widows very well provided for, judging, from the compas- '., sionate allowances which Parliament is in- , variably asked to vote.; But then, of course, things may not always be what they seem.

'"■ i , No wonder Sir John Gorst when he visitZed Te Awamutu this week was deeply imV. pressed by the changes which had taken /place since the brave days of old, when as ;;.- schoolmaster, magistrate," and journalist he p lived a strenuous and anxious life among •> the Maoris. The last night he spent in Te Awamutu, forty-three years ago, might easily; have been his last. Eighty armed ' natives surrounded his house. Two friend- > ly chiefs slept inside to secure Sir John ■; and his wife and family against chance at- ;;-' tack. It was a critical time. Sir John :'- had refused to abandon his post, and after f an exciting discussion it had been decided ; that he should remain until orders arrived p from the Governor, Sir George Grey. Rewi ■/said if the Governor ordered Gorst to stay, P then Gorst must die. Fortunately the Gover- ■ . nor gave him permission to leave, and so y>his. life was saved. "

t"-. . -Now. all is changed. All the old fight- . ing chiefs have passed away. The mana of '. the Maori has departed. Peace reigns in the land. . Sir John Gorst left To Awamutu forty years ago a fern-clad district. He returns to find it a smiling garden. Where ||| once were only a few wbares is now a :(■ : thriving township. Comfortable homef~}. , steads dot the plain. The railway and the telegraph connect the settlers with other yj; parts of the colony. The far off events of Sir John's day are now only memories fast fading into * oblivion; - yet it was here in Te Awamutu that some of the happiest ,'• ; moments of his life were spent, and he recalls them to-day with fond affection and ~ sweet recollection. ;

It may be. sentiment only, but no one :C: { likes bear of a dead man's body 'being gnawed by rats. It shocks us inexpressibJ*'.,',iy-" We all love' to treat the dead. tenderly ■'-.-. and' with care. And I.am sure it was not V-r because of sheer callousness that the body .:-,"-'■, of-one of the victims of the Calliope Dock i disaster was treated in the manner we have ' -heard of. The strange thing is that in all " the city the unfortunate man does not seem -•' to have bad a. single friend whose interest ft; in; him was great enough to see to' his decent burial. Among, the teeming thousands ,1 of our population he • was alone, without 1% „ kith or khi, no ou& caring what happened to bim" living or dead. Yet somewhere in the world someone mourns his fate.".'.-,.' \'.\

:' Parturiunt . montes. nascitur vidiculus --'« mus.' The following is an extract from the ■* ' annual* report of the Auckland Orchestral Society:—"Thanks "to the pecuniary aid K; received from some of the leading citizens

j'. ; of Auckland, the voluntary subscriptions of ''.'•' the performing members, and f the proceeds /a .from a combined concert with the Auckland Liedertafel, a sum"of over £50 has been col- ' lected for. the music fund." ' ' /

"A Drift in New Zealand" is the title of a new work, a presentation copy: of which has been sent by the author, Mr. E. Way. Elkington, to the Public Library. There is much in it about Auckland—its show purees, its society, its newspapers. |»|f; Of the Her alb the writer says: "It is one ': of the best; papers in the colony. The building alone is impressive, and its internal arrangements would make an English newspaper office blush with shame ; it is ? miles ahead of the stuffy, badly-arranged, draughty, and uninteresting offices in Lon- - don. I have been on the staff of five of them, but for comfort and convenience give f:nie the Auckland Herald. ... Their weekly edition also compares favourably '.' with any weekly newspaper in England."

j'.'.- : ■. The orchardists of Auckland, according to Pi statements made at the Fruitgrowers' Union meeting on Tuesday last, must either be a ; :i . lotus-eating community or else to have lost. ii: ; sufficient interest in everyday matters to ;., come inside when it rains. The onion 5- : ; never,was a powerful bodv, it has been 'sickly from birth, but latterly it has fallen - : on evil davs, and can see nothing before it but suicide, unless something unexpected tip. happens, and all its :available property wouldn't pay its burial fees. It worked hard ; a few enthusiasms it numbered in its ranks gave brave and good services in its cause, but even thev have become disheart- ". ened in the struggle against the hopeless, f/[P helpless, killing apathy of orchardiste, as a Sy whole, who do not seem to have enough • energy left to pay their subscriptions.

There are many tired bodies in Auckland, but of them all the fruitgrowers seem to be the worst case of sleeping sickness on record. When it became necessary to send a dele--T- gate to Wellington the committee found itself obliged to go round with the hat and beg for the £6 or £7 for expenses. Now the onlv solution appears to be the volunJ#tary winding up of the union and the form- ■ ing, from its. ashes, of a co-operative com- , pany, but if they continue as they are at present the growers will be too tired to pick the fruit or to kick when low prices result- from their own deadly inertia. At : ; Tuesday's meeting the whole fabric of the union seemed tottering to a fall; it doubted whether it could pay the interest on it« secretary's overdue salary, and it prepared - ', to attend its own funeral, but there came f p ■■;- as a last ray of hone, a suggestion that -,'- orchardists might vet be stum; into action at the eleventh hour, aud the issue was / adjourned till February next. But unless the committee has reason to see more fav- ;,. ourable prospects in front than it does at fp:._ present the obituary column will record another demise, and fruitsrrowera will sleep \- on till the codHn moth and the woolly aphis ' , put in the bailiffs.

I met a man on the train to Ellerslie the :,.;,*- other dav who had never before been on / . one. Yet be was born in the col on v and a sbrewd-lookinc: man of 50 or so. He came to Anrkland bv horse and steamer fi;ovn the North every two or three years and told me ||||p.iJS , he'd alwavs intended to trv a trainride but ha.d somehow alwavs missed it. I was aikinnr him what lie thought of it when we : reached the tunnel and conversation ceased. Five minutes ■■■ later, when we emerged, he drew a long breath and tried Jfipfnot'-to look" frightened. " I don't think much of trains." he remarked. " How soon ; •„, fan a man [jet out?" And when we got to Newmarket it was a 'very- pale and silent J«an who stepped onto the platform. " I think I'd sooner walk.", he said. And there, is one settier who doesn't want a railway to S»ff door. He thinks it means a sort of.ParnelJ tunnel, with sulphurous smoke in the |^s|. carriage, and an engine that drags the train tf*l§*r the speed of a bullock draw ; Mercctio.