LOCAL GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13491, 18 May 1907, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP.

i' "Let me have audience for a word or two." ''.i " —Shakespere. T is said that. Sir Charles Napier announced his victory at Sindo in one word _peccavi. Mr. Massey went one better at • New Plymouth and announced the result of tho Taranaki election in two letters O.K. The return of Mr. Okey, the Opposition candidate, has greatly fluttered the dovecotes of tho Government party. The attempts that are being made to explain away l" s success on the ground that it ,was owing to a split in the ranks of. the Ministerialists are admittedly unsatisfactory for several reasons. In the first place, he polled : an absolute majority of 544 over the two other candidates in the purely country districts, and at the two principal suburban polling centresFitzroy and Vogeltown—an absolute majority of 4. Then again a very considerable proportion of tho independentcandidate's voles came from the Opposition side, for Mr. Okey: was not a popular can- :; didate among the Oppositionists residing in New Plymouth, and it is well known that many of them were openly supporting Mr. Malone. Out of the latter' total at least 15 per cent., I am assured, must be deducted as representing voters who for personal and private reasons would have refused to vote for either Mr. Okey or Mr. Dockrill. Giving the Government the liberal benefit of two-thirds of the balance of Mr. Malonc's votes, Mr. Okey in a straightout fight would have secured a majority of • «bout 100. - .". The election, it is to be hoped, has taught the Government a lesson. In spite of their unwarrantable interference, over 1000 elec- ■" tors were independent enough-to refuse to • • vote for the Government's nominee. There is no doubt that Mr. Carroll's presence and speeches did Mr. Dockrill very much more . harm than good. The Native Minister's injudicious interference, and his strenuous efforts to influence the. free choice of the electors, were strongly resented' by the majority of the voters. And very rightly so. If Ministers are to become touts and. cans'., vassers at every by-election we shall have a pretty state of things. Their business is to stay in their offices and look after the • - work of their Departments. That is what we pay them for. Mr. Carroll does not get ■ £1000 a-vear to waste his time in election- ,:; eering. He is paid to attend to native af- .' fairs, and it is a pity he does not give • them more of his attention. In that case, V .they would not be in their present muddled condition, nor would there have been any - necessity for a Royal Commission roaming \ - up and down the country at.great expense, ■;' endeavouring to set them right. ' Church-goers on a recent Sunday were a little surprised to see a well-known city lawyer riding into town in a milk cart. The explanation, however, was very simple. He had not changed his profession. . The tramcar service having broken down, and being anxious to' reach the telegraph office before closing time, he had availed himself of this humble mode of conveyance. In law it is presumed that all things are rightly '"•' doneomnia praesumuntur; rite actaand ■ is it not from scenes like these that we learn to admire the resourcefulness ■ of the legal mind, and that unaffected sim- ; plicity of life and manners which is as beau-1 tiful in the greatest lawyer as •■<"' in ; the | j humblest 'cotter?- ■, '-■;,. , ■.;;■ ~.■/ , ; :'< . ~... ~~~~-y •■■ 'v . Scene: Sitting-room. in ~ a fashionable Auckland hotel. Men smoking; women--: women talking. Mr. ■■ P. >. enters, surveys .the company, -and sits; down. - ' | ; MriP;: (to gentleman from India): The joung Prince hasn't lived very long. Gentleman from 1 India: The young .: Prince? ' Mr. P.: ■ Yes. The young Spanish Prince. - The papers stated a ' day or two ago, you know, that the . Queen of Spain had given birth to a son. He hasn't lived i very long. .. - . Gentleman from India (waking up): Oh,j ;| yes, ; Princess Ena's son. Dear me! ... Dear i :!> me! No, he hasn't, has he? .. ; ■1 ; Interested Lady.(overhearing the conver- j ■I . ' sation) : The young Spanish Princewhat i is that you.say,; Mr. P.? ; Mr. P.: He.hasn't lived very long. Interested Lady to Devoted Mother: Mohl\ ther, isn't it sad? The young Prince is dead! " ■ . ; • " " Devoted Mother: Dead? Is he dead' Poor little fellow! How 'sad! and then ;? had been such rejoicing, too. .•' ... Others gather round, ladies and gentle men, all interested. - Chorus: Is he dead? * Mr. P..- He hasn't lived very long, 1 •' said. He's still very young. "(Goes of] ; : :-. quietly to tell somebody else.) .' The complaint that the Government cannot get surveyors enough to lay out raili; way route and cut up land for settlement | as.fast as it required is the same old story, V. There are plenty of surveyors in the col- .■; ony, but the Departmental pay is so bad that private, work is sought after in preference. The Government expects to get ■ highly-skilled professional men for little more than the pay of a mechanic, and can't do it. Meanwhile the development of the colony suffers and those who should be stir- |;;-: veying our own lines and lands drift away to the West Coast of Africa and the Malay .; Country. - The delay in running the trams down ;. Queen-street again is not altogether an unmixed evil. There has been more walking > ] done in Auckland lately than for years be- .;- fore, and if the trams were laid idle in ;y ..sections' periodically, we should probably all be the better for it. At the tame time, I will admit that neither the company nor the, City Council is thinking of the gain to ' our legs. That is an incidental result. A week age* I hud occasion to deliver a sermon from the text, "Great was the wrath of the people, for there was not. one \ servant in the land." And the Herald's Sydney correspondent writes to ask it we are troubled with the servant problem ! For it appears they have the complaint over there is an even more aggravated form than \ we have it here. So had had it become, we are told, that the ladies of Sydney started a Society for the Cultivation of Domestic Servants, or something that way, and took step? to bring the .domestic flowers of England to the colony. And the very first one to come out receives a dozen offers of marMage ec route, and goes to Mr.* Anderson, * head of the Intelligence Department in Syd,ie for advice as to what she ought* to do! The duties of an Intelligence officer nowadays are, like the making o* books , there is nc end to them. Mr. Anderson ; has my sympathy in this, the latest problem, that comforts him. Whether Mr. Anderson will advise this flower of England to ding tenaciously to single blessedness and work for -her living at the house of *miu kind lady who will give her half a . day off every wee!:, or whether he will ■ advise her to love where she is loved (not the dozen, but the best of them), get marJJ«d, and live happily ever after, arc questions on which T have not vet received any /definite information. • These are davs of degeneracy. "Change! ••"'d decay in all around I see." ' A message -jam Gisborne says: —"Oliver Goldsmith,j I; e man who was*acquitted on Wednesday j upon a charge of : false pretences, has now wen. arrested upon a charge of horse-steal- ' & Oh, Oliver! Oliver! Has it come to ||||; ' ■■■''* kIZKCVTIO. \