THINGS IN GENERAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14208, 3 November 1909, Page 9

THINGS IN GENERAL.

Mi AUCKLAND'S, FUTURE, ft wWfe live in a careless age. What I mean J is that wo are careless as to the future, : "too content to live in the present to 11 !■' bother cur heads about what is going to r:*„ This is why, when someone :§§ inore practical and far-seeing presents ■^!^j' with an array of facts and figures ' showing the enormous growth of our city ind province, and the boundless possibilities that the future has in store for 'H-'v.'os W 3 are astounded. Yet it is all very f&?natural. Growth is ono of the indexible if ' laws of nature, and no man, nor community, shall resist it. The Auckland of the future is bound to be a vast city, $tT"and to rank with the great naval ports .A,' of the world. To some folks' thinking

i"; the progress that we sec on all hands ;L : is not so remarkable after all. They would have us admit that, in view of our ultimate goal, we are progressing toward:! it slowly. "If Americans owned this country," they will say, "Auckland would already be a great city. The harbour works and drainage scheme that you are, comparatively speaking, just commencing, would have been completed years ago. Your public buildings would be imposing, r .artistic, numerous. Your great areas of : beach and sand would be magnificent •v; summer resorts, instead of neglected shores; and your communication with the outer world, by sea and wire, would be a reproach to your present antedcluvian resources. Not only that, but, if Ameri-

cans were 'running' the Dominion," these

critics will add, the Auckland province would be one of the gardens of the world — second California. Instead of which you keep a Government in power consisting of Ministers who have been spoilt by reigning too long, and who deliberately check your growth by their stupid obstinacy in rrfusing to open up your , land: And you people follow their example and move slowly. There would bo no ' taihoa' scourge if Americans owned New Zealand." And there would be a good deal of truth in all this, for, with justice it can bo said that, though we move, we move slowly. Enterprise is what we want in New Zealand— prise and hustle. We are going to spend a million a year for 10 years in Auckland, we are told, but, if immigration were fostered, and our vast barren lands set- . lied, we would expend a great deal more.

A RADIUM WEDDING. The celebration at Buckland of the 70th anniversary of the wedding of Mr. s ; Robert Bilkey and his wife, besides being very unusual, was peculiarly rich in , seatiment. There is something beautifully touching in the contemplation of this Cornish Darby, and Joan who have " been together now for 70 years, and it don't seem a day too long"—as a famous song of Albert Chevalier s puts it. The country has reason to be proud of these aged pioneers, who stand to-day at the head of a long line of descendants, all of whom are taking or have taken an active share in the development of our fair land. An interesting feature of this delightful anniversary was the want of a precedent to enable it- to be classified. No authority that I know of has a term to fit any anniversary of a wedding beyond the 60th, and it is highly probable that, the suggestion to call the*7oth anni--5 versary " the radium wedding," because of its rarity, will be generally accepted. Which reminds me that quite 'frequently jpeople are puzzled to know the customary appellations of given anniversaries. It may be opportune to mention .them. The fifth, then, is called the " wooden wedding"; the tenth, the "tin wedding"; the fifteenth, the "Crystal wedding" ; the twentieth, the " china wedding *; the twenty-fifth, the "silver wedding" (as everybody knows); . the ; fiftieth, the golden wedding" (equally well known); and the 60th, the "diamond wedding." It will be ■ noticed that the thirties and 1 the forties are not included in the list. Maybe these are rare ' anniversaries too, and it remains for someone to christen them appropriately.

t-ii" '.NEW ZEALAND AIRSHIPS. ' A Thames resident has invented an airship, tha .possibilities of which he con- ¥ ; Bider3 to be great. Ho has prepared : v plans of his machine, and has fashioned ? ; one or two models, the net result of his W ingenuity and experimental work being §■* crafidence in his ability to produce a ij|'practical navigator of the air. Unforgr§ tunately for the inventor in. question, and, fa-! for all we know to the contrary, unfor- ;| tunately for New Zealand, lie is prevented by lack of leisure and of capital from perfecting a working model. There are reasons to believe that the airship at • present existing only in the brain of this | ' resident of -.the Thames might be worthy of attention in this age of aviation, and the inability of the inventor to complete what he ' has begun opens up the quesj• jV tion :of he desirability of " the Govern- • ment encouraging and assisting inventive I; genius of the kind. It might reasonably ||| be argied, for instance, that the time |K\is ripe for offering a State money prize 'to the patentee of the first New Zealand designed and made aeioplane or airship | that should survive a series of rigorous ' . tests.- Tin Thames airship-builder is not 6 the only cne in the field.. I have heard §!-?■ of tne or two others who are working out ! '| plans, and only recently an Aucklander, : '\!";®C23rding- to Ihe Gazelle, applied for letPsy,t*ss patent for an airship. There would, , therefore, reem to be 310 good cause why the. Dominion should lag behind in the • : race for aerial supremacy, and it may be 5 £ hoped ; that the Government will see fit ';: ( to draw 'up a competitive scheme. In f such a way, as in probably no other, shall j we unearth our own aviators.

X •" SHAKESPEARE" OR " SHAKESt: . PERE." Until a correspondent put the question w me I was not fully aware of the many I n different ways in which the name of the • - Bard of Avon is spelt. The correspondent • aforesaid is perplexed, it appears, because, whereas the English papers he 5 vis in the habit of perusing spell the f / name Shakespeare," the common pracs . tice out here is to set it out as" Shakes;;;'v peie." He wants to know which is correct. I have been looking up records a nd have come to the conclusion that the If older spelling, and therefore the more ■ hk~ly to be right, is " Shakespere." This r* J - «?• turn seems to have been evolved from 'Shakspere," ' which, there is reason to |gg believe, was the poet's family name. I am at a loss to ascertain precisely when f the " a " .began to appear in the last ; syllable of the name, out I fancy lam correct in saying that it has no legiti- : mate right to be there. " Shakespeare" is ' more picturesque, perhaps, and that form | %°* spelling the name has become so com- -. mon that it may be looked upon as accurate as "Shakespere." ||j|p4 A NEW DANGER. Matters have come to a pretty pass : 5 V.'»^ en , it is possible in Auckland, as is al- ; leged, for a lady to be brutally assaulted .' t '; an d robbed by any ruffian who is bold enough to assume the role of a cab-driver. The ease recently reported, in which a Fiji Jady , was the victim of such an affair in ....-.this.city, discloses in an alarming man- " ner the need that exists for safeguarding I;■ v. lives and property of our women•i: -*ind. ■* A new danger has arisen. It had - peon sufficiently intolerable to know that fg.UV Auckland (much to Auckland's dispace) females were frequently subjected te, annoyance, and even worse, at the hands of blackguards who patrol the | . SjMeter streets under shelter of the night, newspaper files are, unfortunately, 'Ml of instances of women and girls who, ■0 being out alone after dusk, have been Accosted and either robbed and assaulted ®r thoroughly terrified by cowardly as-,-'t sailants. But these cases pale into comf ®i*live insignificance in the light of this latest cab case. The public, knowing how j •J® 6 ® a scrutiny caU-drivera have to underIte- ■ I ill^V

go before they can obtain licenses, have been under no apprehension until now as to entrusting their wives, or daughters, or female friends, to their care. And it is only fair to say that the cab-drivers of Auckland have not given anybody reason, as a class, to lose this confidence in them. It. is clear that the contemptible thief and woman-beater concerned in tho sensational case I refer to was not an Auckland cab-driver. , It, none the less, behoves the men- in charge of cabs to take warning from this occurrence, and make it impossible in future for strange men to oust them from occupancy of the box-seat, and 'drive away their " fares" to steal from and injure them. Surely, whilst " cabby" leaves his vehicle on the rank, in order to partake of a meal, he could leave one of his "mates" in charge of the horse and cab. Unless this, or some other means bo adopted, gentry like the one concerned in the case under review may become.plentiful. Under such circumstances, anything might happen to unsuspecting and defenceless women who might, find it necessary to ride in a cab. The thought is appalling.

WOMAN' 3 METHODS. You know, it is a good thing the women of New Zealand nave the franchise. If they had not, we men might be undergoing a reign of tenor similar to that whi'h poor Mr. Asquith and Mr. Herbert Gladstone are being subjected to at Home. Of course, the brunt of a suffragette war in New Zealand would fall upon Sir Joseph Ward and the Hon. "Taihoa" Carroll, and doubtless they would smile serenely. Meantime, Dr. Findlay would presumably do his best, as Minister for Justice, to make the prison cells of refractory ladies who desired martyrdom as cosy as possible. All the same, the ordinary every-day men of the Dominion would undoubtedly be made to suffer. So, as I say, it is a good thing our women have the franchise. We can enjoy the accounts of what the suffragettes are saying and doing in the Old Country far better, knowing that wo are immune from similar tactics. The situation in London is now becoming quite dramatic. The vote-seekers still go to gaol, and there enjoy the delights of self-starvation, and hose-baths, but they have warned unhappy Mr. Gladstone that the time has come fo;- still stronger methods on their part. The attempted destruction of vot-ing-papers may be assumed to be the gentle beginning of these stronger methods threatened. All we have to do is to wait, and presently ,we shall know how much further the thoroughly roused fair ones will go. The wonder is that, in spite of the British suffragettes' playful and entertaining efforts to prove how worthy they are to be given votes, the British Government persists in declining to succumb on the point. However, the comedy is not played out yet. The General.