LOCAL GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14375, 21 May 1910, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP.

1 ... BY MEBCTTTIO. [The great event, which was looked forward to with so much dread by the timid and the "\ I superstitious, has happened. The earth has ; I ■ massed through the tail of the comet, and - i ;he world still breathes. Had the alarm- : *ng prophecies of sonic seem been fulfilled ."■'"wire should all by this time bo no more. ; Mankind, we -were told, was to be snuffed i>ut. Poisonous gases were to asphyxiate "is. The whole, globe was to be. turned into A vast charnel-house. Some people un- *; doubtedly believed in these direful , prognostications. I have been told of a youing ,- , woman, employed in a city office, who ap- '• : plied for a leave of absence on Thursday : i\& her. mother wished her to be at home v ; ' >0n that day so that they might all die V . together. But nothing happened, as we all know now. We swept through the comet's tail without feeling as much as the faintest iiutter of a midge's wing. Nor i'« this sur- _ , prising, for so inconceivably ffrc is the v enormous stream of trailing light that wo ;f, . call the tail that it. could easily bo compressed into a lady's thimble. Had the head of the comet struck the earth it would •probably have been a different matter., In that case we should in all likelihood have f~ wifnessed the most splendid and terrifying | : meteoric display ever seen in the heavens. ' Perhaps some day that will happen, but as : ~ %ione of us will be here then we need not /worry about it. Sufficient urn to the day is the comet of the hour. ■ .-. There is something wonderfully fascinating about the appearance of a comet, due lo the mystery that still envelopes these "pandering .searchlights of the firmament. Whence they come, whither they go, what i; ; purpose they serve in our solar system, how they are born and how they die, even . ', exactly what they ccjnsist of we do not '.know.' They dart out of the immeasurable - 'depths of interstellar space and vanish as |f^:' silently as they came, leaving all the world W : K •wondering.. Some of them, like Halley'6 comet, are old friends. They keep calling , at long intervale. Others again have a fleeting glance at us, and are seen no more, or - . it may be that millions of years pass before they have time to pay us another visit. There are records of the present comet , dating back more than 2000 years. But * •its first appearance may have occurred at an infinitely more remote period, extendBlpiSrig even to that far-off age which no mathematician can calculate when the world took on form and shape and the morning stars IkSiSsang' together. ■ But in .the infinitesimal fragment of its life, covered by the last 20 centuries, what stupenduous changes it has •' seen on our planet! Empires have flourished and decayed, old civilisations have been ; Tost and new ones born, races and creeds fe;f have perished, and cities once great and populous have crumbled into dust. And it may be coming when the nations of today have left not a single memory of their existence, or a vestige of the mighty works that are now their boast arid pridewhen Europe and Asia lie buried in the slime of £;'.!; a vast ocean, and new continents and new V~' peoples have sprung out of the seas that '' ' now divide us. What a'brief'span, of life : has mortal man compared with these ;. . strange creatures of the starry universe ! In .another 75' years the comet will again be ' visible in J.he sky. But not for many of us. IBhe Kings and "rulers «ho now gaze at it ' ■■ will all have passed away. All the great ';•> men of the world will be in their graves., The millionaire and the pauper will both have reached the same goal. But a truce . }o these moralisings. pSIP -.■:"■''' . : - v •_'■ - ■'>"': - ; -'.. ■"'-' . Wrr-' $ ' ' .. " ■-■- •••• '■■' ■ •■' -.-••'■-•-*-•■ ;:■■ : * The Government, I learn on reliable authority, are sorely perplexed at the decision of His Excellency the Governor to hold his •farewell levee in Auckland in Government " House. They have, as we all know, strip- ■ per the vice-regal residence of every stick of furniture. The pictures have been taken ffl Wi from the "• walls, and the carpets from the % 'floors. The rooms have been given up to '"* dust and cobwebs. It is a dismantled and V deserted home, silent and bare and ghostly. On the mantelpiece of the empty reception- :'. hall there is a half-burned candle markwhere the grease has run down the side !— . and in the ballroom there is a withered twig ;s?'{;■:; of foliage hanging from the chandelier. And ;. it is here, in this solitude and gloom, that the King's representative is to receive the citizens of Auckland. No wonder Ministers are dismayed. They ire afraid that when =;" the people see the spoliation that has oc- ] curred at Government House they will be • ' filled with indignation. And truly it is enough to make the-very stone 6 of Auckland rise and mutiny.* So we have Sir Joseph Ward: and Mr. 'Fowlds and the oiher dark / conspirat«;rs,running., round among their supwiters and the secondhand furniture ehops, picking up bits of I enough to make tho very stoned of Auckland rise and mutiny. So we have Sir Joseph Ward and Mr. Fowlds and the oiher dajrk , conspirators running, round among their supporters and the secondhand furniture shops, picking up bits of things that will help to give a sort of 1 furnished appear l.> the place. A packing case, cunningly covered with cheap , J cretonne is to be stuck in one corner, and ] it is intended to borrow a number of seats ■from the Albert Park to give an air of j ■cosy splendour to the cheerless and draughty corridors. But in spite of many j $'-■ promises of assistance Ministers are far • from happy, and are looking forward to '; the levee with hearts as heavy as lead. . I - A Taranaki paper relates how two rural patriots extolled the virtues of the Sabine village after seeing Pome : " MrTand Mrs. .'— left some twelve months ago to 'settle in the Old Country, but somehow j . -New Zealand seems to draw people back. - There is too much ' stand off the grass ' in ■ ' .'England, they say, and after their travels they are convinced that New Zealand, and .this fertile province in particular, is hard idlplSio beat." -; V ' ,"■' ' "'"'" -,' v' '"'■; "■■ Unexpected meetings are always happening in Auckland. When I first landed here from the Old Country I had not got as far as the post office before I ran against the tradesman from whom I used to buy my hats in a ..provincial town in England, SfflS; and who had only been in New Zealand 'three days! Fortunately, I owed him nothing, and my pleasure at seeing a familiar lace was consequently free from anv em-' barrassment. A correspondent now writes : •—"Dear Mercutio, — of Queen- :'. street, Auckland, being the meeting place for the world, let me instance the fact that there is a man whom I have met three times only within the last 20 years first, In 1891, 'in a mining camp in the Rocky \ ■ Mountains; second, at Oban, in the 1 Western 1 Highlands, in 1902; and third, in ■'" Queen-street, Auckland, 1907. He was in business in British Columbia, on pleasure ?n Scotland, and on both in New Zealand. '-Yours faithfully, W.M.N." Most people if asked whether the letter V. •JT ever has the sound of v" in English, > •*« in Welsh, would reply unhesitatingly '• Never." As a matter of fact there is one • ' word in the English language, and only one, in which "f" has the sound of " v," jmd it occurs in this paragraph. ' I.A surveyor was. lately at work in the yanges. One of his assistants was a young . 'Kcot, only recently arrived in New* ZeaI land. They were chaining along the bank [• ,". -of the stream, when the surveyor called out §". to him to do something. A"I carina hear i;■ you for the babblin'o'th'; brook," said the | i ' newchuml Again the instruction was shout-i-.'K ed, and the sar;e reply came. Turning imI patiently to his second assistant, a young l I Jfew -Zealander, the - surveyor asked, j| g| £ What's he saying?" Says be can't hear Mt <: V U " ou fi a the row of the'bloomin' creek." It was orßj 9, tea poetical way of putting ; 'i^^i' : .'--.•'■..■::■.■'■:•.■'; ■;■:■■' '■'-}■: '■■•'■■■'■. "('■'.'■•'.■'■": : --'■"■?""■ ":••.■■•%••.'''.'•'■:';•■■"•- pllfae;r&v ":■-:.:;-.':':,;•.. ':-' : ..;: : .. . •'-"■ . ,