LOCAL GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14507, 22 October 1910, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP.

by stekcutio. ' 1 if*. Masskt is too self-sacrificing. He Snot want to go to the coronation. Sir OCS T. WnrH mav go and anybody else who S* but the duty of the Leader of the Cition. as he conceives it, is to remain - few Zealand. This is quixotic magnani'V I think the country would be the ®i ty ' r if we could ship all our members of Siament to England for a year or two, r " T e the law-making machine in \\ ela est. The idea that the Do•\)n could not get on without an annual "Tine 0 £ statutes, and countless numbers Hawaid. which nobody ever reads, may flattering unction to the souls of our 1 gislators, but it is without any foundation whatever. It a < '°'' 011 commonly entertained only because we have never had the courage or originality to try the experiment My own opinion is that if we once t rid 0 all our members of Parliament, d skipped a session or two, we should be ''■ no hurry to call them back. As that, however, is not likely to happen, the next jest thing is to induce as many as possible of our public men to see something more cf the world than the little parcel of it lv in in this quarter of the globe. If •' w them travelled there would be less jiirtchialieni in our politics. I notice that some one in Wellington has ken criticising the administration of the • fyok Islands by the Resident Commissioner, Op tain Smith. 1 do not envy the man &0 has to fill that high and onerous office. Jj is one of extraordinary difficulty, and is peculiarly exposed to the shafts of malignity or malice. Even an archangel from i»Ten would not escape censure. Captain is not exactly an archangel, but he imminently qualified to fill his present position United with strength of character he possesses in a high degree the diplomatic gift of tact. A man of considerable capacity, a tireless worker, broad-minded, and just and courageous enough to do what he believes to be right without fear or favour, he can be safely trusted to see that the administration of the islands is carried on on fair and impartial lines. And notwithstanding the strictures of the Raratongan dentist, as published in the Wellington Dominion, from all I hear from the islands themselves Captain Smith is winning golden opinions by his scrupulous fairness in His dealings with all classes. To rouse a nation to the folly of its ways is a task that many earnest and able men have attempted in vain. It- is almost as hopeless as trying to recover spilt milk. Mr. Chamberlain made a supreme effort to (yen the eyes of the English people to the stupendous stupidity of their fiscal policy, felt without success. Lord Roberts has been occupying his old age in endeavouring to make them see the national dangers to which they are exposed owing to their wholly inadequate defence system: but they still remain blind. And our old friend, P. A. Vaile, has been spending his time and talents in a patriotic, but profitless, essay to teach them how to suck eggs. With the delightful confidence and light-hearted audacity of youth and inexperience he shook the dust of Queen-street from his mercurial feet and went Home on his self-imposed mission. He found the people steeped in ignorance and sloth. Deterioration was writ large over the whole nation. At work they were lazy and inefficient, and at play stupid and supine. They knew nothing. Their insularity had filled them with self-conceit lad indolence. Unless-something was done, '■Bid done .quickly, he.saw thai: the downfall of the race was inevitable. He did not hesitate. He took off his coat and rolled up his sleeves, and with a fountain pen and » ream of paper he went to work. He •would teach them how to save themselves— how they should govern the mighty Empire they had somehow or other managed to create, how they should run the vast' industries they had built up, how they should speak their own language and play their own national games. Nothing was too great or too trifling for his reforming zeal, and nothing daunted him. His abundant faith in himself minimised all difficulties. Mountains became dwarfed to the dimensions of molehills, and oceans shrank to the limits of duck ponds. But he has fared no Better than the other great men who have ■ driven to waken John Bull from his heavy lumbers. He has been preaching to deaf larsw His well-meant lessons in the art of sucking eggs, his loud and persistent exhortations to his grandmother to leam from iim how to do it, have, alas, brought him only ridicule. In the Bystander of September 7 a flannelled fool masquerading as "Mr. Q. B. Waile" has the amazing irreverence to make fun of him. This flippant person, who takes lawn tennis for his themea subject which Mr. Vaile has made peculiarly his very own—makes the egregious assertion that he won " the championship of Upper Woollawoolla, hi New Zealand, in 1885," and proceeds in the following style : —" Not only is lawn tennis in England utterly corrupt, but, in spite of all I have .written on the subject, no one knows how to play it. To begin with, all English players (except my scholarly friend, B. F. Drawley) hold their rackets in the wrong way. A glance at the portraits, of myself in Piffle About Patball will prove this at oilce. The mistake they make is to hold their rackets in their hands. <. The hand is the worst possible portion of the body to use for the purpose, tor to swing the arms is not a natural notion, and produces a cramped action, which is especially noticeable in the case of the Dohertys. The legs, on the other hand, have a free pendulum motion, cultivated by the action of walking, and produce the .best offensive and defensive stroke. I myself always play standing on mv head, with the toes of my riplit foot grasped firmly, but not too stiffly round the extreme end of the handle of . the racket, the big toe slightly apart from the others and more or less parallel with the handle. I then swing the leg well round with a free and natural action, the head of the racket starting from the left ear and finishing in front of the right knee-cap." A week or two ago I published a communication from a correspondent to the effect that some two years ago his wife, while travelling in the North Island, found a medal, which she placed amongst some coins which lie had collected, where it lay until the other day when, on examining it, he discovered it to be a Maori war medal, bearing the inscription, "3371, John Clareburt, 65th Regiment. His object in writing to me was to find, if Possible, the owner of the medal, know- ! n g that this column is read everywhere ill the Dominion. His faith has been justified, for the owner has been found. Mr. W. Bannerman, master of the Old People's ( Home, Park Island, Napier, Writes"The man John Clareburt, mentioned in Local Go»<ip, is an inmate of this institution, and it is a very peculiar circumstance that he had applied for a uphcate of the medal referred to, and ue notification he received, saying that W een a PPli e d for from the . ar Office, was the same date as your sue, containing news of his original ' medal, which was inscribed " 3371, John areburt, 65th. Regiment." Nov/ there 0^ thing very mysterious about this m * • The box which contained this tPnJr Was either lost or stolen three tern" a^ 0- r John Clareburt was in Wot ln S f ro m Napier to a place at li iY?' He states he placed, or saw fraf i! " lS , ~X in the guard's van of the H„t v W huh he travelled to Makotuku, : thn wten he arrived at his destination 5 We ° X m ' ss i £- The box and conin'oir.,® on tain e d all his worldly belongings, Vnlnoj 11 ? his ,M a war medal, and were iioai.J? him at £30. An exhaustive n, A _ .T 38 ma d« both by the police and ay authorities, and now, after "'box J , ' ears - the medal, which was in the . i w hen it was lost, turns up."