LOCAL GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14566, 31 December 1910, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP.

by'soskctttio.

flu have got to the cad of another year. 1910, which came to us so fresh jmd lusty jtrelve mouths ago, is old-- and' dying. "I'iiore'd a now face at the door, my friends, a new face at the door."'- But before the old year expires we shall, if we ire wise, fellow the precept of the moralists and philosophers and spare a few momenta for a calm review of the past. It is only bv settling tin* balance of losses and gains st the end of each year that we can know whether we have advanced or fallen back in our journey through life. None of lis is precisely what lie was when the year was bom.. Ail have changed, and it is well that, we should carefully note for our ,own guidance the true, character and signideanco of the change. It is by the habit of individual introspection that the world in the mats grows better. When we learn to see our own shortcomings, and to resolve to mend them we have do 110 something, however small, to lift humanity a little higher.

The year that is now drawing to a close Las been on the whole a good friend to the people of New Zealand. It litis brought them a continuance of prosperity without which there can be no real contentment or happiness. Favourable seasons have blessed the labours of the husbandman. Trade ha.- gone on expanding, and work has been plentiful. No overwhelming disasters havu shocked or saddened the community. The year has flowed along steadily and tranquilly. .It is true if- has left a vacant chair in many a home. Dear bjiss have passed from our gaze for ever. -V.; nut's the touch of a vanished hand and the sound of a voice that is still. But all rears arc alike in that respect. It is the common lot. Let us be thankful that the country has not had to deplore any national Ealamity.

This is the time of the year when good resolution? are formed, and we make up our minds to turn over a new leaf. Even '.Sw.i'jh we may by and by fall away from grace it is something to have felt for however brief a space the glow of conscious virtue. The future is wisely hid from all \of u#. No man; bo he ever so wise, knows irbit lies in the lap of the new year. Whr.t we have all got to do is to face it with courage, hope, and resoluteness. Upon ourselves depends largely whether we make ;>r mar it. Each man* must live his own life. No one else can do it for him. Let him therefore resolve to live it well. Let fcim cultivate a sunny nature. Let him endeavour to diffuse happiness around him. Let him acquire, a;? he may so easily do, a wealth of love and scatter it with lavish hand on young and old and rich and poor, not with calculated distinction 01* opportuneness. but now and everywhere. We only make this journey once. We shall never come this way again. Let m; therefore be kind to all and do good to all, and so help to bring to all, what I wish all my readers, a Happy New \ear.

The tumult that occurred at the Trotting ("lob";; race meeting on Tuesday was the nearest approach to a riot that has been witnessed in Auckland for many a year. We are a law-abiding people, but the incident in question shows that given the provocation the law* can bo put at defiance here as readily as elsewhere. lam told tliat but for the wise discretion shown - by the police there would have been serious ■ trouble. The crowd were fairly goodnatured. but they were in no mood to be driven into order by the exercise of force, Neither were they in the humour to listen, to the well-meant but singularly unhappy * .spiuujh#* of tfe» two ■ local if. P.'a who attempted to address them. They wanted the race run over again, and if the stewards had grasped the situation with Napoleonic insight that is what would have been done. When you cannot overawe a mob the next best thing is to conciliate it. A cynical friend of mine suggests that it would be as well when a similar disturbance again occurs at a race meeting to send for the tire brigade instead of th© police. He is a great believer in the efficacy of the- cold water treat mailt for popular ebullitions.

Sir Joseph Ward, who was in Auckland, for the Christmas holidays, >6 looking remarkably well after t.ho rest cure at Taupo and Rotorua. The effects of the strain of a Ion;; and strenuous session have completely disappeared, and ho gives one the impression that he ha& net a cart? in the world. This ability to throw off worries and the nerve-shattering weight of responsibility is the salvation of a public man in the Prime Minister's position. When he is unable to do this a breakdown is inevitable sooner or later. Sir Jcseph is looking forward with pleasant anticipations to his visit to the heart of the Kmpir > next year. He is in high hope of accomplishing some useful work at the Imperial Conference. So admirably suited is he for the role 01 a colonial ambassador that many even of his own party would like to see him pennanentlv locked in London as High \X)mmjseioner. I fancy that his own personal feelings incline in that direction. 23ut Sir .Joseph recogn>6es that for the present at nil events his duty to lib party lies in New Zealand.

Thexe is a saying that i. catch a Scotsman young enough yu, ■ > v". *o any- . thin? of him you pleas-.''- ' " :f.j»posed lo believe that the s«cv« ;-a« v>/plies to Riarxies scholars. 'X'ii© « : w, however, jesms x > be in the <?• I,v -r uon. Ihe resui'j call only be " 3!.oc!es's idea was nc so JF'icii the mero * acquisition r Oxford lear'*?.ig aw to become isaturatv-d with the tova, anil ,r>!tu.*.3 of Oxford. Here, in the enctanceo atmosphere of the old university, whore so many of the great men of our race have i>?en nurtured, the alert intelligence o£ the youth of the overseas Dominions was to be imbued with the spirit and traditions that classic '-round Thev were to go back to their own lands and diffuse there the liberal light and high ideals they had acquired at Oxford. But there is a danger that the broad-minded conception of the great Imperialist mav he defeated in the pursuit of + hose material and utilitarian advantage which to the colonial mind especially possess; so irresistible an attraction. The Rhodes scholars do not always return to the place whence they came to be a radiating centre of Oxonian culture. It may be, however, that wo are too impatient. The scheme is so vast tliat its effects must necessarily be slow. In another century or two it will lie time enough to judge it by its fruit. That is a long span for the average mortal, but in the sight of the man who thought in continents a hundred years counted for very little.

A rhyming subscriber, in forwarding his annual subscription for the Herald, sets forth in some clever verses his reasons for taking the paper. Here are a few specimens of his muse : — I can't afford to drop it; I And it doesn't pay To do without a paper. However cithers may. I hate to ask my neighbours To givfi me theirs on loan; They don't just say. but mean it. •' Why don't you have your own." You can't tell how we miss it, If it by any fate Should happen not to reach us, Or conic a little late. Then all is in a hubbub, And things go all awry. And—printer, if you're married. You'll know the reason whyThe children want their stories, And wife is anxious, too, At- first to glance it over. And then to read it through; And I to read the leaders. And con the book reviews. And sain the correspondence, And every bit of news. I cannot da without it: It is no use to try: The other people take it. And, printer, so must I. I, too. must keep me posted. And know what's# going on. Or feel and be accounted A .fogey simpleton.