LOCAL GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 1514, 9 November 1912, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP.

BY MERCUTTO. The end of the session finds the Reform Party more firmly fited in power than ever. The Massey Government has -won golden opinions from one end of the Dominion to tiic other. It has proved itself able, just, and progressive. It has vindicated its claim to the confidence of the people. What it professed when in opposition it has remained true to in office. The fossilised and reactionary Toryism which we were warned' by its critics to expect from, its accession to power has been conspicuous by its absence. On the contrary, it has out-Liberaled the Liberals in its advanced jnd enlightened legislation. It has reestablished the rule of democracy which had been destroyed by a frog-blown autocracy. It has restored to Parliament its lost rights and privileges. It has purged the- administration of the national business of the crop of abuses which had, crept into it. It has placed the Civil Service above the reach of undue influence and political patronage. It has given ',;ope and security to every settler on the land. It has put the finances of the country on something like a sound and safe footing, and it has given us what we had been strangers to for a-quarter of a centurygovernment in the full light of publicity. There are no dark corners or forbidden chambers in the Massey ministerial mansion. Every door stands wide open; every blind is up. • There is not a shuttcrca window in the whole building. Considering the short time it has been in occupation of the Treasury benches, this is trtilv a wonderful record for the Government to put up, and is a hopeful augury for the future.

The prospect of a garden suburb springing un at Orakei has somehow faded into the cfim region of tho might-have-beens, inhere so many oiicc-bright and alluring schemes slumber in peacefuMorgctfulness. I am in hopes, however, that it will again emerge into the light of day. So admirable an idea ought not to be allowed to perish. Why it should have suffered even a temporary ' eclipse it is hard to understand, except on the convenient assumption that someone has blundered. Ido not profess to know all the ins and outs of the business, but I fancy that if it had to bo gone over again it would be proceeded with in a somewhat different way.

A curious canard is being industriously circulated in some political circles by quondam oracles of the lost Liberal party to 'the effect that the change which has come over the antics of the professional claqueurs nf the Seddon-Ward-Mackenzi© Governments is duo to a lively expectation of favours to come when Mr. _ Maaeey begins his distribution of Legislative Council appointments. But the _ cynical suggestion does, I am sure, an injustice to the converted claqueurs. The party they wore wont to applaud has been snuffed out. It is leaderless and nameless, and, as they must applaud something, they are perforce obliged to applaud the Government. _ I have great pleasure in offering my hearty congratulations to Mr. F. Earl and Mr. J. R. Reed on . the distinction they have had conferred upon them by being made K.C'.'s. Both are brilliant and able mem ben; of the honourable profession to which they belong, and by none will their * distinguished dignity be hailed with livelier satisfaction than the members of that profession. '• * ' :( Mr. Myers, signalised 'his advent as Minister for Railways by a number of very sensible alterations m the suburban service, all of which were greatly appreciated by the travelling public. Not the least important of these was the running of the 12.30 p.m. train from Auckland through to Otahuhu • without passengers having to change at Penrose. But with the retirement of Mr. Myers officialdom seems to have triumphed and the old order has been reverted to.' Passengers have now to change once more at Penrose in order to save the trouble of shunting a few waggons destined for Onehunga. The sooner a new feneral manager appears on tho seen© the ctter.

The " Austria in North Auckland are vartly interested in the Balkan War and their .sympathies are by no means with Austria". They come almost wholly from Croatia and Dalmatia, provinces of the Aujitro-Hungarian Empire, peopled generally by Sclavs. To this great South Sclav stock belong the Czechs of Bohemia, the peoples oi Croatia, Dalmatia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina and some of the Hungarians, also the Montenegrins, Serbs, . and Bulgars. The Croatian can understand the Bulgar and the Serb if they speak slowly, while the Montenegrin speaks the Serb tongue. Excepting for Roumania, which has a mixed language incomprehensible to its neighbours, all the South Sclavs speak languages as closely akin as Norwegian and Swedish or even the Wessex and the Scotch dialects. Whenever in Auckland you notice two "Austrians" speaking quickly you may take it for granted that they are both Croatians or Dalmatians or Serbs, as the case may be, but that when they are speaking slowly and carefully, they belong to different nationalities.

Our Auckland "Austrians" sympathise with the Balkan States because they hate the Turks with all their hearts, and because nationality is a3 much a passion with the Sclav as it was with the Italian before the resurrection of Italy. lam told that as a broad general rule the Sclav loves Austria about as much as a Fenian loves Englandwhich isn't overmuch.

There hasn't been any "climate" in Auckland recently, but on Thursday of last week we had a return of tho "climate" that has made Auckland famous. It must be fully two rears since we enjoyed such soft, balmy spring weather, which once and not so long ago, either— customary in Auckland. This is only another of the constantly-repeating evidences that climate is changing. If the changes continue in the same general direction for a few thousand years Auckland will have the climate of Dunodin, and Dunedin will be under snow, and ice. That may not make much difference' to the South Island, for by the way. South Islanders are drifting northwards there> will not be many left in Otago in two or throe hundred years, not to speak of two or three thousand. It is the North Island which will feel the pinch. Instead of hearing fairy tales about the peaches that the Maoris used to grow, the Aucklanders of 3912 will hear learned professors lecturing on tho interesting theory that peaches once grew on the slopes of Mount Hobson and that pears were once a popular fruit in Auckland orchards.

Speaking of orchards, many people arc interestedly watching to see how long Auckland fruit fanners will go on losing inoney every good season by their failure to arrange for the economic and profitable disposal of their surplus crops. The local pear the enormous loss and waste of fruit, »swamped into it the public reap no benefit, for prices are always kept up by . the retailer?, while the fanners, in low prices, pear the enormous loss and wast© of fruit invariable when it is nobody's business to w careful. Still, if orcharciists prefer to lose money regularly rather than invest Honey in economic processes, it is equally nobody's business but their own. , ,

A correspondent who travels frequently °Ji the Kaipara railway says that he can always tell Nortli-Aucklanders because tney invariably monopolise from two to three seats in the carriage and use the *®*t opposite to them as a foot-rest. He Relieves that he could, with a little rouble, trace their locality by the mud {eft on tho seat, but he. is not prepared j 0 R° this length. What he wants me to do, however, is to point out that although men may be forgiven for getting a*, much rest as they can on the pain'"lly long journey, they have no legal or morai right to more than one seat, and j?*y owe duly of scraping away ine different kinds of soil from seats they **7 nee as ioot-rest#,.