ROUNDS THE CORNERS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 850, 15 June 1888, Page 17

ROUNDS THE CORNERS.

It is an ill wind that’blows no one luck. The loss of the Hawea has given the New Plymouth Harbor Department something to do, and that is likely to last besides—finding the rock that made the first hole in her bottom. I wish ’em luck with the search.

Mrhon. member for Lyttelton’s Shop Hours Bill ! A mess of a thing,, making fish of one and flehh of another, to say nothing .of its gross infringement upon personal liberty. The hon. member only includes shops, why does he exclude public-houses, and, in fact, any place of public resort? ’Tis poor tinkering, ad captandum efforts after weak legislative sentiment. There is nothing wholesome, or whole-souled, about this latest legislative fad Of the thousands of shops in the Colony what a number of them are there that are run by the proprietors without the help of hired labor. The man, or woman, (fits in the receipt of custom —or hopes of it —from morning till night, and likes the occupation. Why not let ’em sit there : what harm do they! To restrict the hours of hired labor is another matter altogether. There may be some reason in such a course to prevent overworking, although cases of that kind are by no means common in this part of the world. But to close all the little shops, compel people to. go to bed at 8 o’clock, or, peradventure, to do worse, is just contemptible. No better measure could fce produced in the interest of public-houses than this Shops Bill of the member for Lyttleton. Perhaps the politician does not know that every man’s home is not his paradise, and that an evening at home with nothing to do is an awfully dreary matter to the man. And ditto the women. They are glad to get away from the home at the back of the shop and go a-gossipping or something. Anything to escape from the terrible home monotony where love probably does not hold court. Better let people mind their own business, hon. member for Lyttelton ; don’t interfere for sensation’s sake.

And will it pay ; is it wise to enforce a certain hours’ system of labor here, that is, make it statutory ? I have dealt with this question on several former occasions. The classes to which the proposition particularly refers are particularly well able to take of themselves. The State has already interfered in the interests of children and young people, compelling Saturday half-holiday and interdicting nightwork, and to proceed further would be trenching on the meddlesome and mischievous. In no country in the world has a so-many-hours system of labor became law, and it would be extremely out of place in New Zealand. Eight hours is the unwritten law.and it is exceedingly well conformed to. To let well alone in this case will be sound policy, and allow the people to retain some modicum of free will. There i 3 outside competition that does not stick at 8 hours labor, 6r ten, or twelve either. Verb sap.

I read the following curious advertisement in a Greymouth paper : “ Misses Becker, Dressmakers, Puketahi-slreet. Having returned from Dunediu we beg lo announce to the ladies of Greymouth and district that wo kavo again resumed business, and are now prepared to execute all o.’ders in tho .latest fashion. They sail again to-night, the former for Wellington and tha Jutler for Wanganui.” Evidently the overseer mixed things a bit. The. Wellington Oity Council has many failings. Like other municipal bodies it is hampered by prejudice and certain local considerations, but still no one may deny that it does contain, in some odd corner or another of the Council buildings, a strong and vital germ of progress. It has provided for the city one of, if not the best, water services in tho southern hemisphere; it has more than half solved the problem of the disposal of offensive refuse, and it has all but quite solved that o 5 sufficient light a” nights. And in doing so it is conferring tin inestimable boc-n upon tho inhabitants- Pure and plentiful water, clean highways and by-ways, and plenty of light in streets and slums are the concomitants of health, happiness and virtue. Vice of the kind that an effort is now being made to control cowers and hides its deformities when light is thrown upon it. And not only that but the fire-raiser and burglar will find half their occupation gone when the night is made comparatively light. For the prowler after any kind of evil business loves darkness rather than light; darkness is to him essential, and so to throw light everywhere is a truly beneficent project, and one that i 3 likely to be imitated in other large towns of tho Colony. Light, water, and cleanliness are the three principal of the many municipal desiderata.

There is yet another labor the City Council must enter upon and carry through, and that is architectual supervision of city buildings. This is a reversion on my part to the same subject, and it is one that must be kept in a prominent place in season and out of it. Wellington is, par excellence, a city (save the mark I) of shanties’ flung together anyhow to suit the needs of the proprietors. There is no regard displayed, in the majority of cases, to sanitation or decency. Tenements are stuck anywhere and run up anyhow, and, until quite recently, the cbinmonest drainage was scarcely considered. It comes quite within the jirovinca of a corporation to decide whether when a building js erected it is fit to be occupied by

human beings, and it is also quite within the province of a corporation to see that only houses fit for human habitation are erected. More legal authority than already exists is wanted, I believe, to enable corporations to move with advantage in the above directions, and now is the time while Parliament is sitting to obtain the authority.

The following delicious morceau first appeared in “The World.” It was meant as a reply, complimentary and grateful, to Mr C. Wyndham, the actor, who had sent a letter of condolence on the death of the German Emperor to th® Schlaraffia Borlina, an artistic club where he had received much kindness during his stay at Berlin. And as The World observes. “it should serve as a warning to those who trust too implicitly to the dictionary while dealing with our mother tongue.” It runs as follows: — „ ' To the celebrated honorary pilgrim Garrick wellbeloved and admired man your telegraphic message has passionately enflamed with electrical power ??* hearts for you, and if already we called with pride you our friend, now the feeling of pride meddles with that of hearty affection and fraternal love. Your Interest to tho decease of the senile heroic Emperor, the standard of the German nation, has touched us eo sympathetically that words are too poor to paint you oar thanks. From the inmost deeps of our heart, which reveres you, we call you a thundering huzzah over the ocean.

There have been a good many jeremiads uttered lately over the reductions in the Civil Service salaries, and I beg leave to raise my voice and howl as loud as the rest upon the reduction, not only of Civil Service salaries, but of salaries all round. The entire Colony may just go into mourning from this cause. The spending power has been woefully lessened. We’ve all suffered ; all of us have made a beginning with the sackcloth and ashes business. The wail is heard everywhere. Auckland, poor, poor laranaki, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin and Invercargill, all, all are suffering alike. Wellington, perhaps, worst of all, because there is more Civil Service there than elsewhere. But still the community throughout is sauced with the same sauce and, while I do sympathise with the Civil Service, I must also extend some to the. lots of other poor devils who have suffered in a similar way, myself included. Well, it’s a comfort to know that commodities generally are cheaper than they were. The take-off about ' amounts to. the stopping of grog all round. There is, however, and thank the powers for it, plenty to eat and drink yet. Plenty of sweet water and bread and flesh. Put the whole Colony on such a diet and in a decade we should be giants compared to what we are now.

What a jubilation there is Auckland way, to be sure, over this timber, syndicate with lots of Australian capital. Money is being accumulated and men massed ready for a wholesale, and apparently indiscriminate, onslaught upon the forests of the North, ansi no one seems wise enough to exclaim “ Alas for the forests !” And no legislation seems inclined to interfere in the interests of efforesting. Nay, on the contrary, legislature is delivering forests bound hand and foot over to the destroyer. A ruthless indiscriminating economy has abolished (or next to it) the Forestry Department which was one of the few good things established by Julius Vogel. That is about knocked oa the head now. Strange that warning will not be taken by the experiences of other (countries which have reaped such woe from neglect of forestry. Surely the Government can do something towards keeping the land decently clothed. It Slight be made compulsory to leave shelter belts standing when land is being cleared, or to plant shelter belts after clearing, it a fragment of the n&tivs bush could not be conserved. The salubrity of the New Zealand climate is largely due to the bounteous vegetation of the land. It approaches to a terrestrial paradise now, but will come mighty near to a-terrestrial t’other thing •soon if we don’t look out.

Doctor Salmond’s theologicalbrochureentitlsd “ The “Reign of Grace ” has created a deep sensation and not, I may add, an unpleasant one except among the very rigid. I commend the pamphlet to all and sundry as well thought ont and well written. And yet fifteen years ago the Doctor po3ed as the champion of the severest orthodoxy. How well I remember the mauling he gave Coughtrey, who was put forward to champion the theory of evolution, to which a lot of ns heartily mi> s iribcd. F»r J r. Safmond is perhaps the ablest debater in New Zealand. He has expanded with the march of events. His pamphlet can be bought at any bookseller's, almost, for the modest sum of one shilling.

And the Doan is an accompl.'she«J fact after all! Subscribed four times over ! We wanted two millions and more than eight were offered. And the sacrifice is no t at all alarming. Nearly £9B is a fair figure to obtain for such a well-abused country as this New Zealand of ours. All and sundry “gird” at us. Even New South Wales, which will ere long .be a worse financial position than ourselves, is playing the part of censor and moralist through its organ the prim and precise M orning Herajd. Thank ye N.S.W., much obliged, I’m sure, but we can get along without your advice. We ate quite alive to the position and are fasi:ig it of our own accord. As for the Loan, well, O New Zealanders ! as thi Mother Country lias given such a decided expressionof confidence in onr favor perhaps you will pluck up spirit and have a little confidence in the country yourselves. ’Tisn’t stinking fish, or anything like it, but a. regular Cornucopia just flowing with good things if we only bring proper forces into play ’ ASMODEUS.