ROUND THE CORNERS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 914, 6 September 1889, Page 17

ROUND THE CORNERS.

Do not the following sentences terminate queerly. They are part of the s.s. Coptic’s telegraphed report : On August 10. Mrs Mary Kemae>dy, steerage passenger, was prematurely confeed of a female child, which only lived three days. On 24th August, whilst at anchor at Hobart, the mother expired from syncope. The body was sent on shore in charge of deceased’s husband, whose destination was S7ie brings 2140.t0ns of Qtvrge. and 75 passengers foc all partly I earnestly recommend extreme ta cultivate good manners. Even the. majesty of the people does not get along v/ell without them. The majesty may pushift a bustle ami fret around and browbeat, but then it doesn’t seem like majesty, but something with another name altogether. The majesty of the- , people will be wise if it keeps its place and avoids intruding where it is not wanted. Your ultraradical may deem that be has a right to go anywhere and everywhere, and would be tolerated—if not welcomed—because he is a radical. Hut then he may be mistaken and find himself taken by the shoulders and put outside. So with collective radicalism of advanced type. Xfc may bluster around, and stamp about* and assert itself, and push all and sundry under, and pitch decent behaviour to Old Nick, and lay the strong hand on everybody. But then a stronger hand is certain to. arise in retaliation. The rule is invariable*. Oppressive radicalism —and it always, i& oppressive at the outset of its victorious career—-never escapes the inevitable. 3|t is crushed in its turn by physical force, and with it goes reasonable liberty, which, in its insolence it despised,, and despotism again becomes dominant.

Poor mankind \ Poor liberty ! Poor creatures that play at radicalism and cut their fingers aufl do. a heap of harm. Oh, man, know* thyself. Oh, demagogue, curb thyself while there is time, or, of a verity, a day of bitter reckoning will find thee, for thou wilt surely have thy day, and generally it is a short one. Strange how Jack Cadism prevails yn these days of ethnological advancement. Strange that so-termed champions of freedom and the rights of man, urge tfieir claims with brutal coarseness in preference to, the more forcible civil persuasion. And 'yet it is notstrange, for from time immemorial internal weakness has ever striven td hide itself behind outward bluster. ‘ Inferiority's known by the subject, and the subject rebels by playing the bully. Fie, subject, cultivate the gentleman and thou shalt prevail with tenfold power.

The boom in sugar- i& not appreciated by colonial housewives. They want to know, you know, why they can’t get China sugar, and why what is available, don’t seem to sweetenso effectively as.it ought to. They are just ready to go, on strike about it, and wonder wby their old familiar and sweet No 2 is no better than No 3* and why they are deprived of 25 per cent, of sweetening power.' There is just ruction amongst them, and the sooner someone -brings: in a cargo to meet demands the sooner will peace be restored to many households. Pity we can’t grow sugar cane in New Zealand or enough, boob to supply sugar demands. But stay, why can’t we procure the very raw material and refine it ourselves properly ? That s s the thing that’s needed. Now, T. K. Mac., here’s another chance for you. Do, my dear fellow, start a Wellington sugar refinery, and the women will call thee blessed—that is, if you produce the right kind of article.

Transcendental latter-day civilisation ! Oh the horror of it, for it fias ft honible side, and

an outer one at that. Can’t be called a whited sepulchre, O dear, no, for the deformity and rottenness in all its hideous nakedness is for any one to look upon that likes. And, oh, the misery of it, the starvation, the moral and physical degradation, the brutalising, the tyranny, the callousness. A strong mass of living human corruption and despair, a sort of curse God and die desperation, because life is bereft, not only of every particle of joy, but is lacking the fuel to keep it going, save what is provided by air and water. Millions of wretches in the world, in the civilised world) not the savage, for the savage is better off, ravening for food, for a little portion of the good of life. Millions of them in the population centres shrieking and tearing frantically at their chains, and praying for relief. This is exactly the position. There is not even a spice of exaggeration in it. Ferocity begotten of want, chronic unrest, the offspring of envy and dissatisfaction, and hopeless despair. We have heard all about these things for many years, but what is now before us in the great upheaval of the masses in England was never paralleled before. Surely the time is at hand when permanent amelioration will be applied. Justice and mercy must prevail in the long run, and this is what socialism—or shall I use altruism as the better word ? —has set itself to bring about.

A Parliamentary hubbub was expected over the Shannon appointment, and that it was such a very little one occasioned some surprise. But I am more surprised that any exception, whatever, should have been taken at the salary. Why, Messieurs legislators, the work is dirt cheap at the money. I wouldn’t have undertaken the duties at treble the amount. What .a heritage of woe the man is heaping up for himself ! Think of the hatred he is exciting from low north to high south. Wherever there Is a commercial centre worth a cent, the name Shannon is anathematised. In certain circles Shannon is the best hated man in New Zealand. And he is going about quite cheerfully incurring this obloquy, and is absolutely getting fat on it. What the obloquy will amount to at the end of his three years’ engagement is quite horrifyirg to think of. And all for £BOO a year. Shannon, my boy, you are underpaid. Go out on strike like a man and show Parliament your mettle.

And Luna and Hinemoa Fairchild, too, has been brought under the Parliamentary harrow. Poor toad! Not that it troubles him a great deal; much too old a stager to be seriously affected by such a trifle. But I am not clear about the wisdom of the proceeding. I should think there was sound expediency in keeping the master of an uninsured vessel particularly sweet. ’Tis so easy and so perfectly safe, to those who have the knack of such things, to knock a hole in the bottom of a vessel by the merest misadventure. Not that Fairchild would dream of such a thing. As long as heruns he will run straight. lam merely arguing on first principles, and of Parliamentary wrong-headedness.,

"Very good letter, indeed, Mr James Kenworthy. You went about London with your eves open, and your forecast is reasonable and sagacious. The moral of your discourse is put tersely, ‘Don’t encourage monopolies, and sit on sweating.’ Capital, my boy, let us hope the advice will be taken. For monopolies are a curse and sweating is demoniacal. Yet there are people who urged by auri sacri fames enter upon both as if they were quite meritorious. So much may the moral consciousness be blunted by covetousness. The scramble for existence and the good things of this life is at the bottom of it all. And competition is becoming just awful, and the way to control it has yet to be learned. But we can’t go wrong in providing means of employment for our young folks, and hence protection can be made useful if judiciously applied. And everybody who is striving to economise and reduce expenses, be chary how you cast bread-winners adrift. Better -double their labour and keep them going than dispense with the father of & family and take on half a dozen boys to replace him.

2n the far New Zealand north, where £he population is very mixed and social gatherings I constitute thG chief staple of amusement, there [ occurred an assemblage in connection with a certain church which had for its pastor a bashful evangelical young man rather hard of hearing. He, however, plumed himself upon peculiar fitness in conducting merry meetings ■ of the kind, and in truth was a passably good ! master of ceremonies- There was music and singing, and much applause and mutual admiration, and one of fcfffl gems, of .the evening was to be a song in Maori by a young lady. And when she stepped to the front the M.C. approached her with ‘ What shall I say, Miss, you are going to sing?’ - And she replied sweetly, - ■* Buy a Broom in Maori.’ And the M-C. paused for a moment as if he had not heard aright, and : then loth to ask again for fear of ; being thought a bit deaf he decided to take the fatal plunge. And he did this wise j ■‘Ladies and gentlemen, Miss So-and-So will now sing a song by a. bloomin’ Maori.’ And then he \ nearly fell backward from the force of the explosion that followed. __ The audience went into agonies of laughter, and Miss So-and-So capped the position by insisting on the M.C. correcting his mistake before she would sing at all. He did so confusedly, and then ‘ Buy a Broom in Maori ’ was sung to the great content of all. Asmodeus.