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New Zealand Times, Volume XL, Issue 6844, 29 March 1883, Page 4

I remember that many years ago, long before this fair colony of New Zealand was overrun by the pakeha, and if tradition is true, long before the dusky Maori floated to these South Pacific shores in his canoe or upon his uprolled log from the other and more tropical isles. I remember, I say, that in those good old times when mankind wa more simple-minded, and when the anoma lous intricacies of modem civilisation had not reached their present absurd pitch, that it was customary, if a man performed any great act of daring, or any deed of supremo importance to his fellow beings, thereby showing great heroism of mind and body, to present him with a testimonial. This testimonial, however, was only an expression of feeling, an abstract idea, very often a posthumous one, but later on it began to take the more tangible form of goods and chattels of titles, and of coin of the realm. Now this was all very well as long as the recipients of the public bounty had distinguished themselves by acts of more than ordinary virtue, but I find now that this testimonial business is played out—that whenever a man leaves a situation which perhaps he has only filled for a short time, and filled it too perhaps with only ordinary success and diligence, that his co-laborateurs present him with a testimonial, thus entirely doing away with the use of the testimonial as an act of appreciation of special courage or extraordinary ability ; in fact, to such a pass has it come, that many men really deserving of a token of publicregardand esteem refuse to accept a testimonial, or do so only with very doubtful alacrity. But the people of Christchurch, or rather of a portion of that city, have now gone beyond all reason in the matter, and in making fools of themselves, have stultified the very name of an act that used to be one of grace and courtesy. The presbytery of Christchurch have decided that the congregation shall raise funds for a testimonial to the Eev. J. Fraser, a person who, if all accounts are true, should receive the cold shoulder of every right-thinking man and woman. His peers have judged him unfit to be an officer of the church, and yet the very people most offended against are virtually, in wishing him farewell, saying, “ although you are the veriest wolf in sheep’s clothing, yet we so appreciate your hypocrisy that we beg you to accept, &c. What d’ye think of that, my readers, as an exhibition of the testimonial business ? Reckon it licks by chalks anything that ever preceded it in the same line.—“ Asmodeus ” in the N.Z Mail. At Rheims, where 160 adhesions to the telephonic system have been recently received, a new latitude of action has been allowed by the Minister of Post and Telegraph. The subscribers will not only have the right of communicating with each other, but also with the telegraphic system proper. That is, "one may, with the telephone, dictate a telegram to a telegraph office, and the reply, having come in the usual printed form, will be at once transmitted telephonically. It is also being considered at present how Rheims may be put in telephonic communication with Paris, Rouen, and other cities. An exhibition of electricity is now in progress at Konigsberg; its duration is from the beginning of December to the middle of January, Like that at Munich, it is devoted mainly to technical applications of electricity.