ROUND THE CORNERS.

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 8968, 19 April 1890, Page 7

ROUND THE CORNERS.

(From the New Zealand Mail , April 11.) A NEW BOOK. Papers recently to hand from the Old Country tell of a new book entitled ‘Leaves from My Life,’by Montague Williams, Q.C. It is the reminiscences of a criminal lawyer and is very readable and interesting. Among its numerous incidents is one in connection with the loss of the lawyer’s dog. Some of his clients had stolen it and he eventually recovered it by paying £2O. It was a valuable collie. To use his words. I ventured to remark to ray two a quaintances that they must He doing a thriving builnes-, i. 20 being a large sum to receive for the restoration of one deg. The answer X received was that it was only two quid ’ a piece as there aio ten of us in it, and its share and share alike. X then somewhat modestly remarked that knowing who I was I thought it rather too bad to iny cog- * Ab, that a tli6 bsst of it, suisl occ of them. ‘ Lord, sir, you should have seen hew my pall Bill here did laugh.’ ‘ a in’t it rather hard, says I. ‘to take the counsellor's dawg. ‘ Not a bit, Jim. says he, ‘ ho’s had a good deal out of us, and why shouldn’t we get a little out of him ?’ OF VITAL IMPORTANCE. Everybody should be in sympathy with Mr Bull in his efforts to invent an effective hempdressing machine. What he has already accomplished is a long step in advance of the appliances of the past. It does twice the work in the first place, and in the second does it a deal better. And this even may be bettered when the machine is improved upon in one or two particulars already decided upon. Late news about New Zealand hemp from abroad is unmistakable on one point. There will always he a market for good sorts. A fibre as near perfection as is practicable will never be neglected. There will always be uses for it. But producers mustn’t expect to be everlastingly handling top prhes. It will he a case of up and down and the aim to he kept in view is maximum quality at minimum cost. Once that problem is solved hemp millers will be masters of the position. They will have their good years and their bad years, but a good paying average will be theirs. By that time the production of hemp for market will have become one of the Colony’s settled industries. The greatest care will be bestowed upon the cultivation of the hemp plant. Only the best varieties will receive attention, and hence the fibre will be proportionately good. In fact as good as that produced by Maori hand scraping will be the common article of export and will always be in request in the older countries of the world. By and bye the hemp trade of New Zealand will rank next to wool and frozen meat. Dressing the fibre then will, however, be among the exact arts. WELL DESERVED. In her article last week 1 Elise ’ paid an exceedingly graceful tribute to the excellence of the wares of the Wellington Woollen Manufacturing Company. And not only graceful but practical. She had submitted a piece of tweed to extreme test, and it responded splendidly ; stood up, like a piece of genuine tweed should, for the honour and glory of the institution it came out of. I was delighted to read it, and still more pleased to be assured by ‘ Elise,’ verbally, that the fabric in question was of exceptionally fine quality. And this is the reward people find who patronise native industry. The thoroughly local character of the Pitnne Mill from foundation to ridge should compel support. But there, ‘ Blessed is he who expecteth nothing’ in that direction. Patriotism and considerations of the kind are dead lette.s when selfish prejudice bars the way. What is to be expected of the people when they deliberately give their own flesh and blood the gobye to deal with Chinamen I A GOOD POINT. Archdeac m Hare hit the right nail square on the head when he drew hia between wise men and good men. *lt sometimes takes ten wise men to undo the work of one good man.’ Aye, does it, for there are lots of men in this world who, amiable to a degree and dove-like, really desirous of benefiting their fellow creatures, lack the complement, •without which such a character becomes mischievous. They have not the wisdom of the serpent, or even a little bit of it. Most profound is their amiable, well-meaning hesottedness. See and hear outside their own particular circle they cannot, nor will not. Blind are they, and leaders of the blind yet full of kindly instincts that prompt them to meddle and make, and it was of such that Johnson composed his famous epigram, ‘ The way to hell is paved with good intentions.’ And but for the spoiling of the epigram ho might have added a few words as to the composition of such good ncentiona. They are mostly made up of sentiment;, the product of badly balanced nerves. There are a set of people given to gnsh over the woes of their fellow creatures, but who, ns a rule, never, by any chance, devise a practical remedy for such woes. But they are quick to distinguish practical oppression, as they term it, and are extremely jealous of the liberty of the subject when interference with that liberty outrages sentiment. AN EFFECT. The sentiment I speak of is sensibility, the outcome of emotion and soft-heartedncss, and when it is well flavoured with evangelism it becomes the perfect article of its kind, and nothing can control its action. The serpent, with its wisdom, has to wriggle out of the way, and objects in question are viewed through a distorting and magnifying haze, and aio P u^" sued with blind and clumsy haste. Such, it seems tome, is the character of the opposition to the apnlication of the only necessary act that does, when it gets the chance, control certain contagious diseases. The objections offered to it are entirely the outcome of maukJsh sensibility. Not the general welfare of the public is considered, but an almost purely emotional conception of a state of mind in subjects that does not exist. Three-fourths of the emotion so excited is absolutely wasted. Quite three-fourths of the subjects whom it is intended to benefit are thankless, havn’t a grain of gratitude to give in return. THE SERPENT. The fact is, these enthusiasts take a mistaken view of human nature. They will not recognise it exactly as it is, but insist upon a general investiture of attributes that are not common to humanity by any means. One man is not as good as another by a long way, neither is he ns intellectual and moral and pure-minded. The great, very great, majority of men, and not a few women, are really governed by their appetites, and until, by the purification of man's nature, his advance along evolutionary lines, he throws from him a lot of his grossness, there will be necessity to control him and also to save him from himself. Some men and some women will not see, they are as purblind as moles. A half-century ago society had commenced to struggle to emancipate itself from the prevailing grossness of the way of life. Sins and indiscretions that are now getting out of the common, thank God, were then the rule almost, or, at any rate, were regarded as venial. Libidinousness, drunkenness and gluttony were not regarded as so dreadful. They certainly were not so prevalent as fifty years further back still, but they did prevail and were subjected to still greater modifications, with, in the case of the two latter, proaour.ced good effect.

AND TO CONTINUE. But the advance all along the line has not been so decisive as to warrant an assumption of the development of almost ultimate selfcontrol in humanity. The species, high as it is in the scale of creation, is still eminently weak and imperfect. The ‘ old Adam ’ as it is funnily termed, is still there, and will continue to make itself felt until mankind, the men and women of our species, have attained a very much higher position in the scale of creation. They must, whenever it is practicable, be saved from themselves, and if an Act of Parliament will help to that end it must not be withheld, let the extreme sentimentalist 8 rave as they like. Not that Acts of Parliament make men good, hut they control evil, and it is only that control which the advocates of the C.D. Act ask for. Again, amiable, good men so often make the mistake of judging others by themselves. They may be so physically constituted as to be able, without effort almost, to control their desires. And they don’t seem able to understand that other people may be built upon entirely different lines of construction. One man or woman looks at the pretty and costly things in a jeweller’s shop window, admires them, and passes on without envy. In another cupidity is fiercely excited and the lust of the eye is to possess such pretty things. And so with other desires that goody-goodies don’t seem to recognise. But they are there for all that, and man has got to be preserved from their worst effects. By-and-bye when the fifth race of mankind swarm on this planet—there are a few of the advanced guard among us now —there will be no necessity for C.D. Acts. The human constitution will have undergone radical change. ‘La Grippe’ has got the city schools! Work done under difficulties, therefore the schools are closed. Should rather think so. Specimen of some of the difficulties Teacher : “Jones, which is the adverb in the sentence—(elevates her nose, thinking she’s got a sneeze, but it’s a false alarm)—‘John reads—er—er—er—erchew ! —(got it that time) carefully.’” Jones : “ Care—care—care—(makes a grab for bit of baby’s petticoat thoughtful mother has supplied him with for handkerchief) —care —er _ er _ er chew !—carefully.” This kind of thing multiplied indefinitely among unlimited youngsters certainly does make work difficult, and justifies the action of the committees. Asuodeur.