PASSING NOTES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10423, 27 July 1895, Page 2

PASSING NOTES.

(From the Otago Witness).

Mb Gladstone's solf-communings over the widespread ruin of his party are perhaps not altogether ql the gloomy sort. Utter wreck, total loss, colkpse irreparable; —"bnt, observe," remarks the Anoient Skipper, "I was no longer in command. This is the pass to which they brought things when left to gang their am gait,—my guiding hand withdrawn." Tho Grand Old Man is entitled to these reflections; much comfort may they afford him I la British politics the magic o£ Mr Gladstone's personality ..will conjure no more. Released from the-Glad-stone spell, the British people seem' to have taken courage to find oat their own real j mind; whereupon, this sharp lesson to faddists, crotchetmongers, dabblers in Socialism, and all the restless crew, of innovators for innovation's sake. Some moat respectaWe fetiches have been smashed irretrievably,— Home Rule, for one; abolition of the House of Lords, for another; Liberalism, as theo'no and only patriotic gospel, for a third; Every sans politician understands that.thedistinc"tionbetween Liberal and Conservative is a lasting.one, and that both are necessary to the healthy life of a State.. The Conservatives are dow going to have their innings; bnt the turn of the Liberals will come again,—nothing surer. The/special sharpness of the present reaction is to: be explained by:the prevalence during late years of a certain kind of cant—the cant that Liberalism is synonymous with patriotism and progress, Conservatism with selfishness and sticking.in tbe mud. Of this cant the British electorates have grown weary; may tho day not be distant when we shall weary of it in New Zealand 1 V- ■ i V

"A Settler" sends me a strangely querulous circular issued bythe Government Advances to Settlers OiSce, Wellington. The applicant for an advance is admonished, raproached, shown up beforehand as wrongheaded and unreasonable. There' are ;three paragraphs, and ; the/ opening words <?f the three are, respectively, these: "No. appiicant for an advance should; expect. ■1. '.' ;,/."; "It is also unreasonable'for the applicariito expect.. ■■'•".•".".' ."• "Then; too, "there.is

misapprehension respecting...... ',;..'' This is a curious;tone. We may, infer from it, I suppose, that-the Advances to. Settlers scheme has raised hopes that it cannot fulfil; that promise has out-run performance ■;] that the representations by which the Act. i was commended to the" country ara not easy to-feeoncilewiththeifacts.of itsi: Administration,' All of which was plain enough hef orehand to those who bad eyes to see, My, cprrespondenlj wasfan applicant, but.did,,';not, got any money.;. What be did get was;an,/investigation into his"'financial.position and . general character," together with-a;■circular •warnrng him against the unreasonableness of expecting tp know the result of - this investigation; except in the form of a naked' refusal to grant him an advance. •• I-didn't ask to know," ha says; " tha board's circular is purely gratuitous.". Such are the pleasures of waiting upon Providence when Providence takes the form of socialistic legislation, .The applicant who is refused may digest.as best he can aa implied aspersion on his personal . character. • Eeferring to : another point, ■ my correspondent says, "It seems to me"th>t the largest share of the money has been, lent to release, mortgages—possibly heldi. by the Bank of New Zaaland. As theseitlersin iay district are Crown tanantsitbey stand a very poor show, there baing no Government; bolstered institution to relieve." ~ln other : wordß, there are wheels within -wheels; Mir Ward's million and: a-half of 3 per cents, are a supplement, silent, secret, and surrep- ■ titioue, to the tvfo-millicn '■. guarantee.'» This ■is an interesting- suggestion. ■'■■"■•'■ -■ ;t • I

The Tablet aiinomices an interesting' disjcovery. " Oivis" :of the Otago Witness.is "oneand the same person " with ,",yprick," a Dnnedin contributor to the Australasian. I trust that" Yorick," whoever he may be, will accept this identification as a compliment. I shall feel aggrieved if be; doasn't. At. the game time I; may be ■ permittedJ-tb obiserve that we don't' seem to have" gbtVrauch .'." forrarder." " Civis ",-is' ''Yorick^ i3; ; he 1 This is to .explain obscurumjper-ohscuriusi The question at once starts itßeif,-^Auy d who ! is'."Yorick "| Half-confidences are, ; tantalising. -Not that.l complain': on ;.my own account. I have been discovered, at one -time, or other, to be so many different people that a clear sense of my: own identity is beginning to be lost to mo; WhenV there? fore, an organ •of infallible authority ascer : tains me to be " Yorick":l;-arid this not'so much by discovery as by "revelation:";(the word is the Tablet's own)—l ani: disposed to ba'gratefuljcather.''than other wise.-/ The news is a surprise, but it is also .a Jelief.:^ ;TV[hen; however, I find,the. Tablet editor^proceeding tosupplement revelation by argument, I know at once that he is going to give himself away! Hfs argument is precisely Fluelleri'a argument for the parallel between Alexander of Macedon and.. Harry of Monmouth: "ThenJ is^a river in Macedon, and there is moreover also a river at Monmouth; and there is salmons in both." There is an estimate of the late Bishop Moran-in " Civis ";-there ;is a ■similar, estimate in" Yorick," and there is the word "momentum" in both. itllt is then quite evident," concludes tha Tablet^, "that both were written by one. and the same Hand." Happy simplicity I.';. Of "the things'that are "quite evident'1 ..to .the Tablet how many there be that to the rest of us are hopelessly hidden 1 Let me give ..my ecclesiastical friend a. little lesson .in

.; logic. When attempting an argument he i should draw it out—mentally, rat least—-in

syllogistic form. Thus, to take an example

quite irrelevant, of courßo, but nevertheless one that will serve: i;" " ;■ i :No respectable journal pries into the author^ ship of articles in its cqntemporar,ies. . ; . ~. : The Tablet does so pry. •• •,..-.,;".■•...;"; Therefore the Tablet is not a ionrnal. . ; ' .... .. .•"'; •. -.

This ig not an argument of thW "river in Macedon and river in Monmouth "itind, but one upon which the more the Tablet tries its teeth thß more it will find out it bitea a .file.

It is not to fee thought surprising that my estimate of Bishop Moran—which was. a Idndly.andgeneroua estimate, gainsay.it who may—-has been echoed by other writers^in other newspapers. "Civis" is not an

indhidnal; he is the impersonal voice ,oi

public opinion. What " Oivis" thinks, a -very large number of other people think; of that you may take your 'davy. 1 recommend the Tables to grasp this fact and be saved henceforth from useless and indecent.specn- . lations as to the significance of undesigned coincidences between this column and columns elsewhere. There is also another , point. "Civis" was not the author of; a certain expression, too. disgusting to-be transcribed heie, which the Tablet from time to time has attributed to him, -and revives again this week. The author of that; expression is the Tablet itself,. Npthing disrespectful of the late bishop haa been written

in thisjcolumn—nothing but fair criticism during his life, ana frankly-spoken homage since his death. The editor of the Tablet, unconsciously perhaps, has twisted, and wrested words of mine into an expression of gross disrespeot, to which he returns ever and anon like—but I suppress the comparison; it \ will suggest itself. Ha. has .now brought himself to. believe fihat he found this expression originally in Passing Notes. George IV, it may ba remembered, brought himself to beliove that he led a charge at; Waterloo. This "classic" and "historic" expression, as I find it characterised this week, is too bad to be printed here, but there seems no hesitation about printing it ia tho Tablet. .I suppose.there is a reason. Prejudices have to be kept alive, animosities sharpened. But it is an ill bird that iyles ifcs own nest.

Deae Givis,—A word- with you about the advantages you .possess in .the. way of leading the public on to the right path and your failure therein. .■■*..

Your notes ia the Times and Witness are read by agreafc number of readers scattered over New Zealand. If, instead of mocking and jibiug at every effort that is mado to reclaim soals .from perdition and to help people to livo better lives, you were to use your taleuta iv support of these endeavours, what good might result! And don't you think you wonld feel a batter man iv the end than you muss at pre&'eut ? Your condition of mind must be truly deplorable. For the last six months I have s*id vaany prayora that you may he delivered fvoin this affliefcioa— bat all to uo purpose. ar<d I now addresi these few line?] to jon, hopiug 50U may deliberate on fchpm 3cd come thereby to a better stats of mind.—l am. & c ., Bible Cpbistian; Hawea Hat.

It would be wioug to Eupprcss this ingenuon3 remonßtiance. If the nataro of my sin had besn more defiaif.fjly expressed, repsnt.s.^ s y/ere easier; as it is, the sinnor is *e't lP iea-mc an indictment againut liimselt ; and Skat, I eubmit, not even the wor^t of

criminals can jw?tly bo oxpscfcetl to do. Ifcia my uttitndo aaenfc prohibition, I suspect, that has inapirod this Eibla Ohrißtian's isnsuccsoßful prayers. •■ It .cannot be my criticism on the Government, Mr .Ward's 3 per cants., spiritism, and theosophy. No Blbla Christian would credit these things with any tcndenoy to reclaim souls from perdition. No; it must be my anti'prohibltionisb 'sentiments'that hare earned me, this jeremiad. Well, it is precisely because I am a Bible Christian that I am an ami prohibitionist. Mr A. J. Balfoar, big man in English politics, writer of a big book in defence mainly of Bible Christianity, on\this point says ditto to '■' Civis." Temper-' anco due to coercion, says Mr Balfour.'is not a virtue. The only temperance ■worth having is tha Blbla Christian temperance of"selfcon troY; to arrive at that you must combine .fraedom with moral and religions, education. 'It my. correspondent' will humble himself to ponder these things, and consult his Bible in preference to the publications, of tbe Prohibition League, he may perhaps be able to ( give me his prayers -again, and thank Heaven that I am not so utter a castaway as he had thoughtlessly supposed. :

■The .extent to:, which women, or some women, are losing the' graces ; hitherto thonght distinctive of their sex is; well seen ib. a discusaion'en legs which, has been lending interest to' the columns of an Eoglish society newspaper for some months past. It is six months ago, at least, since I; first 'mejitioned the discussion on lsgs in Passing Notes, and it isigoirig on still.: .The name of the -paper that invented, and is 'perpetuating, this discussion Ss Modern Society,- a snobbish publication, affecting, contempt for all titled persons* from the Queen-downwards, yet incessantly occupied about their doings: 'and misdoings,—evidently a'fayourite purveyor -of gossip for "smart "people of the middle claW The disensdpn on legs is a di3crißsionabout the shape and'flimenßionß, of women's legs, and the parties to" it—strange though the fact may"appear—are-the owners of those legs; 'Hereis a specimen extract :-r-'-.;': ( ''." v •

NoticiDginyour interesting little paper the remErks re'liierfeotly-Ehaped legs/1' should "liks it also to be known that" still ■anotiierEoglish^ woman—myself, I mean—is the proud possessor of such,' mine measuring esaotly 14^iri round'.the-calf, ;aud S^inTouudtheaihkle.'; I always didflatter imyself that I had a'nke liegi but now I am fully convinoed-^-well, you do not kjpoWhow proud I feel, and I am sfriaid Ishall get quite- conceited. -1 was-'-thin'kiDgjwhethet to have my photo takeu in rational costume' or hot,:butnow this settles it. -I amofi post haste to the'photographer's 'to ccc if I can damage his-machine) arid await resalt3;:! ' •'■;"

" Another. contributor', accoses. Miss 'Grace Matson of. seeming to imagine that her legs—:that is; MiBB ; G-race Matson's legs^afe almost nnequaHedin whereas there axe other women'whose lega.are quite as good as Miss ■Grace";Matson't!.-v:-;^ ■;:- }■-.;':" ■■ '■■■:■•':■.■■ ,-.■-.-. .^l;'do.n6t.iika!'Mis's v Ma^ no rjvale, for'l, myself hive an ankle 9in f and calf. 16in, which you will easily see can compare with any yet '.given, and there must, be many others, and I know one or two, who haye'legs of similar size. ,•■.There!.will be Jdoubtless.: some pt the.- sristooracy--ryea,, fdyalty-^who h&ye ■ nics leg'sif they could ,only be seen.'!- . ~;.•! ~,,; i

When: the celebrated murderer Wainwright was asked after his conviction for" what reason he had taken tha life of ari apparently unnecessary; victim:—a servant 'girl, I think--^----he replied "that)he'didn't'knbw; i;"unlssa. iii was that slie/h'aSltihick. legs.1; If the: attention ,of any such connoisseur in , legs should be attracted .to the; statistics .given above, the consequences,, I, fancy, might.ba awkvyard, Bs that.as itmayi one ; may .well ask to what.is the end-ot-the-century woman coming? -y.-/■■:■ .-:,., .;■:.; ,■ •;■.;. ;■■- Oivis,^ ;