PASSING NOTES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10631, 28 March 1896, Page 2

PASSING NOTES.

1 fancy tbe Hon. J. (J. Ward must have received a copy of Mr Braund's circular 'by mistake, or otherwise poor Mr Ward's' latest utterances are-ef a somewhat bilious character, and he assumes a defensive and almost defiant attitude towards his " detractors," whose name, according to him, would appear to be Isgion. Not content with darkly hinting at what he could and would do to his tormentors in the way of revenge for their spitefulness, our only Treasnrer in recent utterances in the neighbourhood of his own, his native! Southland heath, has been standing up for himself and bis leader Mr Seddon in a way that must be eminently disquieting to the "Conservatives" (whoever they may be), I. regret to notice, however, that Mr, Ward's trip Home does not appear to have improved his English. He is slangy in the extreme, and I imagine that his friends Salisbury and Chamberlain .wonld shadder to hear some of the speeches iately delivered by their whilom ■ friend in the Sunny South. For example, he assures the electors that Mr Seddon is a "real white man." Surely this .was equally cruel and unnecessary. I| never heard any doubt cast on tho Premier's line3ge before. ,-■ The Treasnrer west on enigmatically to say that " at no time did he j intend trying to put his (the Premier's) nose ; out of joint." At Winton, again, he told, the ] electors that he (Mr Ward) had never been a "deadhead," and also that certain Conservatives had to "snte up" to the extent of L 20.000. Ob, Mr Ward, this is scarcely dignified language for a statesman I Let: me j , recommend that dnring the recess you give your days and nights to the study of Addison.

The ; affairs of the Colonial Bank (in liquidation) are once more coming ■ into public view. ■ Mr Lirnach is to have his fee of £250 and Mr W. C. MacGregor his costs out of the. aose^s. I have ,had sienfc to rag a copy of a circular just issued by Mr V. M. Braund, of Wellington. Mr Braund, if will be remembered, was the unfortunate gentleman who Btood'for the office of liquidator of the Colonial Bank, but owing (as he says in his latest circular) to " an extraordinary and significant combination of oircumstances " waß prevented from being nominated at the meeting of shareholders. The circular itself is decidedly good reading even to an outsider. Mr Braund wisely begins by complimenting! Mr Justice Williams, whom ..he terms "a.very learned and cautious,judge." He rather destroys the force of that compliment, however, by going on to prove to his own entire satisfaction that MrVigers and Mr Kamsay should, logically, have been "evicted" as well as the unfortunate Mr Larnach. Mr Braund asks some very pertinent questions ;as to the. celebrated "C" list and otherwise, and is, evidently not jet satisfied with the position of the liquidation. He winds up by. suggesting that asi two of ■ the. liquidators still are the late directors'nominee?, it would be well that " an independent watch " should be kept upon tbe course of the liquidation. I fancy that Mr W. C. MacGregor and his clients ara already keeping " an independent watch" (and. not a stop-watch, either) on the proceedings in question. Howaver, Mr Braund'apparently wnnld' like tp have a "watch" of his own,' to be' paid for, of course, by the sympathetic recipients of his circular. .

What is truth? said jesting Pilate some 1900 years ago. The same question has for some years past been occupying tho atten- '. _ tipn of sundry citizens of Ghristchurch—so much so indeed that they have styled themselves "The Students.of Truth" and have formed themselves into a. separate church. : At the head of this body of earnesfseekers after truth was placed an eminent evangelist from-the United States—that land of. piety and' wooden nutmegs. / His name was Arthur Bentley Worthington. Alas, for frail human nature! The poor students : have at ■' last found ont the " truth " about their teacher, and the flock is left without a shepherd. I observe that the indignant ■ studen'tfi held a meeting the other day,'and solemnly'resolved (inter aKa)—"That' we know Worthington to ,be an accomplished 'liar, swindler, and deceiver, and entirely, unworthy of the trust and confidence of.any respectable,-person;" Here is truth indeed with a vengeance!/What a pity that, ill required "an observation of his;conduct in this.city daring a period of six years,'?, or. even (JiorribUe. dictu) "personal, '._ with, him," to find out the true character of this wolf in sheep's clothiag. '1 fear: that the poor: Stndents of Truth are; not.'.ciosß observers of human nature. I heard "the man Worthington" hold forth in., his ,/.'.'tabernacle one Sunday evening some three years 'ago, and came to the conclusion then that he was a common (or garden) quack, ofthe Yankee variety. However, it still seems to be the case that tbe people delight in ' being deceived. ■• • -

lali many, a- flower 1b ,born to blash ,im-»| seen,,and, this, of course, applies to the flowers -that bloom in tha spring of oratory.' Bnt : for a correspondent (who modestly desirea to remain in the congenial obscurity «f anonymity) I should never have had the honour of plucking the subjoined rosebud from the desert air of a temperance, convention report; having apparently failed to lead the when they appeared. Tha .speaker was Mr A; Saunder?, M.HJR.;. the Nestor of the 'House of Representatives, < and the sore and abiding hope of the prohibitionists in that straggle of theirs which is always impending. Mr Saundera loquitur at tha recent convention in Dunedin. "He stated that the first Eechabite tent was formed at Nelson in 1842, They formed two tents—a male and a female.';. He-was Chief Buler in the male tent, and Martha Strong head of the female tent.,' They were not infallible in those days any more than tbxy were at present, and they made a few mistakes. They had to do something with thesr money in order to meet their engagements, and they decided to let it?ont in £10 lots. Presently a goodlooking young maa- joined the society, and applied for a £10 loan. He took all the pledges, and from inquiries they made they came to the concluaioa that he was a quiet, decent.young man, and they lent him the lilO, but he,never came Vjack. In a^few weeks they ascertained. that with the LlO, ho bought the biggest copper he could find in Nelson and started a brewery, and. that man soon became the head of one of the greatest brewing concerns in New Zsaland, and supplied beer all over the colony." There is a flavour of chestnuts about this story that I regret to allude to, and a gutter less simplicity implied in both narrator and audience that is hard to realise. It is painfully evident that in Nelson in 1842 as in New Zealand generally in 1896 business talent was not a monopoly of the temperance folk. They probably rejoiced more over the sne stray sheep, they brought to the temjperance fold, than they mourned for the Eiinety and nine they did not catch.

Mr Sannders was evidently in the anecdotal .vein at' this symposium, 'and, we must make some allowances. But it is worth while asking whether that £10 investment was. not a more profitable one for the causa of philanthropy than if it had been expended upon the travelling and salarial expanaes ■of a teetotal lecturer, for instance. Brewers are notoriously liberal in their benefactidns to charitable objects. I suppose it is because they feel that they owe some reparation to society-for the harm they have indirectly inflicted on it. However that may be, brewers as a class ace rudat charitable people. We find the Bass family ennobled, and the Burton-on-Trerit hogsheads entwining themselves in armorial crests with the Brassey dobbina and railway rails and the elevation to the peerage has not come about by reason solely of the wealth of the recipients, bat because 06 some notable action or benefaction outside of their trade, I do not know' the Nelson young man who 'commenced brewing w'fch the slender capital'of £10, bit I dare allege—supposing Mr Saunders's story to be literally true—that that £10 has fructified more fruitfully to the holder and more beneficially to the cansa of, philanthropy, than if it .bad been devoted-— as such small loans usually are—to the payment of some pressing debt, with the certainty of similar exigencies arising in future with accelerated regularity. That £10 was probably the best investment the earliest Kelson Rechabite tent ever made.

I am afraid Thebsophy comes nnder the famous Scotch definition of philosophy, And I say thin after a careful perusal of the explanatory latter of Mr Manrais in last Saturday's Daily Times. The Theosopbical Society has a mission, it seems, and that mission is to popularise the works of the great Indian sages. These ate destined, sasa.Mt Manrais." to work a exeat and bene-

flcent change in the religions ideas of the Western world—lifting them to a higher platform and into a less material environment." Bat the way to a complete understanding of the works of the aforesaid sages is long and difficult. Having successfully overcome the First Logos, tha seoond ditto, and then the1 third, the last of which is the moat important, because it affords "asomething to which the purified mind.of the ascetic may aspire by means of meditation," we come to the dry details of the process by which this ifitimate acquaintance may be acquired. I am afraid the voice of Mr Maurais Bill, be that of one crying in the wilderness so long as the regimen is so strict. The neophyte must .first purify his.body by abstaining from alcohol, and then from meat, fowl, and fish, living on vegetable food with milk1 and its products. It maybe apprehended therefore that the prohibitionists ara much nearer to the Theosophist goal than ordinary people, and those of them that are vegetarians as well nearer still. Having brought his physi-cal-body under subjection, the.aspirant next proceeds to subdue his mental faculties, and ,U'he is very persevering and very healthy he may at last obtain knowledge at first band of. the life spiritual. But if ho does not care to ,go to all this trouble he.must accept the knowledge at second-hand from "Those" who know. "Alas/says Mr Maurais, "the bulk of our people have to take-it from those who know not." Which, I take it, verifies my surmise that Theosophy answers the Scotch definition of philosophy. " Whon a man is . talking about what he doesn't understand to a man who doesn't understand what he is talking about—that's feelosophy." •

) Sometimes! don't know whether the'Ameri--can correspondent should be taken literally or not. I confess I have, on different occasions, compared the summarised items per 'Msco mail with the full sews subsequently received per "our exchanges," and have not been always able to verify tbem. Therefore, tbe first impulse is to conclude that tliere is something-in the air under the Stars and Stripes that leads to exaggeration. Take, for instance, the letter appearing in last Saturday's Daily Times, and that part of it under the. heading "The Social World." Sarely it cannot be so bad as that picture represents, it.. Society has its own troubles everywhere, and its.faults stand out with a prominencein inverse proportion to the magnitude of the circle in which the society moves. That is to say, the smaller the community the.more closely are the doings b£ its leaders Bc'anned,.'and the greater tbe acrimony with which their little peccadilloes are censured. | But happily we can claim to be free .from, that unblushing vice .j.thafc, according to the correspondents, pervades the "Pour Hundred" of New York. Divorces among us are rare, though not so rare ax is desired by some advanced reformers whom I could- name, and we are not of tea the.: embarrassed witnesses of a casual meeting1' at some social function of a divorced man and wife; 'Of course we may become accustomed to such spectacles by-and-bye, when the social reformer has wrought5 his wicked'will with what are left of our institutions. To our public a divorce iTsase is still something of a novelty. Such I details, as , are published are. read with avidity that has known no satiety. And when the case is over the parties to it generally disappear—swallowed up in the yortex of . coo.ventionality. In New York— pace the correspondents—they blaze forth in renewed splendour. But with us'divorce is like murder ;.it has not yet been elevated to the dignity of a fineart. : Civis. "