The Literary Bohemian.

Otago Witness, Issue 987, 29 October 1870, Page 13

The Literary Bohemian.

Personally, I don't think I care two B'raws, certainly I don't care three, whether clergymen are allowed on the Council of the University of Otago, or the University of New Zealand, whichever it may turn out to be, or not. I would rather they were not, but I don't care very many straws if the whole Councii consisted of clergymen, provided — but stop, I'm getting on a little too fast. Let me put the matter in another form, as thus : The General Government, in dealing with the question as to ■whether the University shall be a provincial or a colonial Institution, very wisely, as I think came to the conclusion that it would be better, in order that there might be none of those heartburnings introduced, those religious feuds which do so much discredit to our common Christianity, and without which clergymen of various denominations do not appear to be able to get on at all, not to have any clergymen on the Council. Of course clergymen are wroth thereanent; that is to say, those connected with the two denominations represented are, and many respectable persons who think that to be on the Bide of the clergy is a kind of virtue, and, at all events, a sure sign of their respectability, are shocked at the idea. The clergy claim a right as citizens to enjoy equal privileges with other citizens, and aßk whether they have not done as much in the cause of education as any other class of the community. Their claim I admit fully and unreservedly, if they will be content to act as citizens only, and not introduce into educational matters that which is sure to become a matter of dissension, namely, theological differences. If thoy will. They may say that they will, but will they ? Did they ever 1 I trow not. They must. They cannot help it. It is part of their daily life. With regard to their question, I take grave leave to doubt it. In fact, I am inclined to think that, but that they have been bound down by Acts of Parliament which have rendered their interference impossible, and influence futile, they would have been, as they have been ere this, in the old country, clogs and bars to the spread of education. I could point out how and why, but think it needless, as will those who know anything about the fierce fight and stand they made for supreme power over the education of the nation when the question of national and denominational schools was being tried years ago. It may be said that lam illiberal. I s*y, on the contrary, lam not. lam extremely liberal, and in this, wise : Sup-

posing me to be a Church of England man, I would not hesitate to send my children to a school connected with the Church of Rome, where religious teneta were not t&ught. Would the Rsv. Mr Choker Albus do the same ? He would not ; and vice versa. Therefore let us either have no clergymen on the Council, or let all denominations be represented. If our University is to be under clerical rule, let it be so. If not, lam content. But no clerical rule by one or two denominations, to the exclusion of the rest. No ; what is sauce for the goose, &c. My respected friend the Superintendent, and my other respected friends the members of the Executive, have taken a little holiday. Far be it from me to find fault. I don't find fault, except that I think they ought to have taken me with them. I should have enjoyed the trip amazingly, and not have been much expense to the country. I think, nay, from what I hear, I'm sure, I should have enjoyed myself. I should have cried "hear, hear!" to everything Mr Macandrew said, when he buttered down the Invercargill people so nicely. Oh, doesn't he know how to layon the buttar ! so nicely and smoothly, and withal so thickly ; and then doesn't he rub it in ! As S. Weller says. " I never see sich a game." More particularly would 1 havf" cheered the suggestion that Invercargili oaght to have been named lnver- Macandrew. The name is so euphonious, and so classical too. So I see that my old crony of happier days, Louis Napoleon, has come to yrief at last. I always told him he would. He wanted too much. He always did want too much. When we used to lunch together in London, if we had a chop and a half -pint of porter, he waned cold pheasant and Marsala. If we had devilled kidneys and St. Juilien for supper, he wanted PaU defoie gras and Clicquot. A clever fellow was Louis. Deep, Sir, deep. And didn't he know how to govern ? If he'd only known how to govern himself. I tell you if he'd been here he'd have made a place of this. Councillor Barnes wouldn't have been uttering jeremiads over the ill-paved streets, Councillor Walter wouldn't have been lifting aloud his voice for public baths, Councillor Fish (for he was Councillor then) would not have been calling unto the uttermost ends of the city for gas, gas, gas ; Councillor Thoneman would not have been heaving up bitter sighs on account of bad drainage, travellers in the interior wouldn't have been using naughty language because of the roads ; and the entire colony, from end to end, would not have been groaning under a grievous tax for a war vfith a few miserable savages. I'll undertake to say that much for Louis. Poor Louis, like many another digger in the great goldfield of life, has had all sorts of luck, sometimes he's been right on the gutter, and then he's found a shicer. He struck the big patch at last though, and worked it well for a long time, but as the man in Victoria said the other day "Somebody else ha 3 jumped his claim." However I perceive that he has L 22,000,000 of money put by. Only fancy, L 22,000,000. That's a million a year since he was called to the Presidency. I hear that (when the King of Prussia allows him to leave) he is coming out here. Under the circumstances lam very glad to hear it. I shall be delighted to rene^ our acquaintance, to be presented to the charming Eugenic, and — to borrow a million or two.

The railway works are stopped, i believe. At least that portion of them under contract to Mr Packham. I understand the cause to be an attack of that fearful pest, the red-tape worm. Talk ab>-kut the ravages of the teredo, it isn't a circumstance to the redtape worm. And the worst of the red-tape worm is, that it attacks everything and everybody. Nothing nor nobody is Bafe. Its bite produces a kind of numbness, deadness, inability to move, in the human victim, and dense ponderosity and incapability of being done anything with, in inanimate matter which it attacks. And it is so insidious and stealthy. It's down on you before you can say knife. You think things are going on smoothly and swimmingly, and' so they may be, when all at once the machine stops, you look in vain for a breakage, or some of your gear out of order. No, it's the red-tape worm got into the machinery. You pull it out of one place, and, lo ! you find it in another, and, worse than all, multiplied by ten. Well, your machine works, it is true, but very slowly and unsatisfactorily. Sometimes it stops altogether. When I came out to this country and read of her noble institutions, I said to myself, " Now can I be happy, for I have come to a land where that pernicious caitiff, the red-tape worm, is unknown." I went to present my credentials to a high official, when a languid young swell, with his hair parted down the middle, immediately showed me a red-tape ■worm, telling me that it would be — ah — nethetbawy faw me to — ah — wite to the — ah — chief clauk of the — ah — depawtment, enclosing my — ah — lettaw. I

walked away dejectedly, a sadder and a wiser man. Tt h is reen a great comfort to me during the last twebe days that I have had a place to go to where I could combine pleasure with shelter from the unwonted heat of the weather. I have taken refuge from what Mr Micawber would have called "the fiery beams of Sol," in the Supreme Court, and have lia ened to the case Anderson and Others v. Burke aad Others. 1 must confess that beyond knowing that it refers to some not over clean transactions with reference to buy ing up grain, I don't xinderstand it at all. I don't want to understand it. The only thing I wanted to hear was that portion of the evidence where the principal parties concerned opened out on each other. Oh, it was grand, and disclosed here and there such choice bits of commercial — (no, you don't have me for libel, either of you) as it has rarely been my lot to fall across, even in California. The result of the case is in favour of the defendants, and I wish them joy of it. The nomina ion is over, and now comes the tug of war. I was there, and, as the entertainment was free, I took a front seat at the exhibitions given by two of the candidates on Monday and Tuesday nights. Monday was Mr Bathgate's night. He's the regenera or, he is. He's goirg to sweep away everything, and begin again on a plan of his own. He is general, rather discursive, and occasionally obscure. A good programme though, if it could be carried out, which, I take leave to doubt it could, even by the eallant Major of insolvent estates Mr Fish spoke on Tuesday night. I liked his speech better. It did not fly at such, high game. It was milder in its aspirations, dealt with the same subj 'cts, land law, immigration, local industries, education, &c. , &c. , &c, and pleaded youth and inexperience. Oh dear me. Youth and inexperience. I was surprised it did not plead innocence. Mr Birch I did not hear, because he did not speak. Perhaps, after his last attempt, it was as well he didn't. He didn't appear on the hustings either. H'm Mr Reeves re ired without beat of drum. Who will i;et in ? Who knows ? And suppose, after all, the one wh<> does will not be allowed to take his seat. I don't know ■whether there's any truth in the rumour, but a little ' ird does say, that, owing to some informality such, is the case. As Joe Gargery says, " Wot larks."