Passing Notes.

Otago Witness, Issue 1159, 14 February 1874, Page 15

Passing Notes.

What a curious revelation it would be if the average method of spending Sunday were publicly stated. How many evasions and dodgws would be brought to light. How many newspapers or novels in secret drawers, how many sleeps, how many gossips, among the strictest of the strict. Do you suppose, Sir, that when you give your little boy a periodical suitable for Sunday, he only reads the good bits and leaves the stories for the weekday ? That when he retires from your presence, he sets to work to discuss the bearings of the fifth command or the meaning of the tenth ! Do you imagine that when Biddy links her arm for that delicious hour wMi Charles, they are occupied in comparing hymns or quoting prophecies 1 Does the sternest of the devotees of Sabbatism ever really succeed in imitating the Jews. I heard a good story of a person in the Province engaged to be married, who, after holding his tonguefor sometime, at last made a remark upon the object of his affeotions, whioh he prefaced by saying that " matrimony was so important a subject that he thought he was justified in speaking of it on the Sabbath." Now, I want to know what he had been thinking of. I should just like to take the roof off a few Sabbatarian householders' dwellings, and report progress. I am inclined to think the average result would not show a much higher average of observance than in those houses where lesa was professed. It doesn't follow, you know, that because the denizens stay at home, and are somewhat silent, they are doing better than if they were on the Btreeta or fields.

lam a Belcherite, Po you knowjwhafc

that is? No. Well then a follower of the Mayor of Geelong, who has been aßked to stand fov that district. The us-.ial process I understand before an election is that the candidate goes round finding out what the most influential men think about questions, and then professes himself the man who thinks just that. Sometime things go wrong, and it turns out that he has made a mess of it, and got the wrong man's ideas. Another and better plan, is to look up and down for a constituency who think what you think, and thciii oiler to represent them. Mr Belcher's plan is a third and the best. He has views, and if the electors like them he will represent them, if not they may lump it, because these are his views. I take it, his ideas are by no means unlikely to become better known and loved. Imprimis : Free trade, and, as a necessary consequence, no Permissive Bill for him. Then, religious education in schools, reform of the Upper House, and a big immigration. Now, I call that a programme which embraces the most interesting subjects of the clay, and I like his pluck in starting upon such a platform. I could wish there were more candidates like him. In time to come we shall hear more of Belcherism ; it is at least as good a cry as Peeliteism, Vogelism, or Gladstoneism. I should say the Geelong people had better elect him double quick, and render their sleepy town notable. One of the misfortunes of general literature is a certain sameness in illustration, a certain repetition of historical parallel.' Who is not tired of the " Parisian Sunday," the "infidelity of poor France." That unfortunate country has suffered agonies from the want of fertility of scribblers ever since the last war, which almost rival the actual woes of the "Commune." Why should writers always use up the same "horrid example ?" The big gooseberry and Herculean cabbage have been almost laughed out of print, but the Avoes of France and the prowess of Germany exhibit a vitality of reappearance which is even more tedious. It would be a relief to go back to the causes of the Indian mutiny or Crimean war, since it is not to be hoped that anything older than a quarter of a century will be remembered well enough for use. Let us have a line about the want of humanity of the Ashantees owing to Brummagem missions, or showing how the prostration of Englishmen before the Host at Malta led to the wreck of the Surat. I remember how a celebrated divine assigned the " Mutiny " to the want of denominational education in India ; and Spain's throes of anguish are, we all know, caused by the superstitions of her belief. Let us get the lot done, and then forget them j these profound meditations upon cause and consequence have a Malaproprian ring about about them, and little more reason than the Chinaman who burned his house to roast his pork. Curious thing to notice how golf-play-ing increases. I remember very well when it was held to be a good game enough for unenlightened Scotchmen, who had never seen cricket or football, but quite unworthy the notice of those blessed Britons trained on the playing fields of Eton or in a Rugby scrimmago. Now, all these things are altered, and throughout England, but in the West, it seems more especially golf has become a positive mania — something more than a mere pastime. Witness the following — A gol f match between the Army and Navy came off on Monday, at Westward Ho. General Sir Hope Grant, G C.8. , and General Maclean, representing the Army ; and Captains Molesworfch and Eaton the Navy. The Generals collectively had 135 years' experience, while the Navy could only muster 82 years between them. The Navy drew firßt blood at No. 1 hole, but the Army displayed much vigour in driving and Buch precision on the "putting greens," that the Navy were defeated in four encounters — three matches and a bye. The first by seven holes ; second by one ; third by two holes. The play commenced at 11, and with the exception of a short interval for a hasty lunch, contimied till it was too dark to see. Fifty two holes were played, the Army being eleven holes to the good on the day's play. Captain Eaton, of .the Royal Liverpool Club, had this disadvantage of playing with borrowed clubs, his own not having arrived in time. The Navy claim a return, which would probably be played yesterday (Friday). Both Generals walked to and from the ground, and were apparently as fresh at the end of the day's encounter a? at the beginning. Lieut, - General Sir Edward Green, X.C.8., acted as amateur umpire, and was proud of the prowess of his brethren in arraa, Well done, old boys ? May these musoular old boys live another hundred years, I have a fact for the Good Templars :—: — "Hard Smoking, — Amongst the deaths recorded in the Statistical Report of the Health of the Navy for 1871, is the case of a man who was in the habit of smoking forty cigars a day," And why present the fact to tho Templars ?~.N.0t that they may

1 use it ; but that they may get frightened. My experience goes to prove thtit they smoke hard indeed -that the less they drink, the more they smoke. A few facts about horses, which came out before Lord Koseberry's Royal Commission of Enquiry, the other day, will interest everyone :—: — (1) Omnibus horses in. London cost £34, and last five years. (2) A man who buys and sells a hor>e ia liable to be male to psy a duty of £12 \os in England — i.i Ireland, nothing. (3) Government interference and Government studs are said to lie a curse to the country that owns them by most experts. (•i) Racing under present rules has tended to injure the breed of roadsters and weightcarrying hunters. (5) Draught colts are now fetching £30 for a yearling, £45 for a two-year-old. A good roadster from Norfolk or Yorkshire will sell for £250 at four years old. (6) In the [late] Government breeding establishments in India, it -\vas calculated that it cost £219 for each horse furnished to the State. (7) A pair of first-class carriage horses in London co t £400. (8) In the last twenty years the price of horses at home has increased from 70 to 100 per cent. N.B. Albeit railways were said to be "the thin end of the Avedge." (9) It has been calculated that maize is 3s or 4s per quarter cheaper than oata for feeding purposes. (10) Donkeys are now being used at many of the collieries instead of horses, and are likely to be used still more. (11) Cleveland bays used to be popular for carriage horses, but are so no longer, and the breed has almost died out. One great fact for Otago I note here. List, oh list ! If you want to breed a good horse, you must give him. something to eat. When Major Smith in Victoria, and Mr Bradshaw here, interfered to protect women from overwork, they did not throw their aegis over bank clerks, I ween. How those young men have got to work. When fond fathers send their sons into banks, they imagine that they are getting them into an easy sort of condition of life, where their main business is to look genteel and be civil. Verdant parents, evergreen youths. For a wage i something less than a roadman, and about ; half a good harvest hand, they have to ■ work hours which are unknown in Dorset- ! shire. 'Tis a downright shame and disi grace to our civilisation to put this sort of moral pressure upon bank clerks which i they have to endure in Dunedin. From nine . till nine, ten, eleven, and at balance, three or four next morning, these slaves are i compelled by hard task masters to make many bricks. Thank God, I have no bank . shares, the profits would choke me. To i think that these institutions, without ; being able to plead the excuse of a > struggle for existence, out of pure greed ; and lust of money, should make the clerks work harder than Tom Hood's needlewoman, makes me sick. I do not . blame the managers, they are but. parts [ of the system. I appeal to the share- ; holders to put a stop to the present state of things. I make full allowance for balance time, and a lintle allowance, not > much, for mail d;iys, and after that I say r it is a moral crime, an ulcer spreading disease through the whole community to i exact such toil through covetousness. ; Every one pet cent, you shareholders; i get is the price of a young man's health , and morals, and too often honesty. The enquiry is over ; stern justice has been done. The proper effect has, we I may hope, been produced at home by the well-timed severity of our Magistrates ; 1 and Johnson— a ruined man, is in gaol. \ Isn't this the time to show a little of the ! divine quality. Not the king's crown, not the deputed sword, i The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's l robe, Become them with one-half so good a. grace, As mercy does. ; I have been all for sternness, my sympathies are always with the unfortunate victim, not with the gavrotters that choke him, and whose backs do most justly , suffer therefor. But even to stern- • ness there is a bound, and in the Surat i case, if the sentence be carried out to i the full it will seem very like persecution. ! Aren't we all in a fright for fear emigrai tion should be stayed because of the ■ terror of wrecking ? And is it justice to 1 ruin the first victim because the policy of 1 the country seems to demand it ? : Tia godlike to have power, but not to kill. If the public mind, now the matter ia blown over, roes not relent a little and demand a quasi pardon, it will be truly said that there is no more mercy in it than milk in a male tiger. For my part, I think the legitimate ends of justice are now compassed. Let the man off his imprisonment and give him back his certificate at the end of two years. He will find it Jiard enough anyhow to got a chip*-