Passing Notes.

Otago Witness, Issue 1240, 4 September 1875, Page 13

Passing Notes.

The gospel 'shop in Stuart street is running at a loss. This is a shame, and thoseon whom the shame- falls are the members of the wealthy Anglican community in the middle part of Dunedin. Most of these people^ are English, and most of the English people here are well off. At the other end of the town, they aje remarkably liberal, supporting their church well and giving handsomely whenever called upon St. Paula is a fashionable church ; it has a good organ and an admirable organist. It has a bishop. and not every church has a bishop. The bishop gives a tenth of his income to the church-~at ! least, I imagine so, from the fact of his asking others to do so. People go to St. from a distance to hear good musio and r good sermons. Yet tho church is running at a loss. Poorer congregationg, and notably the poorest, the Catholics, show a far more satisfactory state of finance. This is meanness.

Dr Bradford has yet to taate the bittersweets of matrimony. He married a Ward of Court, without asking the permissionoi the'Cottrt, and is now in New Zealand. ' The Supreme Court of Victoria called him nv. adventurer and a fortune-hunter. -' These are hard terms. and may be hastily applied. However, the, first step Judge Moleworth took waa to stop "all supplies, so that the Doctor is to .Use a legal term, "remitted to hia love. ' It js certainly an awkward : dilemma to be placed in— either to atay away and forego the aweets of fortune or \go back, with the certainty of incarcera« I ,tton. ■ I remember; a few years a»o " a •case ■on ■ all-fours with this." as lawyers have it, the only difference being that in that case the unfortunate husband did not know his lady-love was a ward of Court, and ju this case he knew it well. When the' culprit submitted, the Vice-Chancellor «mply said, "send him to HoUoway." By this ho did not mean to put him under , the' charge of the famous pill-maker, but merely that he should go to a certain prison of that name: From Hoiloway he had to start on a pilgrimage through all the; forms of chancery. Dr Bradford shoHld know pretty well by this time what is before him— a non-heroic return • an interview with "the Court ;" the stool of repentance ; a, atrict settlement ;' and then, but not till then, will his contempt be purged. l

My friend Sugarplums has hia place of business m Battray-street. A few days ago the whole street was under water, and Sugarplums had his cellar flooded. The steed being atolen, a number of his friends crowded round the pump which was clearing out sugar and water from the cellar, and suggested the best means of locking the door. As Sugarplums had been there many years, and no such flood had occurred before, and none was likely to ocour again, he could not see much value in the suggestion. " Don't you tHiok, Mr 5,,» said -one, "it would be a good thing to have eliding iron doors to covtsr your ventilators, and an iron shield for your door-stepi" " You silly goose," replied Sugarplums; "do you think' I am going -about brass helmet oq my head 'because? a tile' might possibly fall on me V

It is much the fashion to attribute more to Shakespeare than he really meant ; but the opposite fault; is some* tunes made. Mr Macandrew, in lus abo* Ution speech, spoilt a very pretty sen« tence by attributing a wrong meaning to it. He talked of the "rotten state of makea Marcdlus'say at the conclusion of that frantic, but beautiful BOeriß *H]j mad Hamlet and his father's ghost, «- "Something w rotten in the State of Denmark;^ to- which Horatio adds! "Heaven wtU direct it." Km o f the commentators', suppose this "atate" to realm. >BQhl<weV and Tieck, in their 1 famous tran# %^, have it, » Ftwas isfl , I^w*^'*****"*"*" and the* P»aem»rk." Thfij tofetpttfatfcm fit* in

simple remark of the terror-stricken Marcellus more meaning than at first sight appears. Mr Macandrew may be an excellent orator and a faithful interpreter of Otagnn politics, but I should prefer another exponent of Shakespeare.

There is a man in Auckland whose wit is of a grim kind. He lately got together a public meeting convened for the purpose of testing whether the citizens would submit to a penny rate for the purpose of instituting a public library. Of course, a majority of Aucklanders indignantly rejected tae proposal. There is something eminently ludicrous in the idea of putting bucli a thing before an Auckland audience. If there are two things in creation more antagonistic to otio another than Auckland and taxation, they aro Auckland and education. The horror exhibited in that City at the bare mention of the thing can only be aj predated by one who has thoroughly studied the unabolished. I verily believe that the fear of education is the mainspring of the present heroic resistance of Auckland to the measures now before Parliament.

It was bad enough for Ah Kat thai he was hauged, but the tray in which he was paragraphed, and telegraphed, and misrepresented both before and after his death was too bad. He was called Ah Cat, and Ah Kat, and Ah Flat, and each steamer that arriTed brought the news that the Executive had decided on the execution of this person, much to the surprise of the party most interested. The news came that Ah. Kat was gone. He died Asiatic to the last, and game. But the telegraph was not satisfied. "Our filea' contained minute particulars of the vain attempts of the Chinese missionary to couvert him, and of his last dying speech and confession ; but, still the telegraph was neither satisfied with this faot, nor with the already numerous versions of the hero's name. So again when wa thought him dead and gone we were favoured with the news that " The Executive had decided on the execution of Ah Yad." Perhaps now he will be permitted to rest in peace.

Bishop Moran delivered a very eloquent sermon last Sunday on the subject of dancing. He cited several heathen authorities against the practice, and concluded that as even these heathens disapproved of it, certainly it must be. worse than heathen for Christians to indulge in it. The burden of the sermon was that it was naughty — that it led to naughtiness. Now, the Bishop did not object to quadrilles and staid "squares," but thought it very wrong for men to put their arms round women's waists and dance with them. "What," said he, "would you think of a young woman who would allow a young man to do it sitting on a sofa V Of course one's answer to this somewhat embarassing question would depend very much on the young man. Of course, if he wero a Bishop, one would be greatly shocked ; but if a layman, less so. Joking apart, I disagree with the Bishop as to the tendency of dancing. Of course it may lead to much naughtiness. I hare known church-going lead to the same results. But experienced observers — more experienced than his Lordship in these matters — would bear me out when I say that this healthy, exhilarating exercise has no more evil iv it than any other ; on the contrary, its tendency is in the opposite direction.

Mr Bathgate made a very just remark with reference to the unlimited credit system the other day, in a case in which a man was ordered to pay for & ring which he had purchased. The magistrate gave the purchaser fourteen days to pay, as he wished it to be understood that he was iiot prepared to enforce the law very strongly in oases of that kind, where the article supplied was a luxury. It has bson often suggested that the right of action for goods sold should be done away vrith altogether, to as to enforce immediate payment. Bets, which are simply deist* <>f honour, and of which payment cannot be enforced at law, are far more faithfully paid than trade debts ; and poa-übiy it might be found really to the advantage of the trader to place trade riubtd on the same footing as regards riinedy as bets, At present, it is coujs'.dered rather a fine thing to swindle a trader, but it is excessively low to repudiate 0, gambling debt. If a change in the law effected a corresponding ohange in current morality, and resulted in its being thought a blackguard aot to fail or delay to pay n trade dobt, traders would have no reason to complain. In France, the tiling lias worked well : why not here ?