Passing Notes.

Otago Witness, Issue 1418, 25 January 1879, Page 16

Passing Notes.

• Fancy the Attorney-General being accused of breaking the Sabbath by travelling on the Sunday, when he was in fact in the company of "grave and reverend seignieurs " belonging to half the churches in Dunedin, and merely did as they did, following and not leading the way. A freethought reprobate like Mr Stout could not be supposed to have any scruples on the subject, but they, what are they thinking about 1 It is true they did their best to restore the wandering sheep by treating him to Sankey and Moody hymns ad lib., under which soporific influence it is whispered that the hon. and learned gentleman went to sleep. But why all this spitefulnass about everything that much abused gentleman does 1 Surely he must be regarded as a power in the land if so much trouble is taken to damage him. Or else he has, and who that is honest and upright has not, an cuumy, who, fearing to m.e«t tbu redoubtable champion of Froethought in open conilict, stabs in tho dark. Well, ho will take a doal of killing by such

means as these. If he stands the overwhelming attacks of the ttev. Mr Bannerman in the Synod, and of Mr Begg and such like Goliaths, his hair won't turn grey, even though it becomes known that he does occasionally travel (in godly company) on a Sunday. It is a good idea of Mr Ballance to get a look at Otago and Canterbury and see what the Middle Island is like, that he may know how large a world he helps to rule over. If there wero a law made that no man could be a member of the Ministry till he had takon a three months' tour of the Colony, and was able to graduate in its geography and topography, and knew all about the natural productions and resources of each particular district, it might not bo a bad thing. Railways will help us a litfclo in this respect. There are very many Canterbury people and North Island people who never saw Invercargill, and were quite unaware of what is known to every resident in the town — that it is to be the future metropolis of the Middle Island, and has had its main streets made particularly wide on purpose to accommodate the traffic of the future. But joking apart, Southland is a far finer district than many people are at present aware of, and, if some way can be found to choke off bunny, will yet be a thriving part of the Colony. If only some St. Patrick would arise to annihilate the rabbits as the great original annihilated the snakes, what a benefactor he would be. Not two but a thousand green blades would then grow where one grew before. The latest direction taken by the military spirit of Germany is a queer one. She has made smoking illegal for boys under 16 ! Their young nerves are supposed to be unequal to the ordeal ; and, as Germany must produce a nation of warriors or nothing, her legislators have thought good to take the young Teutonic idea in hand in this respect. It does not appear whether juvenile foreigners are exempted from this eccentric law, so we may presume not. Imagine the indignation of an embryo British Peer, when in the course of his inevitable grand tour, he finds himself on reaching German confines cut off from his beloved cigar ; and that too in tho very nursery of meerschaums and among the most assiduous devotees of the fragrant weed in the world ! The result of this novelty in legis lation may be good morally and physically for the future of the Teutonic armies ; but it will probably add a few hundred thousand well- grown boys to the million or so of Socialists in the Empire ; particularly as these desperate gentlemen are pretty independent of the police. It would grate against our ideas of the liberty of the subject ; but it appears that everything mußt be made subservient to military perfection in a country so hedged around with enemies as Germany. Thank goodness for the pacific " shop keeping " Anglo-Saxon characteristic, about which Continental nations are fond of having their little joke at our expense, if it preserves us from such an odd. intermixturo of military and social despotism as this. Mr Graham Berry and his " Embassy" seem to have made rather a mean exit from Melbourne. The Ambassador-in-Ohief, with a modeßty characteristic of all truly great men, intimated that he wished no demonstration on his departure, or he would doubtless have been seen off the premises by thousands of his admirers ; but it is touching to read that the zeal of a few honest mechanics was too much for their self-restraint on so momentous an occasion ; and that a small, _ though doubtless select, deputation, consisting of a pair each of carpenters, masons, plasterers, and painters, or thereabouts, were present to bid adieu to the great democratic reformer. At the last moment an alarm circulated that the _ coloured gentleman who has been getting up a rival embassy was about, and meant to accompany their Highnesses on the trip ; but happily for the fragment of dignity left to the affair, he didn't turn up. Poor Professor Pearson— the "worser half: " of v the Embassy,— must have felt his position keenly. Nobody took any notice of him ; even his colleague ignored him in every reference he made to their joint mission ; and the renegade Professor, no doubt, heartily wished himself back in his comfortable chair at the University hearth. He has, hower, cast in his lot with democracy, and has of course primed himself up to the point at whict he can echo the old Roman patriot's sentiment : "If it bo aucjhfc towards tho general g'-oJ, Sot honour in one eye and d«'ath i' tho other, And I will look on both indifferently." Happily our political and social atmospheres have been tolerably calm of late ; but we must have a "wee ficht" among ourselves about something, or we should stagnate. Theology, in one or two phases, is our pet bone of contention just now. Firat comes the Presbyterian Synod with its hot discussion on the Professorial Chairs— Moral Philosophy and Political Economy v. Knglish Language, Literature, and History. Both most desirable lines of study in their season ; but we should take the latter as more suitable to a young institution with a few students. The strong loaning of the Synod, however, in favour of Moral Philosophy is scarcely to bo wondered at, particularly when we remember the celebrity attained by so many Scotch divines in its pursuit. Then, again, the whole question of Bible reading' in schools has been re opened, j What a misfortune it is thai the venerable | book, whose fundamental principles aro held to bo peace and good will, should be produotiyo of xaoro huart-burninga and

discussions than any other volume extant. Hadn't the whole dispute better be "hungup" till the revised translation of the Bible comes out ? There is just a possibility of everybody's agreeing about it. Finally, all the religious, and half the secular, world— our little world,— is agog in expectation of the Bright v. Green controversy. This event is held by the orthodox to be a real stand up fight between the powers of light and darkness. Of course it will end, as every discussion of the sort does, in neither party being convinced, and both claiming a victory. Mr Bright loses a great intellectual mainstay in the withdrawal from his ranks of the Attorney General ; who certainly should be— and perhaps is— nothing if not logical. Whether the other side will go in for systematic argument, or for an appeal to the emotional, which is their strong point, remains to be seen ; but the result is undoubtedly looked forward to with great anticipation by minds of every line of thought. What an extraordinary feature in the Australian Keliy gang affair is the unaccountable amount of sympathy and assistance the scoundrels seem to get from the very people who suffer at their hands. Why ! there were no less than 20 men brought up at the Beechworth Court a few days ago on suspicion of being more or less implicated in the gang's doings. Is it innate, though hitherto suppressed villany, or dastardly cowardice, or a criminal indifference to the public weal which moves these aiders and abettors 1 one scarcely knows which motive to credit them with, even when wishing to give them the benefit of the doubt. One thing is certain enough ; that if tho authorities and the public combined with anything like concerted will and action, and shewed a fair amount of valour, moderately tempered with discretion, they would soon sweep the bushranging scourge from the country. Ciyis.