Passing Notes.

Otago Witness, Issue 1419, 1 February 1879, Page 25

Passing Notes.

At the meeting, on Monday, to elect a School Committee for Dunedin, the Hon. the Attorney General was present, and was asked his opinion whether a husband and wife could both vote. Mr Stout waa not an old enough bird to decline giving an opinion impromptu, and first glancing at the interpretation clause of the Act, he said that both could vote. Now, although not a lawyer, I have great doubts on that point, and believe legal gentlemen could be found who would unhesitatingly give a precisely opposite opinion. But then Mr Stout gave a reason, and that was "that any parent can vote, and he presumed a mother was a parent as well as a father." But how about those married people who have no children or none of school age 1 Again, does not " parent" in this sense mean one who has the legal custody of a child that is (if living) the father. It is bad enough to give a legal opinion hastily, but it is worse to.

give reasons. It ought not, however, to be left to Buch catch opinions, given at the last moment, to decide, who can see and who cannot enjoy the privilege of having his or her fifteenth or three hundred and fiftieth part in a School Comtnitteeman. The whole system of election is very free and easy as there are no rolls, and no checks on wrong voting. If so important a question as the Bible in schools, or religious instruction, is practically to be settled by the School Committees, it is of importance that these Committees should really represent the people. We have got a very good Committee for Dunedin as it happens, but there are no thanks due to the .Act on that account. The worst Acts work well if well worked.

What's the matter with the Editor of the KZ. Christian Record ? Has he had a rib or two knocked in lately at football, or a rap on the knuckles at cricket ; or has he merely a sweeping objection to muscular Christianity in general ? In a late issue he publishes an article on popular amusements, which surely must have been written under the influence of a fit of indigestion. That he should deprecate racing and music halls is what we might expect, and indeed there is much in both that wants mending, and little that is either morally or physically beneficial. But he surely stretches a point when he Bays that the " sending of cricket teams round the world, and the wild excess to which this kind of foolery is now carried, 13 humiliating to any intelligent Christian mind, and deeply degrading to our highborn humanity, and in nothing does the extent of the evil more flagrantly appear than in the amount of space so offensively afforded to it by our newapaper and telegraph agencies." There are pretty sentiments for you, to emanate from the exponent of charity and liberality ! It is scarcely necessary to draw attention to the spirit they display. No wonder the Editor falls foul of Professor Jevous further on, and imputes to him a " most serious mistake" in "the supposition that pure and wholesome recreations would do very much more to correct prevailing evils and to elevate human society to a plaoe becoming it in the scale of truest civilization." The mistake, we learn, is in ignoring the "deep depravity" of mankind, and the "Divine power," which alone can eradicate it. We quite agree with him as to the depravity and its causes ; no reasonable man can ignore or deny the excellent results of Christianity in many instances, but neither would he try to throw cold water on manly, pure and wholesome recreations, whether mental or physical, which themselves may prove a " Divine " means of benefit.

Messrs Bright and Green have fought it out, much to the evident delight of the mixed audiences which listened to them. It was somewhat strange that but one of all the clergy and ministers of various denominations, the very existence of whose creeds depends upon the credibility of the Bible, should have been present to back the champion of orthodoxy. The Church of England clergy, perhaps, might not have been expected there, — though, by the way, the sole representative of the cloth ivas a Church of England man, — as they are not much given to public controversies or assemblages of that nature ; but some of the other denominations should, ' we might have thought, have been been represented. Perhaps they anticipated that Mr Green was not equal to the task of battling with the champion of Freethought ; if so, they certainly may be assured that there is not a man in Dunedin who would have done better under the circumstances. Nobody in their senses expected any "convictions," either way, to result from so bold a process as that of standing up, on 15 minutes notice, to refute an argument or answer a question which has possibly puzzled sages for centuries. But there was no doubt a good deal of information given to the audience ; and many who didn't think much on the subject before, may be induced to do so now. As a matter of course, the partisans of either side affirm, moat vigorously that their man " got the best of it" ; and as few, if any, but partisans were present, no reliable conclusion on the point can be arrived at. The result may be fairly summed up by saying that Green didn't prove what Bright denied, and Bright didn't disprove what Green asserted. That is a negative result ; but we owe* the disputants and the public thanks for the £150 which accrue to the funds of the Benevolent Institution.

Our time hasn't come for fox-hunting yet. We may manage a red-herring run now and then when our Canterbury friends are kind enough to lend us their hounds, but that is all. It will evidently, however, be long enough before we are put to the ridiculous subterfuge urged by an Inglish sporting club the other day, when pulled up for trespass by a recusant farmer. There was no defence to plead except an authority of a century or so ago that it was lawful to kill tho fox as a noxious beast, and that tho huntsmen were in pursuit of him for the public benefit. This was too much even for the English fox-hunting prejudice to swallow ; and the Court was fain to admit with regret that it could not accept any other view of the trespass but that it was committed for the pleasure, pure and simple, of the trespassers. Let us stick to our drag, be it herring or aniseed, rather than import the real thing to' be subjected to to so mean a temptation as that.

It may not seem much of a nuisance to strong young men with cast iroji guides

and thick-soled boots, but elderly gentlemen of unstable steps and ladies in general, one would think, cannot resist a mild anathema, " uttered or unexpressed," as they struggle [over the innumerable right-of-way crossings which intersect oar footpaths. The main body of the paths are admirable, right out to the boundaries of the town, in most practicable places ; but those horrid little crossings meet you every few yards, and quite destroy the pleasure of a placid Btroll. Why does the City Council leave these blots upon the fair face of its paths ? Right-of-way crossings of some sort are, no doubt, a necessary nuisance ; but they should certainly be made as little of a nuisance as possible to the large majority of • the walking public to whom they are not of the slightest advantage. The Council has ample powers to make byelaws for regulation in every respect, and it should at once enact that these crossings be asphalted, or they will have some crotchety old fellow coming down upon them for damages to his corns or his shins.

Talk about Scylla and Charybdis ! Sailing between them would be nothing compared with steering clear of the dangers which beset a juryman who happens to be employed in the Dunedin Gas Works. Here's an unfortunate labourer who has actually been discharged from that service because he was compelled to serve his country and the ends of justice on a jury. It really is hard lines. We can scarcely suppose that even a private employer would be so indifferent to the interests of his fellow citizens, as to pay off a man under such circumstances. But a public body like the City Council should certainly be far above such a course. There is a long list of exemptions from service on a jury, but unhappily gas men are not included therein. There is only one resource for the unfortunate employes of the City Council in such a dilemma :—: — 11 Bankrupts who have not received their discharge are exempt ; therefore file your schedule, my friends, and an ungrateful country cannot impress you into its service !"