Passing Notes.

Otago Witness, Issue 1421, 15 February 1879, Page 16

Passing Notes.

Since Mr Varley is so powerful as a publio reformer and "moral detective," since he beards lions in their dens, or what comes to much the same thing — publicans in front of their own " publics," and since he believes in the transforming, power of the gospel according to Varley, might he not accept — even from a profane newspaper writer— a hint of a sphere of usefulness which is open to him. He has not apparently succeeded well with the Times reporter ; on the contrary, the ta->te of Mr Varley's gospel is nauseous to that gentleman : but there is a glorious work open to the veteran evangelist yet. His soul must have been harassed with accounts of the horrible misdeeds of the Victorian bushrangers ; he has doubtless felt how very wicked they are, and has perhaps prayed for them. Why should he not take the first steamer to Melbourne — in such a cause Dunedin will spare him — and ride express to the Murrumbidgee, and there spend nights and days, with his Bible in his hand, seeking the fugitive -miscreants ; and when he has both morally and physically detected them, let him reform them, convert them, bring them in submissively at his I horse's tail, to be wept over — and hanged. What a glorious feat would that be ! Does not the very suggestion fire 1 his ancestral blood, and waken within him yearnings that cannot be suppressed? He 'cannot doubt that his Gospel is equal to Saving those unhappy men ; why then let 'all his manly heroism evaporate in talking delicately to females at "after meetings," or sitting roughly on Times reporters 1 Mr Varley, there is the enemy ; up and at them ! It will be a nobler charge than "the charge of , the Six. Hundred." We have no doubt the Kellys are Papists, and in such a souldestroying faith what hope can there be for them ? If they were Baptists, or Plymouthists, or what not of an orthodox character, there might be some hope of them when they came off their rampage ; but now they sadly need a teacher, a persuader, an all-powerful pleader ; and where— oh, where !— is the man for the exigency if it is not Mr Varley ?

There are now satisfactory indications that the good folkß of Dunedin will soon have their threepenny trip by tramway from end to end of the city. We have waited long enough since the tramway was 'first talked of ; so long that people had almost forgotten that it was to be. Like the majority of public, and a great many private undertakings, however, it has required time to .bring the scheme to a practical issue ; and it is hard to say whether, or where, any blame can be laid. And, indeed, the public haven't much fault to find with the cab system, nor have they felt much disposed to complain of the delay in getting the tramway in hand. Like moßt novelties —particularly when they interfere with any vested interest — it has raised a good deal of opposition among a certain number of people. There are, of course, first the cabdrivers and other public carriers and their friends, who feel a most natural bias in favour of the good old " one-horse shay" style of doing business. Then there are the timid old ladies and gentlemen who imagine that every entrance to and exit from a steam car is attended with an awful risk to life or limb. And, finally, the whole body of vehicle drivers have an instinctive dread of meeting the iron horse in the narrow space available, and draw frightful pictures of the casualties in store for themselves and their passengers. But we shall get over all this. Suffice it to remember that many an older and more crowded city tolerates its tramways with fully as much safety and infinitely more comfort and despatch than horse traffic can afford ; and we may rejoice in the prospect of an early enjoyment of our cheap trip from the oval to the Water of Leith, and hereafter of further extensions both north and south.

A very clever and plausible pamphlet on the Chinese question was that which some Melbourne Chinese merchants lately published, and sent over here just in the nick of time to meet the petition on the matter M which is circulating in Wellington. Perhaps the most ingenious argument it contains is that in which the writers deprecate the sweeping condemnation of Chinese morals which obtains among Europeans, by suggesting what conclusion would be drawn by distant and unbiassed judges from reading the statements of the crimes and atrocities recorded in our English police reports, as published in the daily papers. Would not the authorities of any foreign nation, says the pamphlet, be justified in excluding from their country a people amongst whom such horrors are of daily occurrence 1 Indeed the question is rather a poser. Men who have had the luck to meet a Chinese gentleman, say that, like Aitemus Ward's " man in black close," he ia "as fine a man as you would find ennywheres in the world." And there's no denying that nothing can outruffian a good English rough. So, taken on this basis, there doesn't appear to be much to choose between the two races. The real fact of the matter is that the Chinese are very well in China, and the Briton is tolerable enough in his own territory, but they don't either of them suit the other very well as mates in any part of the world. There's an indeßnable instinct that makes us dread the idea of being overrun with Chinamen, which.

finds its nearest parallel in the familiar objection to our old friend Dr Pell. The reason why we cannot' tell, but we don't like them.

We may hope that the Athenaeum has entered upon ten months of rest. The crucial time of the annual general meeting is past, the officers are elected, the statements and reports made, the grievances ventilated, the eloquence of malcontents aired, and, generally, the steam blown off which always accumulates more or less, and for which published complaints form a very insufficient safetyvalve. The process, when you "boil it down," is really a very absurd one. Something of this sort would fairly represent the attitude of the "parties" at the meeting on Monday. Complainants-in-chief and their party (fiercely): "Ah, you rascals, we've got you before us now, and you will have to answer for your ill-deeds. You've abused your position and your power by oppressing and ignoring the members in general, and foully wronging one inoffensive member in particular ; you've neglected the management of both library and reading-room ; you've never given us a catalogue ; and you've, generally, made a mess of the whole concern." Committee and their friends (indignantly) : " We've done nothing of the sort ; you , well, if you don't lie, you certainly don't tell the truth. Your inoffensive member threatened to break the door down, and actually committed a petty larceny on the premises. We would do the same thing again if he or any other man repeated the offence. And pray what do you know of the financial and other exigencies of the management, and how they compelled us to close the doors and do without this and postpone that 1 Come and try it yourselves, gentlemen ; it's no rosy billet, we can assure you. No, we won't admit having neglected a single thing ; we may possibly have been the least bit injudicious in that

matter of " . . . Complainants (in a milder tone) : " Oh, well now, if you are prepared to admit so much, and will promise to be better boys in future, we'll let you off this time." Committee, &c. (with pathos): "Really, dear friends, you haven't an idea how hard we've worked, and what difficulties there were to contend

with, and, and ... At which stage the feelings of both parties become too deep for utterance, and they metaphorically shake hands and proceed to the real business of the evening, the election of officers, &c, at which, by the way, a majority of the offending committeemen were reelected. It wouldn't be fair not to pay a special tribute to the classic eloquence of Messrs Howlett and Lalor ; the latter, though so young, giving promise of great declamatory power in the future, and his ungrateful party hadn't the decency to put him on the Committee ! Such is the reward of ambition* Poor fellow ! he must console himself with his mens conscia recti, and may well adopt Byron's philosophy,— What is the end of fame ? 'Tis but to fill A certain portion of uncerta'n paper. What are the hopes of man 1 Old Egypt's king Cheops erected the first pyramid aud largest, thinking it was just the thing To keep hid memory whole and mummy hid. But somebody or other rummaging' Burglariously broke his coffin lid. Let not a monument give you or mo hopes, Since not a pinch of dust remains of Cheops.