PASSING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1785, 6 February 1886, Page 18

PASSING NOTES.

That in Dame Buropa's school the big boys lould bully the small ones — for their good — is thing at which nobody can pretend any surrise. As it was in the beginning, so is it now, id probably ever shall be. When, however, 1 the big fellows at once are down upon one nail boy the bullying looks hardly fair. The rmpatbies of an outsider are, in such case, aturally attracted to the weaker side, especily when the big bullies proclaim themselves stuated by the high moral motive of " stopping '■■ fight." Dropping parable, what I mean is lat the motives o£ the Grea^ Powers in dictatig to Greece that she is not to make war on 'urkey may justly be suspected as selfishness i disguise. Russia, Austria, Germany, and 'rauce are accustomed to' make war whenaever they will, ami on whomsoever they are. Their habit is to sit armed to the jeth, that should their angry passions ise, or a favourable chance of loot present sself, they -may up and be doing with the mallest possible delay. And it is acs Messieurs, \ he war powers, that now pose as the friends of eace ! Little Greece, who has at length plucked p courage to ask back from Turkey a portion of he goods stolen from her by Turkey long ago, 5 admonished not ,on any pretence to disturb he "European concert." "Sit still, you little' eggar!" say the big bullies — "Shut up, and lon't make a row ! " For school slang substitute he euphemisms of diplomacy, and this is the ttitude of the Great Powers towards Greece. Jhe truth is that they are themselves looking or the reversion of Turkey's stolen goods ; in ue time they will have a set-to amongst themelves, and the stronger will divide the spoil. Hessed are the peacemakers indeed, but heaven aye us from the peacemakers whose object is o make in the end a bigger row ! The " chair business" — to quote a phrase from rigger minstrelsy, still holds the audience, and ihe situation grows rather more interesting as it mrolls itself. After winning a battle in the Synod and avoiding a threatened block by the Uhurch Board, Dr Salmond finds himself conronted by the Minister of Education and the University Council, a combination sufficiently itrong to disable although not to crush him. Neither Mr Stout nor the Council can now prevent Dr Salmond being Professor of Mental and floral Philosophy, for, as Dr Stuart pointed rat, professor he now is, and entitled as such to ihe sum of £600 a year and perquisites. Butthey can't demand to be satisfied as to his qualifications for the post (a matter which surely should have preceded, not succeeded, the appointment), and ailing satisfaction, can " get up and bar the door, O." The question would then be narrowed down to a personal conflict between Dr Salmond and the University janitor, or the honourable retirement «of the Professor — unless, of course the latter chose to laugh at his opponents, and resolve to remain in the enjoyment of a salaried sinecure. In point of -utility the personal conflict would perhaps be preferable. It would attract students, which Bhould be the aim of every professor. But before such a conflict is necessitated, the University Council have to bo satisfied that Dr Salmond dot's not possess the requisite qualifications for the chair ; and here again comes the rub. No member, either of the Synod. Church Board, or University Council, seems to know precisely what these qualifications are. Dr Stuart is credited with being the only Synodsman who has attended mental science classes, and from certain remarks of the worthy doctor it is surmised that he was expelled for devouring peppermint drops during lecture hours before he had time to obtain a firm grip of his subject. Under these awkward circumstances, the Viee T Chancellor suggest that the Professorial Board shall be consulted as experts and asked to state what it is desirable that an occupant of this particular chair should know, and how much it is absolutely essential for the Synod's peace of mind that he should not know. So the matter stands pending further developments, and very interesting developments they are likely to be. As a refined and undiluted horror, the Coburg tragedy, scanty details of which were cabled from Australia last week, must take a foremost place. Wliat hard things critics would say of poor, bald-headed Mr Wilkie Collins, of simpleminded Miss Anna Katherine Green, of gentle Gaborian or Boisgobey, if any one of them had ventured upon a scene half so fearful. A father roused from his slumber ill the dead of night by peculiar sounds from the bedroom which contains his wife and daughters. He steals to the door, knocks anxiously, and is pacified by a plausible excuse. Meanwhile the maddest and most bloody scene imaginable is enacting behind that closed door. Three of the four females — the mother and two eldest daughters— are, for the time being at least, maniacs, and together they pursue their maniacal diversion through the night. The mother paints a picture, of imaginary shame, the girls listen in insane transports, and choose death in preference. But they decide to kill their little sister first. That sentence is sadly pregnant with meaning. It is carried out without hitch or hesitation, and the little creature's head is nearly severed from her body. Then the maniac girls begin to cut and carve at each other, their frenzy assisted by imaginary peals of thunder from without, while the mother "waits to see them die." No charnel-house story can be more revolting than this. Of course the resolution which supported the wretched girls through the murder of their little sister fails during the mutual hacking process, and their own death is not compassed. In some respects, perhaps, the story would be less^ horrible if there were three deaths to record instead of one. As it is, the girls, if they recover life and reason, have the dreary experience of Mary Lamb to live through. But

that episode, terrible as it was, palea altogether before the bedchamber tragedy at Coburg. The miracle of washing the Etheop white is, in America, no longer reckoned amongst impossibilities. The Boston Cougregationalist affirms that the negro in. the States will eventually develop into a white man. "It took forty centuries under the hot suns of Africa, wearing no dress but a cloth round his loins, no protection for his head, till Nature, in despair for his lack of a hat, kinked alid woolled his hair for him, to plant that pigment between the inner and outer folds of his skin that makes a negro of him. That proces of forty centuries is now being reversed." The black now clothes himself all over, so that the sun gets at his face aud hands only, consequently "the colour is slowly coming out of him." Similarly, the wool on the top of his head is losing its kink ; it is no longer exposed to a fierce African sun which " naturally crisps and curls the hair ; " moreover, the negro ilnder civilization takes kindly to the use of the comb. In the course of generations he will develop a thatch as lank and fine as that of the Caucasian, j There remains to be accounted for only his flat nose, and this objectionable feature the Con- j gregationalist thinks may be improved, if not got rid of, by the moral influences of education. In short, all that is wanted to make the American negro a white man is time, — a good deal of time, I should fancy, — but that presents no difficulty. There is any amount of time in the illimitable future. We all know that the | " whirligig of time brings in his revenges," and this will be one of them, — as pretty a " revenge" as the world has seen since time began ! In the Gulf States the negro increases faster than the white, is going to become white himself, and will Ibe master where once he was slave. The Americans do not at all like the prospect. ! A collection of Lord Beaconsfield's sayings about women, which is going the rounds of the English Press", reads like a dilution of Rochefaucauld, flavoured by a malice against the sex of which the French cynic, as I remember him, shows no trace. " There is no marriage in heaven, neither is there any heavpn in marriage." To this it may be answered that there is as much of heaven in some marriages as is to be found anywhere on earth. Truer and more kindly is the saying of Victor Hugo : " Paradise is where the parents are always young and the children always little." Lord Beaconsfield's invectives and innuendoes against marriage suggest that his own experiences in the "honourable estate" were unhappy. "'Marriage is much like a spacious bird-cage set in a garden on a windy day. The ins would be out and the outs would be in." " Adam in Paradise must have slept very peacefully— until he had the misfortune to lose a rib." Mere malice, this remark. Lord Beaconsfield's information as to how Adam slept is no better than anybody else's. For my own part, I am convinced that unless the climate of Paradise was hotter than we have been led to believe it, Adam reposed more comfortably with his rib by his side than within his side. " A good woman wearies a man, a bad woman worries him.'' Then, apparently, no woman can permanently please him. Bad morality that, assuredly ! The following is probably true : "If a man does not take his wife to church, the chances are that sooner or later he will be obliged to follow her thither." It must be a sad reflection to the parsons that of the young men who go to church many go merely to meet their girls, and that the latter, in : a. painfully large number of cases, go — like the Pharisees — " that they may be seen of men." Women keep up their devotional habits after marriage, men are apt to fall away from theirs I —at no small risk, if Lord Beaconsfield is right. | It is better to accompany one's wife to church than to have to follow her thither with a view of ascertaining with whom she comes home. Others of the Beaconsfieldian aphorisms are | accurate readings of feminine human nature. Thus : " A woman may not have a religion, but she must have a deity."' Nor is this inconsistent with the next : "It is often not until a, woman feels she is too old to be loved by man that she seeks to be loved by God." " A woman is flattered by the love of a beggar in rags." True, but so is a Prime Minister. Lord Beaconsfield, beyond a doubt, felt himself flattered by the absurd homage of Mr Tracy Turnerelli, who invited subscriptions for a golden wreath with which the great Tory statesman was to be crowned. Publicly he repudiated the testimonial with contempt ; privately he thought of " that absurd Turnerelli," we may suspect, with no small kindness. The following will not commend itself to men under 30 : "A beauty without wit seems to me to resemble a bait without any hook in it." This is the remark of la sagesse ; Beaconsfield when he wrote it must have long passed his " sallet days." Keen insight is shown by the following : " A blush often announces the departure as well as the arrival of shame." "Of all the women I have known I chiefly feraember those who forgot themselves." "It is quite possible for a man to respect a woman so much that^she will ' despise him." "It does not speak well for the fairer sex that, as a rule, he best succeeds among women that has the lowest point of opinion of them." On this principle Lord Beaconsfield's success ought to have been remarkable. The following, which is the last that I shall quote, must be condemned as unpardonable :—: — "It is recorded that «God said : • Let us make man in our own image after our likeness.' It would have perhaps been impolite in Moses to hint more directly that woman was made in a very different mould. The conclusion, however, is obvious." Not so, Lord.B. ! You are out of it here. The /run conclusion from the posteriority of woman in Nature'^ order is that drawn by Burns : Hoi- prciiMce ban* she trii'il on m.uj, And then she made the lasses O !

The Hon. Mr Ballance and Sir George Whitmore arrived by the express train from the North on Wednesday evening. Mr Ballance is accompanied by Mr Lewis, Under-Secretary of the Native Departmeut, and an interpreter. The Dunedin and Ballarat Fire Brigade teams returned from the Napier demonstration on Wednesday evening, and were met at the railwaystation by a crowd of about 1000 persons, including the Premier and his Worship the Mayor. The teams were received with cheers, the Naval Artillery Band playing a suitable selection. The teams were taken to the Fire Brigade station, where some speeches were made. The Dunediu team were very successful, winning prizes to the value of ! £125, exclusive of medals. The prizes yon are ab follow : — First in hose-and-reel practice, £80 cash, trophy (value £25), and five gold medals ; second prize for engine practice, trophy (value £10), £5 cash, and five silver medals ; third prize for hose and hydrant practice, trophy (value £5). In addition to these prizes Skitch, one of the team, won the quarter-mile race at the athletic sports in 53sec. against two Ballarat men and several others. Applications for the surrender of runs continue to pour iv upon the Land Board, and are referred by that body for the consideration of the Government. The Chief Commissioner yesterday stated that the Board had no power to deal with the applications. He also said that no surrenders had been accepted .for a long time, and he did not think there was the slightest chance of them being accepted. j The Rev. Dr Stuart left on Thursday on a trip to the head of Lake Wakatipu, having received a month's leave of absence. The Rev. Mr Morrison will officiate at Knox Church during his absence. Dr Stuart has been presented with a letter of condolence by the members of his congregation on the manner in which he was treated at the recent Synod meeting. During last week Messrs A. Macgregor and John Beaton waited on the Premier as a deputation from pastoral leaseholders in the Wendon and Weudonside districts. The deputation urged that their rents should be lowered and the laud re- valued, as the first valuation was excessive. It was also pointed out that the settlers in those districts were heavily handicapped by the Waimea Plains railway rates; while the Switzers-Waimea railway had not been made, as promised. Mr Stout said he could do nothing in the matter, and that they had better interview the Minister for Lands on his tour South. The Roxburgh and Coal Creek School Committees have nominated Messrs M'Kenzie and Farnie for the Education Board vacancies. John and Sarah Magee were arrested on December 18 at Kensington on a charge of attempting to procure money from the Prince of Wales by means of threatening letters. . The prisoners had written two letters demanding £750, and intimating in unmistakable terms that unless the demand was complied with the life of the Prince would be in jeopardy. The first letter his Royal Highness took no notice of, but on receiving the second he placed the matter in the hands of the police. The police at once quietly set about planning the capture of the blackmailers. They sent a message as though coming from the Prince to the address given in the letters, directing the authors of them to appear at a specified time and place. An assur- . ance was given that somebody would meet -them at the appointed hour prepared to hand over a package containing the money they demanded. The Magees at once fell into the trap which had been bet for them, and immediately after receiving the package were arrested. The female prisoner made a confession, but it is, doubtful if it can be used against them, as she now states that it whs obtained on compulsion. The prisoners were under remand by last udvicch. A largo stable near Grey town, belonging to Mr James Shand, was burned to the ground on Tuesday night. We have not heard if there was any insurance. Ah Pio, the Chinaman charged with robbing I a tail-race at Round Hill, has been committed I for rrial. ■ The Tapanui Courier report* that, owing to the plentiful downpour of rain last week, the turnip crop has wonderfully improved. The grass* and grain crops have also been freshened up considerably. Mr H. Hirst received a vote of thanks when addressing his constituents at Riverton. He Maid he would be found voting for the party, whoever they were, that went in for reducing the expenditure by £100,000 or £150,000. Every bill passed last session was in some measure a borrowing bill, that would iv some future time fall back upon the Colony. The great question of the day was the borrowing another £10,000,000. He took it that such a proposal would be brought forward. He was perfectly well aware that further borrowing would have to be resorted to. He was not against borrowing, but he would oppose such a large sum as £1C,000,000. A small amount should be borrowed from year to year to complete works that had already been commenced, but he was altogether opposed to such works as the East and West Coast railway. He gave the Ministry credit for encouraging the mining industry, and considered that that industry had not been supported by previous Administrations. Still he did not approve of the conditions attached to the subsidies for prospecting ; but that was a matter for the Minister to deal with. At a meeting at Christchurch with some Volunteer officers, Sir Gedrge Whitmore stated, in reply to a question, that he had got the Government to allocate a. sum of money for rifle ranges, the amount having been obtained from the sale of reserves. He pointed out that Government had no precedent up to now of | having contributed any money towards a rifle range : and he added that all corps upon enrolment have to certify that each has a range of its own. Mr Hugo Wertheim, Sewing Machine and Piano Importer, returned from Europe after a long absence on the 3rd of January. His employes in Victoria, South Australia, and New Zealand took advantage of the opportunity of his recent marriage at Home to present him with a very handsome sterling silver tea and coffee service, beautifully embossed with figures, animals. &c, in splendid repousee, showing very fine and skilled workmanship ; each article bearing Mr Wertheim's crest and monogram, containing special dedications. Accompanying this service was an elaborate oblong salver, also of sterling silver, richly engraved and pierced. The articles were enclosed in a massive oak cabinet. Kkmkdv voh Haw> Tim i^.— Stop spending bo much on lino oloMios, rich food, and style. Buy good food, cheaper and better clothing, and stop the habit ot wing expensive or qu^ck doctors, or humbug medicine that -does you only harm, Imfc put your trust in the greatest of all simple, pure rempdies, American Oo.'s Hop BiiTi-HS, that cure always at a trifling cost, and you will see better times and good health. Kead.

The programme ot the Palmerston and Shag Valley Jockey Club's Annual meeting appears elsewhere. Mr Walter Intler will bell farm stock and implenittuts at Hyde on the 18th inst. Messrs Donald Heid and Co. will soil farm stock and implements at Oul.mni on the Oth inst. Also growing crops at Hindon. The address of Michael O'lteilly is inquired tor. Mr L. Maclean w ill sell a number of Cargill and Anderson's pedigreed Ayrshire cattle at Wyndham wine time hi March. A notice in connection wifch the collection oi rates in Waikouaiti County appears in our advertising columns. Mr Geo. M'lndoe, Mosgiel, has a farm at Crookston to let on lease. The touith of the series of wool sales will be held on Thursday and Friday. Messrs Wright, Stephenhon, and Co. sell on Thursday ; and Messrs Donald Keid and Co., the N.Z.L. and M.A. Co., and the Mutual Agency Co. on Friday. The directors ot the ttetrigeratiug Company have resolved to make a fresh issue of 10U0 shares at par. Applications close on March 1. Mr L. Maclean will sell pure Ayrshire cattle at Glenham Station, Wyndham, borne time in March.