WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 1887.

Otago Witness, Issue 1856, 17 June 1887, Page 21

WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 1887.

PASSING NOTES.

We are not a gay people in Otago. Nature has not done us that grace. The climate is against us. We have too little sun, are too busy making money, or grumbling because we can't make it. Eve,n our pleasures we "take sadly" — a trait which Froissart observed also in our forefathers. Witness the lugubrious " rejoicings " at the unveiling of the Burns statue. It is only too true, as Dr

Belcher pointed out at a jubilee meeting last week, that of ' picturesque street life — "movement, colour, and music"— we "get precious little in this town." But why kick against the pricks ? Dr Belcher' desires, as a " demonstration of movement, colour, and music," that ,in midwinter and . on the shortest day of the year a procession should' tramp through slush and ,rain from Princes street to the romantically greasy slopes of Belleknowes in honour of the' Queen's jubilee. The procession will, be a struggle against Nature, and Nature will have the .best , of it.: In this part of New Zealand processions are alien to the genius of the people! No Otago man, unless a volunteer, a Salvationist, or a Druid, can procesh with any sense of self respect, still less of dignity or grace. How can he, when he must tramp through mud" and carry an umbrella? No doubt the reason why the Oddfellows and . Masons did not turn out the other day to >do honour to Burns was that they were afraid of spoiling their regalia. Will they be more courageous on midwinter's day, the 21st of June?' I trow not. The elements of the picturesquecolour, music, movement— are things hard to get under the dripping skies of an' Otago day < in June. The only processions germane to the climate at this season are, those in which the mourners go about the streets wending heavy-footed at the tail of a hearse to the cemetery. There is still left to us, however, the illumination. If we can't procesh, we can light up. A correspondent of one of the papers recommends that " each householder be requested to place a row of candles along the middle of each window." Very good, — and I hope the insurance companies will like it. There is no absolute necessity that any householder should burn down his house in honour of the Queen, but with six candles in each window a patriot of exuberant loyalty might very easily be betrayed into that excess, and improvise an illumination of 40,000-candle-power. Without wishing to contribute in any degree to such a result, as accessory before the fact, I may mention that a not bad form of window illumination is got by the help of oiled tissue paper. You first 'fit the dry paper to the frame of each, window pane, arranging the colours according to such taste as you possess, then lightly apply the oil brush, fix up a good light behind, and you have a stained glass window. Here is another recipe, somewhat more elaborate : — Take a sheet of brown paper sufficiently large to cover the whole of the window frame. Blacken one side with lamp black and gum' i water. When dry, mark out any design that may be required — crowns, anchors, flags, fountains, flowers, &c. Cut these out with a knife. Gum tissue paper of all colours at the back, and when dry oil or varnish it. Tack the brown | paper to the window frame, and from behind throw upon it a strong uniform light, > As to the taste of the average citizen in selecting designs and his skill in executing' them I have my doubts. We are no more s an artistic than we are a gay people. But most High School boys and girls can draw. Let them seize this opportunity of illustra-< ' ting a royal jubilee. This is one of those | chances which, as' auctioneers say, occurs; only once in a lifetime. Indeed' it has occurred only three times in the past milleni nium, and— looking to the dubious prospects, of monarchy — it seems questionable whether another millennium may not pass before' it | occurs again. Here is a communication almost too erudite for this column. I let it in because it treats the all-engrossing Jubilee topic' from a new point of view : — Dear Civis,— Anent the Jubilee of the Queen's Accession, due this week, here are a few facts swept together out of my reading respecting the word " Jubilee itself and its historic associations " : — j '" Jubilee "is Hebrew, and has no connpetion with the Latin jubilo, jubilotio, &c., — which seems strange, the idea of making a joyful noise being common to both. Not that Hebrew pundits are agreed as to the exact meaning of' "Jubilee"— far from it. ;« Some of them insist 1 that Jubilee means a ram, connecting it with the ram substituted for Isaac, a ram with a curious history. The muscles of this ram were -buried under the golden altar; from 1 the tougher part's of his intestines were made the strings of David's harp; his skin became Elijah's mantle; his left horn was the trumpet of Sinai; his right horn is to sound the crack of doom. But this is a detail. The point is that a ram's horn is a convenient instrument for making a joyful noise, upon (Credat Jvdceus!), — whence "Jubilee,", or *' rams' horn time." Suggestions as to the best way of celebrating the Queen's Jubilee have been various — very various, — but as yet there has been no mention of rams' horns. Ours is a pastoral country ; of much of its wealth the ram is the true fons ,et origo ; a ram's horn would be an agreeable, substitute for their own trumpets upon which many of our leading citizens are accustomed to perform — why not celebrate the jubilee in the ancient manner ? I merely offer the suggestion. Let Mr ,H. S. Fish — the most gifted soloist horn-blower amongst vs — look to it. Other Hebraists, however, maintain that " Jubilee " means " setting free " (Gk., aphesis; Lat., mittens aut demittens), with especial;reference to tradesmen's bills, mortgages, bonds, de-; benfcures, overdrafts at the bank, overdue calls on scrip, debts on churches or statues — in shorb all forms of financial obligation/ liability, or embarrassment. Amongst the ancient Hebrews the year' of jubilee liquidated everything' of this kind. At the first toot of ' the ram's horn the creditor considered himself paid in full.' Happy ancient Hebrews ! The modern Hebrews are of quite a different sort.' The only trace of this institution amongst us is the Bankruptcy Court. It is always year of jubilee there. ,Why cannot the benefits of that most Scriptural institution be extended for once to us all ? Why not, indeed ! Universal repudiation of debts and a general whitewash-; ing ! What a jubilee we might keep !,It is unfair to take the word " jubilee " and evacuate it, of all its original meaning. — I am, &c , Etymon. The manoeuvrings of politicians are intricate, and the aspect which politics present to us the outsiders is shadowy, not to say shady. The men of words and the men of ink dress, up Ministries and Oppositions in the garb they are to wear, and we accept them so. It is only long, afterwards that we awaken and begin to ask ourselves whether the apparel really belongs or ever did belong to 'the

wearers. Thus with the Stout-Vogel Minis-, try-.now , in rapid decay from thfe ]feet upwards. We are told nowadays that they, constituted a coalition formed for the patriotic purpose of uniting heterogeneous factions into the semblance of a party, there being at the time no organised. Opposition in existence capable of 'replacing the, Atkinson Ministry. But does this correctly recite ttie manner of .this Government's birth ? l> J3y.no means. , What ; occurred was • simply .this :" At a critical moment, when a general election was approaohing, Sir Julius Vogel landed, with the gout upon these shores" to take the waters^ and possibly anything else that'eame 1 handy. The election had not taken place, so what balance of parties there might tye, in the next Hpuse and whether any necessity' for a coalition would arise, was not known. At this juncture Mr Robert Stout, who had been indulging in 4< a burst .of silence •" for 1 years, penned an innocent-looking but- yet' significant letter toa Christchurch newspaper. Its purport was to. draw attention- .to the" arrival of Sir Julius Vogel and to point him out as the deus ex machind New- Zealand had been looking for. This is what Dr Steri- • house would term' a "clarion call." Candidates rushed to the hustings and plumpjed • for Vogel. Their names were printed with a V. following them to indicate their political faith, and everyone could plainly see that Mr Stout. and Sir Julius were to be colleagues in the new Ministry. Which .they duly were. But 'where was the forced coalition? , If the necessity for such a coalition had ever been deliberated upon, it was only in the minds of Sir Julius and Mr Stout. The fact was we had grown weary of old • faces; and new faces, or old faces that had been in discreet retirement for a season were bound then to have their opportunity.' Sir Julius and Mr Stout knew this, and on the strength of their joint face they promptly seized the reins of Government — those reins ' which they have not relinquished yet, though politely but firmly requested on more than one occasion to do so. This, I take it, correctly recounts the birth, of the Stout-Vogel Ministry, and indicates their raison d'etre. They were new, or at least polished up during their retirement to look like new. Two of their colleagues; Messrs Ballance and Larnach, were new also. That is to say, they had not troubled themselves to sit in Opposition in the last Parliament. Mr Ballance had attempted to, but Mr Larnach had not. Messrs Montgomery and Macandrew, who had borne the burden and heat of the day in Opposition, were not new; consequently it happened that when the first hastily formed Ministry were upset and it became a question of shelving somebody, they were the parties shelved. There is nothing particularly to condemn in all this, it is merely a curious phase of colonial politics which is worth study. As it was then, so it has been since, and so it will' be, in the contest that is coming. Sir Julius^ Vogel was hailed as a deliverer because he came fresh from afar with the flavour of a London fog still .upon his person. Mr Bryce later on went Home, kicked up a considerable bother, and won a libel action, with .the result that on his return he was promptly hailed as the leader, of the Opposition by divers > influential journals. He had not opened his, lips upon politics • during his absence, and had done nothing save eat London viands, breathe London fog, and, astonish one ill-advised native — Mr Rusden, to wit. Upon the strength of these achievements it was demanded that he should imme-' diately supplant Major Atkinson and deliver 1 his country. But he did not, and the country is still undelivered. Major Atkinson, probably did not exactly see the force of the' .suggested change, and possibly Mr Bryce did not either. But pasans were shouted in his honour; Major Atkinson we were told was unpopular; and in the hurry of the' moment no one stopped to inquire whether honest John Bryce was any more popular. This passed ; and latest of all we have witnessed the second coming of Sir John Hall, • and lo' ! he too is a deliverer because he has been out of politics for a few years past, , and has grown rather rusty as to the march of events. In one of Monroe's artistic allegories there is a deliverer who is always comicg but does not come for a weary while, and when he does come it is in anything but the guise expected. The illustration is familiar Scripturally, and it may no doubt be applied in a political sense. Our future deliverer may possibly not .be a rested politician who arrives with a title or a verdict for damages— both, be it borne in mind, excellent things in their way, but valueless for the purpose of putting in order the finances of a colony which has flown its kite too high. He may be a humble economist who has eaten his bread in sorrow amongst us for years, and kept, as the Americans say, his weather eye " peeled." He may be budding now as the director of some academical penny bank, and may blossom in time to teach us the simple rules of arithmetic—which, depend upon it, is what we most need to learn, A correspondent sends me the following : — ■The Council of Military Education in its recent report makes the following statement. It is official, and official statements are always un- ] answerable : " Some of the officers were deficient ;in ordinary and elementary education, especially 'in' writing and spelling, It may soon be desirable to insist on officers being required before being elected to pass at least the same standard as is ■laid down for the permanent militia." From 1 the foregoing it is plain that the council did not consider Dogberry's remark in his famous charge to the watch to be applicable to New Zealand, however true it may have been in Messina that "to read and write come by nature." It is not often that an official document descends to sarcasm, and it may have been done by the framers of it as only a gentle hint. Still there is an " off chance " of the threat being carried out. Should ,the regulation be made retrospective, there will be a few vacancies in the list of gallant and gorgeous officers in whose hands the sword is presumably mightier than the pen. In fancy I hear the "thunder of the captains and the, shouting" when they are called upon to go up for say the 4th standard. In the good old days in the army, " before the service went to the dogs," before the abolition of purchase, not a few officers, ' especially among' the

•f heavies,"-, were/^mpve :i than,. shaky,; in, their spelling. Did not'Rawdon Crawley come to, grief now and again? Yeb they upheld their country's honour fairly well and, jnade as good " food for powder " as if they had been' as full of erudition,as Gilbert's " Modern Major-general." But nowadays, the schoolmaster is very much abroad,; and education in New. Zealand' is free and compulsory; so volunteer' officers who cannot' [write and spell as well as. the average nine-year-pld boy are i an anachronism, and must either/retire or go, to night school. After all, it seems 'hard that volunteer officers alone, should be^pitched^upori i in' 'this way. It has been de-monstrated-that'it is not necessary that a man should' be -a "scholard" to -enable him to be electedi 'as 'mayor of > a large city; * (Under such circumstances he, is called a "practical man.") A, poet, too, i whose acquaintance with' the Queen's;. English „is of the most distant character ,, may .write his, verses with complacency,'ttiougtof them, it must be said that homines, 7wn l concessere columnae." Education;!', Why, some troublesome fellow will be "girding at bur j.P's next! Let me quote good old Dogberry again: "For your writiug ' and reading; let that' appear, when there is no need of such vanity." The laureate is dead ; long live the laureate ! As a matter of fact it does not quite amount to that,, but to something very like it. Lord Tennyson, the honoured singer, who has sung' so long and so well, is not dead, but he he is "ill." However, the cable which announces this circumstance will not be misread. • Tennyson is ill conveniently ; he is indisposed strictly in a Pickwickian sense. If it is not so, things are certainly not what they seem. The laureate, who has somehow scrambled over the many nursery and nuptial fences set in his path for years past by Royalty, has finally stumbled and barked his shins at the Jubilee hurdle, it was a trifling task set him compared with others that he has faced. A wide range of .vision is at least afforded the poet who writes upon the jubilee, while he is certainly inconveniently cramped in singing of the union of an English 1 prince with some foreign young lady, temper unknown and name unpronounceable. But Lord Tennyson is" ageing, and as far as pen and ink are concerned his noble career should have closed some time ' ago. There is a period at which poets whose swelling song has already made them famous should be gently muzzled and allowed to swell no longer. >" They should be popped into some tastefully appointed retreat, and writing materials forbidden them lest they injure themselves, i.e., their reputation. If this course had been adopted with Tennyson, we should have been spared that rasping composition the " Jubilee Ode " and its " lord manufacturer " and " lord territorial." It is this which has made Tennyson and his readers — " ill," and the simultaneous appearance of Lewis Morris' " Song of Empire " must have intensified the symptoms. What can be finer of its kind i and more stirring than some of Morris' lines : See what a glorious throng they come, Turned to their ancient home, The children of our England ! See What vigorous company Thou sendest, Greater England of the' Southern Sea ! Thy stately cities, sown with domes and spires, ' Chase the illumined night with festal fires In honour of their Queen, whose happy reign Began when, 'mid their central roar, The naked savage trod the pathless plain. Or later on when he touches New Zealand tmiß : — Or those, our Southern Britain that shall be, Set in the loaely sea. Lands of deep fiord and snow-clad soaring' hill, Wherethrough the ocean currents ebb and til], And craters vast, wherefrom the prisoned force Of the great earth-fires runs its dreadful course. ■ And vales of palm and fern, whence like a dream, High' in mid-heaven, the ghostly anow fields' gleam. Hard upon this melancholy public contrast, the cable informs us that "Lord Tennyson is ill, and the Prince of Wales has asked Mr Lewis Morris to write an ode on the foundation of the Imperial Institute." Hryo, Morris is to be the next laureate — not Browning, who probably would not accept the situation at 'the wages, or Swinburne 1 or Matthew Arnold, who have both excellent claims. The flavour of Swinburne (who is the strong and musical poetj must be distasteful to Royal nostrils. At any rate Mr Morris, by his "Song of Empire," has fairly, written himself into the position. Still let iis,wait. His ode on the unbuilt Imperial Institute — that ponderous oJudeau en Espagne—wiW be his first commission executed to order, and will likely enough be a failure. Naturally, at this jubilee time the poetic muse is stirred to exceptional activity; naturally, too, jubilee poetry, whether good or bad, is exceptionally optimist in tone. The Very Reverend the Dean of Christchurch, for example, has published a Jubilee Hymn the first verse of which reads thus : — For fifty years of ampler peace Than ever blessed an earthly" reign, Peace coupled with the realm's increase, Fair peace without dishonour's stain, Their grateful hymn thy people raise, Thy Holy Name we bless and praise. This is smooth versification, but it is a very rough reading of history. "Ampler peace than ever blessed an earthly reign ! " In view of the fact that during the Victorian half-century -Britain has been at War in all the four quarters of the globe — not to mention New Zealand, which is the. fifth quarter— this seems a strong, statement to come from a dean. The Victorian wars, big 1 and little, make so long a list that probably nobody but" a school inspector could recite it without a slip. • Let us. see :— Kaffirland, Afghanistan, Scinde, the Sikhs, China,, the Crimea, China again, Indian Mutiny, Persia; Abyssinia, Ashantee, Red River, Afghanistan again, Zululand, the Boers, Egypt, Burmah — rather a formidable record of wars for "fifty years of ampler peace than ever blessed an earthly reign." ' The dean is one of those who cry Peace, peace, where there is no peace. Of Ireland he evidently takes no note at all. Nor can he have remembered the Boers and Majuba Hill, or Wolseley and Khartoum, when' he talks' of " fair peace without dishonour's stain." It may be

that we were not -dishonoured "on 1 -' those occasions any more than we were at Isandula; or in Elphinstonete disastrous retreat to Jellalabad, but it is certain thai we were thoroughly well beaten 5 , However We must not expect severe accuracy' from a jubilee poet. It is sufficient if he is jubilant and can write lines that scan. ' ! ' ■•' ' :