PASSING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1905, 14 August 1890, Page 23

PASSING NOTES.

It is a mistake to think, as some people do, that the beneficent institution of boycott, which is to reconcile rich and poor and bring in the millennium, is something new. It is new to vs — born a little stranger (welcome, of course I), only the other day, but there is nothing really new under the sun. Boycott is as old as the hills, as old at any rate as the time when the " Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans," and older even than that. Herodotus, that most delightful of ancient gossips, relates how the Egyptians at one time maintained against the Greeks a boycott so strict that " no Egyptian man or woman would kiss a Greek upon the mouth" — which seems carrying the principle of boycott very far indeed. Then in the reign of King John, the Pope Innocent, of pious memory, laid the whole of England under ecclesiastical boycott, commonly called " interdict." The clergy shut their churches and went out on strike ; nobody could get legally married, nobody could.getChristianly buried, and yet our forefathers — such was the hardness of their hearts— endured this terrible boycott for years and years before they would give in. Napoleon also, in his controversies with us, resorted to the boycott. In his famous Berlin and Milan decrees he announced to the rest of Europe that Great Britain had been sentenced to aecular excommunication : — " The British Islands are placed in a state of blockade. Every species of commerce and communication with them is prohibited. All letters er parcels addressed in English or in the English character shall be seized at the post offices and their circulation interdicted." To see how accurately Napoleon as a boycotteer had anticipated the principles of the Maritime Council read the following extract from a letter he addressed to Marshal Junot, Governor of Paris : —

. Take care that the ladies of your establishment drink Swiss tea ; it ia as good as that of China. Coffee made from chicory is noways inferior to that of Arabia. Let them tbake use of these substitutes in their drawing rooms, instead of talking politics, like Madame de Stael. Let them take care also that no part Of their dress is composed of English merchandise; tell that to Madame Junob. If the wives of my chief offic3rs do not set the example, whom can I expect to follow it? Clearly there is abundant historical precedent for the boycott, only— and this is somewhat unfortunate— there does not seem to be any evidence that the boycott has a tendency to hasten the millennium or increase the sum of human happiness by promoting peace, happiness, and good will.

Would It not be well if the Dunedin Presbytery took a few months vacation— say, until after the synod ? As things are going; 'on at present every monthly meeting discovers or develops a new heretic. At first it 'was only the Eev. Mr Gibb, but the attempt ■to bring to book the heresies of the Eev. Mr 'Gibb revealed the more alarming heresies of jthe Eev. Mr Will. This- was at the meeting jin July. At the August meeting, lo and 'behold, the infection had spread to the Eev. (Gibson Smith, and whilst the presbytery was !hurriedly endeavouring to discipline the Eev. •'Gibson Smith the fact came out that several other members were in equally dangerous 'case. In the opinion of the Eev. Mr {Sutherland the number that ought to be taken in hand was at least half a dozen, inj deed, he doubted if there were on the other side — the side of orthodoxy— a sufficient - number to constitute a committee to deal with 'them. Here is a pretty state of things I •At the present rate of progress, meeting or two will see the " orthodox, orthodox, whae believe in John Knox " re1 duced to Messrs Eiley and Sutherland, Mr lA. 0. Begg, and the clerk. I humbly- overture to the Dunedin Presbytery that for the safety of this small, but (hitherto) faithful remnant, lest they also be swept away, it ought to demit— ring down the curtain, put up the shutters, take a holiday, go out of town. Of course we should regret to lose a , cheap form o£ popular amusement. Personally, I enjoy an ecclesiastical slangwhanging match. Hard words break no bones, and it is well they don't, or the Dunedin Presbytery at the end of a sederunt would look like the cockpit of a man-of-war after a sanguinary action. But that is not the point. The point is that every meeting seems to produce a new heretio, and if this goes on we shall soon have to tremble for the stability of even the Eev. Mr Biley.

The House has passed a resolution in favour of the female franchise, and the Government is asked to bring in a bill to give effect to it. Probably they will ; they seem to be at the disposal of anybody who wants a bill brought in for anything. Assuredly if Mr J. A. Millar were to ask it the thing would be done, though between the bringing in of a bill and the passing of it there is a great gulf fixed, as the Labour Bills party will find out in the fullness of time. Parliament has been sitting about two months, and thus far has succeeded in hatching one small legislative egg ; and^ this, by the way, is none other than the erstwhile defunct dog bill which Major Steward has managed in some mysterious way to raise from the dead. Nothing so unexpected has happened since the days of old Mother Hubbard. But to come back to the Female Franchise Bill. Why shouldn't it pass ? No doubt the idea of women sitting in Parliament gives one a sort of shock at first ; so would the notion of women driving cabs. It is merely the newness of the idea. Metaphysicians tell us that the conception of a new idea is always accompanied by pain. Depend upon it custom would soon make the thing seem natural. Personally lam fast getting past all possibility of surprise. The world wonld wag quietly on its way even under what, by a brilliant generalisation, I may call a dispensation of the divided skirt. In these latter days of labour bills and the complete boycott a worse thing might befall us than a Parliament of women, particularly if, as is more than likely, one of its early measures were a bill to abolish manhood suffrage. The Parliament of man seems to be played out. Yes, to the philosophic mind the Female Franchise Bill would not be an unmixed evil. Tennyson

had the idea, though he did not go f urthe with it than a college gate : — Pretty were the sight If our old halls could change their sex and I , flaunt,

With prudes for proctors, dowagers for deans, And sweet girl graduates in their golden hair. The world has moved since then, and the girls are knocking at the doors of Parliament. Well, let the dear creatures in ; their presence would sweeten the place. Of course there must be limitations and restrictions, though what they are I am not as yet prepared to say.

! In this connection a correspondent sends us a long screed (which, to be candid, has pTOvoked this note), and I give an extraot for what it may be worth :•— I Under proper restriction, a Female Franchise Bill would be quite feasible. The sex should be divided into three olases — viz., electors, canvassers, and candidates. Let every woman be an elector and vote. It would please her, and the ballot box being made of wood has no susceptibilities. Canvassers may be married or single, but should be under a certain' measure of age and over a certain measure of comeliness. The measure might be fixed by a board of examiners, empowered to examine applicants and issue licenses. No sensible man could object to being personally canvassed by a duly licensed canvasser. Candidates for Parliament must be young, pretty, and unmarried. All three points are essential. The two first would form a sufficient safeguard against the ancient and angular female of the women's rights school, and the third would get over what is euphemistically known as the domestic difficulty. Personally I hesitate to endorse these until I have first conferred with Mrs 0. Circumstances (connected with the Domestic Servants' Union) will prevent her giving her attention to the matter for some little time to come, but as soon as that remarkable yoman has the opportunity you may depend tipon it she will speak with no uncertain dound, and in the meanwhile, as is proper and prudent, I suspend my judgment.

A correspondent sends me a cutting from a Wellington newspaper of last week giving the report qf a meeting of the Hairdresseis" Assistants' Union, at which a petition was received from a number of the employers, praying 'for leave to keep open from 7 o'clock on Saturdays. He asks me what I think of it. Think of it I Why, it is precisely what I predicted only a few short weeks ago. You remember, dear reader, of course you do, my note on unionism and its prospects, wherein I lifted the veil of futurity and pictured a deputation of desponding capitalists praying the Minister of Labour for leave to exist. Now, I don't myself claim to be a prophet — not even a minor prophet ; but there you are, and I put it to anyone— to Mr Brunton himself, and he is an expert — to say whether many a prophet has not made his reputation on less. I don't wish to overstate the matter. The hairdressers' assistant is in some respects a special case. He has advantages in his vocation. As a shaver, he stands over society, looks down on it, and with impunity pulls its nose ; moreover, he has the free run of his master's oil and unguents, and takes profuse advantage of them in his own person. All- these things tends to lift him above, his fellows, even when he is an isolated unit. Aggregate these units into a union, and no wonder it is approached by way of humble petition ! I grant all this, but it does not explain away the verity of my prediction. Believe me that the elevated plane on which the hairdressers' assistant now stands will soon be reached by all other unions, and in due time labour, will everywhere hold capital by the throat, if only-r-and this is the thing that perils the full accomplishment of my prophecy — if only capital can bo lsng survive in the possession of a throat.

By way of cheating the devil, John Wesley, it is said, used to borrow his (the devil's) best tunes and write hymns to them. Th«3re is an Otago country parson who does better than this. He borrows the local publican's best room and lectures in it on teetotalism. More accurately stated, what happens is this : There is an Athenaeum which, being after the mariner of such institutions always in debt, has to be kept from insolvency by the profits of musical entertainments. The only room suitable for these entertainments is the property of the nearest publican, who, like a good citizen, lends it free of charge, along with piano, chairs, and forms. Then the parson comes on the scene as president of the Athenaeum to preface the concert with a speech, the burden of which speech invariably is, says a correspondent, that "the great object and design of the committee is to keep people met of the hotels. 11 Certainly this is meant to be rough on the publican who lends the hall, but I don't suppose he feels it. The other members of committee, according to my correspondent, regard the chairman's remarks as " hypocritical cant." No doubt they take an opportunity when the concert is over of explaining this to the landlord over drinks in the bar parlour.

Writing in an English provincial paper, Mr George Augustus Sala supplies some original information about New Zealand and the adventures there of Mr Christie Murray, who, it seems, was for a time believed by his English friends to have "gone a-missing." Says G. A. S.:

I rejoice to learn that the distinguished novelist, traveller, and leoturer has been discovered. Mr Christie Murray, it appears, turned up on borsebaok with a party making for the plains on their way to Auckland, New Zealand. He was accompanied by the Minister of Public Works and Education, and a number of members^of the House of Representatives.

The "Minister of Public Works and Education "is good ; good also is the phrase " making for the plains on their way to Auckland, New Zealand." Mr Sala was once trotted through New Zealand as one of Mr R. S. Smythe's led lecturers. Probably he has some dim and confused recollection of " Canterbury plains " there, and fancies them to be in the vicinity of Auckland. Then, " Canterbury plains " suggesting Canterbury pilgrims and ; Chaucer, he pictures Mr Christie Murray on horseback wending o'er the plains in company with a party of pilgrim legislators on their way to Parliament. That Mr Sala evolved his "information" by some such mental process as this I am ready to take my 'davy. But there is better to

coma After remarking, somewhat inoonsequently, that in new countries there is often a great deal of drunkenness, Mr Sala winds up his notice of the discovering of Mr Christie Murray thus :

Fortunately, Maoriland is the country par excellence of sobriety. I had the honour of being acquainted with the Government and Legislature of New Zealand some years ago, and they were total abatainera to a man. " They were total abstainers to a man 1 " I will not say that Mr Sala when he wrote this paragraph was drunk, but that is what some people will say. My explanation is more charitable. When on his lecturing trot through New Zealand Mr Sala heard— and doubtless noted as an extraordinary fact— that the Premier, Mr Stout to wit, was a total abstainer. He imagines now that he had the honour of being acquainted with the "Government and Legislature of New Zealand," and found them " total abstainers to a manl" Ah, welll his Mend Mr Christie Murray will be able to put him right] Civis.