PASSING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2318, 4 August 1898, Page 3

PASSING NOTES.

From Saturday's Daily Times.

Mr opinion of certain lion, members — their political morality, public spirit, clean handedness — is pretty bad, and I have never made any secret of it. But the opinion that hon. members have formed of each other is even vvoise. After all, they know best ; they have better opportunities. Last week's discussion on the Banking Bill took the form of a general jail deliveiy. One hon. member was accused of " having his hands greased," of "associating with men who were not fit to be in decent society," of receiving 1000 guineas "for robbing a few natives." Another hon. member had been guilty of " a transaction in connection with ]New Zealand consols that would have caused the impeachment of any Ministry in England at any time during the last 200 years." And these things aie but the b«g inning; worse remains behind. According to the Hon. John M'Kenzie "a Book of Revelations is yet to be written "--and published also, no doubt — in which and by which v,e may look fur an equitable distribution of in ft-my-all round. Until this apocalypse of mourning, lamentation, and woe sees the light, and we know who's who and what's what, it would be well if press reporters and other honest men whose business takes them within the precincts of the House underwent some process of fumigation and disinfection before resuming their relations with general society. As for the fart that during the discussion on Mr Millar's Liquor Bill one hon. member accused another of being drunk, this touches a detail of mere personal morality and is hardly worth mentioning. The hon. member impugned said that he°had not heard the lcmaik, and it didn't matter. Moreover, the subject of debate being a liquor Bill the practical illustration was obviously perlinei\t.

The breacii in the (Sandhills is receiving more than its due share of attention. I heave lost count of the various suggestions, all of them confidently assumed by their inventors to be worthy of the consideration of the authorities. 1 have my doubts ; I could say things myself an' 1 would, but they may c'en repair their breaches in the coast as best they can; I am at present more concerned with breaches in the language. One of the bush-engineers suggests the erection of dykes like those in use in Holland. In lieu, however, of straw, -which, he admits to have proved its worth and satisfied Dutch engineers—of -which, too, one would have thought we had an ample supply going abegging even — this genius suggests a facing of "muttagcrwrie." I shall not waste time by pretending not to understand him — that would be cheap and rather silly. I know quite well what he means in spite of the transmogrification: ifc is the thorny shrub called by the many " wild Irishman " and by the botanist Discaria toumatou. The Maori name is variously spelt totnnalou, tumatakuru. From the latter form no doubt the atrocious corruption "matt ago wrie" has arisen, and against it I do solemnly protest. "We have a number of sweet-sounding native names, though many have been replaced by anything but sweet -sound ing English one*. Let us concede the point to old associations, freely : there the outrage ought to stop. To retain the native name and so bedevil it that no Maori could possibly recognise it is a proceeding that we should really be ashamed of. All up and down the island, wherever I have been, it is the same, and only too often it is the teacher who does the most harm. When Maori has been reduced to writing on such intelligible lines there is no excuse whatever. I have heard Orari called O-rarc-ee by a whole district; I have heard Pel unc called Pet-won; I ha^e even heard that liquid Wanganui called Wann-gann-you-eye ! and '" inaltagowxie " deserves a place in this collection of shocking examples. It is true that in the south here the nasal " nga " — you should hear it coming from the region of the fifth waistcoat button of some grand oJd retired warrior! — is lost in the hard "k"; even so we need not introduce a fresh corruption entirely foreign to the genius of the language. Is it too late to arouse some sense of responsibility in this direction V

The Sports and Processions Committee of the Otago Jubilee reported at a meeting the other night that after paying all expenses in their department they had a balance to (he good of £137 1 6s sd. From this sum had to be deducted the expenditure of the Hall Committee, and that also left a credit baUu/ie — oh, yea! a a edit/ balance

of tenpence ! Out of this tenpence had to be provided a testimonial to the chairman, additional remuneration to the secretary, and the expenses of the Tiinaru Band. In what order these creditors arc to rank on the estate was not determined, the meeting's subsequent attention being confined to coudoro ning the Ball Committee and its exasperating tenpence as Mr Mantalini dem'd the ha'penny. The situation, it must be admitted, is both painful and perplexing. In sports and processions we practised a thrift worthy of the traditions of early Otago ; we even turned an honest permy — to the tune of £157 odd. Next -we go to a ball, and then, when music arises with its voluptuous swell, and eyes look love to eyes -which speak again, hey, presto ! — our £137 dissolves, vanishes, and is gone irrecoverably, all but a preposterous tenpence! Hitherto the most expensive dancing known to history has been that of the daugutcr of Herodias, when she danced off John the Baptist's head. Next in order of merit will live in legend the tripping of the light fantastic toes of the early settlers of Otago at their Jubilee ball, when they danced on a floor carpeted with bank notes.

The man who is true to himself, following the advice of all philosophers, ancient and modern both, runs a great rihk of pleasing everyone in turn and no one long, fie speaks to-day and is hailed by one particular party as a bright star in the firmament of humanity. To-morrow he speaks again, and the very ones who sang him for a god ru.^h for ft lend Lowell's " eontumehoiis (-tone" to harl at him. But there ai'j compensations: they who before lamented his malign influence now find him on their side tuid champion his cause. Another utterance, and they, too, more in sorrow than in onger, possibly, desert their fallen idol ; and so the comedy goe& on. These pleasant thoughts have been .suggested by a lettcv I have just received. It is from a lady correspondent and refers in complimentary terms to my " t.king up the cudgels'' on behalf of the dislrei-sedj' preps damsels in my last week's Xoles. Tho lair one, in that postscript that no woman's letter is supposed to be complete without, tells me that 1 may print a part of her communication if so inclined. My youngest bachelor friend, -whom I at once consulted — even experienced seniors may gain wisdom from sucn a source on this subject — advised me without hesitation to print it all. Said he, "My dear old fellow, a woman's permission is a command ; don't you know thai yet? " I humbly thanked him for the word and on the strength of it .shall give my readers, half. To Civis.

Sir.— l must say, as .another of the meek, gontle, an* long-suffering sex, that I -<va3 pleased to read your par. anent the fair correspondents having a seat in the press gallery. Although one cannot be quite sure now to take I don't think I'll finish that bit. Try further down :

Stiange there are women in the world who wish to stand shoulder to shoulder with their brother man, to work, if need be, or, better still, to be their ttue comrades thioiigh life, but not to trespass further.— l am, &c,

Eve. Eve's sentiments do her any amount of credit, and she must permit me to shake her by the hand, hi spirit, of course. The ancient courtesy of kissing finger-tips is out of date. Was it not Longfellow who shook hands with Queen Victoria on the occasion of his presentation, so giving the chivalrous practice its death blow? It was put down to the poet's simplicity, and a very good counter, too, but we know what we know. Well, my dear Eve, I am sorry I cannot accept the proud position you would confer on me, but honesty forbids. It was no ndvoc-icy oi women's claims that inspired thai Note th.it picked you. I meiely made a prediction, bpsed nn v^ry clear and definite facts, ofjt.err.tbie by ail thai have eyes. Woman has come to stay, ;nA nn talk can alter the situation. As for" my feeling.-,— well, one need not yearn fur darkness, although lie can predict the eclipse! Tomorrow you may find me spying the terriblest things about your sex, so don't, I beg of you, expect from me one atom more than you get.

The Edinburgh Scotsman has been at llie pains to gibbet, editorially, ceitnin eccentrics — tienenil ISooth, and ,i Presbyterian minister, mummed — for doubling whether Mr (iliidslom; was "really a Chnsil.m." TO should liavo been enough, one would think, to abandon the doublets and their doubts to general contempt. There were certain Irishmen—House of Commons Irishmen, patriots b;, trade— who, taking the view that Mr (iladstone'ss death was another injustice to Ireland, declined any part in his obsequies. A few months earlier these same gentlemen Jiad Lhovudit to ecliuse the «ai&ty of nations

by holding aloof from the Queen's Jubilee. But the Empire jubilated all the same, and Mr Gladstone's body was buried in peace without their help. The " Salvationist quack " and the " Presbyterian bigot "—" — which terms arc the Scotsman's — might have been relegated to tho society of these Irish patriots, and there an end. General Booth's doubt about the reality of Mr Gladstone's Christianity seems based on the fact that Mr Gladstone never walked in a Salvationist procession and was accustomed to say his prayers without the help of drum and tambourine. One trembles to imagine what General Booth must think of the Christianit y of the Apostles. As for the Presbyterian minister, his difficulty mvs that Mr Gladstone believed in bishops. How can a man be a Christian and believe in bishops? This must be the very identical Presbyterian minister to whom his presbytei'y, knowing that bishops were his bete noir and that he could never preach a sermon without bringing bishops into it, assigned a text that seemed absolutely bishop-proof — namely, the fir&t verse in the Bible. The good man began thus : " Genesis ik&t and first : 'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth'; — Observe, my brethren, not one word about bishops!"

There is always a strange consolation in the discovery that we are not alone in ow afflictions, and it is with a sort of satislion I notice th.it .Mr Justice Pennefather, like my&elf, is troubled with a conscience. For a man wlio.se daily food is the dry-as-dust process of the law I consider the fact remarkable. But what have we done, w> others, th.it lie should vex us? Discharged criminals, he tells us, must have somewhere to go. Very like, veiy like -. but is that our concern? What have respectable folk who wear black coats, or dec?nt tweed's, for that matter, to do with folks who know no better than to break the hw and pay the penalty of doing so? Why, even to think of these things smirches the crystal pureness of our minds : it is too bad to have them thrust upon us through the medium of the daily papers by those whose consciences are not as thoroughly disciplined as nineteenth-century consciences ought to be. If such folk "will persist in troubling, soni'i means of stopping them r.ruhl be deviled ; they must be taught that their behaviour is inexcusable. When an individual suffers from wounds and sores, it is a beautiful convention, born of true Christian chirity, that he preserve the secret from his neighbour-, offending neither eye with sight n.">r ear with a description of his imperfections. To flaunt them openly would be regarded as the acme of indecency. And so it should be with the wounds and itches of society. "Everyone knows that they exist if he takes time to think and trouble to think accurately ; but, you know, thinking of these matters is not altogether wholesome for a cultured mind. It is unfortunate that they exist, of course, but since they do so let us accept the fact and then — ignore it : for if this pestilent doctrine of being our brother's keeper oiue gains ground there will be positively no rest for honest people. Civis.