PASSING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2647, 7 December 1904, Page 5

PASSING NOTES.

(From Saturday's Daily Times.)

I don't vote for Mr Seddon, but I have never denied that he is interesting. More particularly is he intei'esting when 'he goes about the country exclaiming at banquets and other applausive gatherings, Is not this great Babylon that L.have built ! Last "week it was King Hammurabi — though, for my own part, I didn't quite see the connection; this week it is certainly King Nebuchadnezzar;" — e.g., at Naseby: He remembered that when he was here last '.he was shown an old ramshackle post "office. He had left his mark behind him, as they had got a -beautiful iiesv"'post and telegraph office now. — (Applause,) The .necessity of conservation of water, for' mining 'purposes was brought under his notice. Having had 40 years- experience -on goldfields, the conclusion he arrived at was that the water was required for mining. He had been told that it would never be required, and the field was worked out. Well, he knew - that the water would then be available iqp* irrigation purposes. They had got the water now through the Government head race, etc., etc. Alone he did it. Parliament is nothing, Mr Seddon is everything. "It had been his duty and pleasure to control the Government of this colony; and as "long as he was able to do it> he would do it." Exactly ;r— the State, that's me ! Nominally there is a Governor, also a Government, but Mr Seddon "controls" the lot. And so, going to and fro in. our midst as a living anachronism, bringing the C;»sars and the* Napoleons' and other ancient despots to our very doors as it were, Mr Seddon is not merely interesting, he is delightful. It is true.' that the Csesars and the Napoleons came to no good, and that for swelled head Nebuchadnezzar was sent to grass — Mr Seddon, by the way, is talk- 1 ing of retirement to a farm, thoiigh that may be merely, a chance coincidence ; — it remains nevertheless that our present Premier, as long as he lasts, is bound to be a remarkable figure and a mine of wealth to the impartial" journalist. When Air Seddon 'twixt a groan, and a growl refprs to the \uvwelcome nearness of French, German, and American possessions in these seas, I am jingo enough to { groan, and growl in concert. The situation need not have been what it is. But, after I all; we -the- British have picked up a fair proportion of corner lots all the world ; over, and it hardly lies in our mouth to complain. Mr Seddon's transports are slightly ridiculous. Hear him. about New Caledonia ; Where were those islands to-day? They were in the hands of the French Government. One 'of the inosi valued possessions in the 1 Pacific, and in the hands of a foreign nation ! As though the presence of. a foreign nation within hail of our bailiwick were contrary to law of nature, and an indecency to boot. For the big statesman he takes himself to ba Mr Seddon's view is too narrow. New Zealand may very well endure the French in New Caledonia, the Americans and Germans in Samoa*, when it is remembered in what degree of nearness these objectionable foreigners have to endure the British elsewhere. The West Indies properly belong to America ; Gibraltar belongs to Spain, Malta to any Mediterranean Power rather than to us ; Cyprus and Egypt belong to the Grand Turk. What are we doing in Hongkong, which belongs to China, or in India and Burma, which belong to some 250 million darkskinned Asiatics? This tv quoque retort shuts us up, it seems to me. All that is left us is to wait till the next war and then lake what we want — if we are able.

"How British greed strikes our good neighbours the French is well seen in the Revuo dcs Deux Mondes article from which I quoted lasfc week. We are an ostentatiously religions people, and our policy always and everywhere is the policy of grab. We keep the Sabbath and whatever else -we can lay our hands on. The earth as the Lord's," the liord has given the earth to His people, and vr& are the Lord' 3 vjepjgle. Tliis is the. kind of logic

the French credit us with. Several of our over-sea possessions ought to have been theirs,— Canada, for instance, Egypt, even New Zealand. Says the Revue, "New Zealand, where in 1839 we thought- to establish ourselves, we were jockeyed out of as the result of an indiscretion." Somewhat enigmatic, this, and I don't profess to explain it ; but apparently Mr Seddon's sovereignty was saved to him by some French indiscretion whilst as yet he was in the cradle. Then let him not be too hard on the French. After a lengthy recital of British pickings and stealings all the world over the writer in the Revue thus admonishes his countrymen : "If these things are not to your liking, become if you can a great maritime Power. But, thanks to our fathers or to the gods, we are not able. Are you ready to make W:ar? No, I fancy. Then, be consistent, and, since you are so resolutely pacific, learn to bs modest, very modest." Good advice, and of wide .applicability. .It may be passed on to Mr Seddon '^ and ourselves. Until we have at command some better weapon than bluster it behoves us to be modest, very modest.

At Chatto Creek, amongst decayed miners and railway " co-operative's " in the pay of the Government, Mr Seddon passed a happy hoxw — preaching : envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharifcableness — conferring a " charter " for the 'maintenance of the same. A " charter," observe ! Amongst the many unconscious drolleries of Richard the First and Last this distributing of "charters" is precisely the drollest. A medal to every Sectdon voter may be expected to follow, or at least ,-a ribbon. Every Seddon voter is," ij)so facto, a " Liberal," that is a Seddon' Liberal ; all other Liberals are "Conservatives" and need not to organise — the Chatto Creekers were told — because "their own selfish ends constituted \ combination in itself." When we "hear of "- selfish ends" it is permitted us to remember that -Sir Harry Atkinson and William Rolleston died poor men; "also that of a Premier more efficient than Mr Seddon in providing for his party there is no record in these islands— at anyvrate not since Maui fished them, up out of the mud of the Pacific. A " Conservative " is known by his " selfish ends '" ; how may you know a " Liberal r'lr 'l I bethink me of a lino in the classic poets — >

She knew him by his appetite. It was a House controlled by turnedcomma " Liberals " — that is " Liberals "- of the Seddon sort — that on a certain occasion boned, or bagged, or grabbed an illicit £40 sapieee ; the sama House ha* since raised political pay to £300 a year and. '.free railway travelling: The Seddon "Liberal" — yes, you may" know him by "his appetite. Not altogether unrelated"" to~ this,. criterion is the fact that the. chartered libertines at Chatto Creek kept all the eating and drinking to themselves ; *" the courtesy of an invitation to ' this function '' — says the report, plaintively — " was not extended to the four Dunedin press representatives ; their presence was utterly and totally ignored." -

Waimate, November 28, 1904. Esteemed " Civis," — In last week's Passing Notes you, speak of a. reproof telegraphed by the Kaiser to an ecclesiastic^ who" had dared lo lay an. interdict on a burial-ground which had been defiled by the intrusion of a Protestant corpse. But the reproof was not" telegraphed, dear " Civis " : it was delivered face to xace, and made the prelate tremble in his shoes and fail at his knees. The incident was announced to us by cablegram on the King's Birthday, 9th of November, but it was then at least three months old, having appeared in. the Liverpool Daily Post of August 2, and again in the September number of the Catholic— a little magazine ptiblished in Dublin.. How our cablegrammatist came to send us such a belated pieoe of intelligence it is hard to imagine, unless it was with him as with the sailor who happened to stray into a church, where he heard the story of the Crucifixion. On coming out he espied a Jew in the street, and promptly knocked him down. ""What is that for?" asked the astonished man. - " For killing the Messiah. ' "' But that occurred nineteen hundred years ago!" "'No matter,'' was the reply; "I have only just heard of it.'' The German Emperor's deliverance is really good reading, and I am sending you tiitf copy of the Catholic, that you may have it in full, and may observe how the arrogance of the priest is overborne by the arrogance— but, lor-! that is lese majeste, — 1 shonld say By the god-like "all-sufficiency of the Kaiser. Sometimes, dear " Civis," I know that you are put to a necessity of perusing the Tablet ; let me recommend as an alternative the pages of the Catholici^only a penny a raontn, and you will get many an enjoyable pennyworth out of it. — Yours, etc., C. The " Catholic," as I learn from a cursory glance, is edited by "the Rev. Thomas Coxmellan, Ex-Priest"; — notice the "Ex." Naturally it is more lively than the Tablet ; e.g. — " Cardinal Vannutelli has come and gone, and except that he has left the smallpox after him 'in Armagh, things are just as they used to be." Again, "We have merely to ' say that the communication did not issue from our office, but from lhat of the father of lies." In any ecclesiastical polemic look out for the imputation of unveracity ; it "is never long absent. In -the correspondence between the Rev. Dr Gibb and the Premier we have already got " tpradiddle,"' which expression, if the dispute continue, will presently be shortened to a word of one syllable.

Dear " Civis," — About clmrcla-going dogs, I can supplement your note of last week by a story fvoxn an English paper received this mail. In Seoiland at the Disruption of 1843 most of the shepherds joined the Free Kirk. But one collie held to the Establishment principle and refused to '" come out." Every Sabbath he went as before to the Established Church, His master refused to coerce him. " Na, "na," he said, "he's a -wise clowg; I'll no meddle wi' his convictions." • But destiny intervened. The dog used to lie during service on the pulpit stairs, no dqnbt the better to hear the discourse. Below him were placed the long stove-pipe hats of the elders. A lengthy sermon one hot Sabbath morn was his undoing. He fell asleep, rbllea off his step, and managed to get his head firmly wedged inside one of the hats. In that condition he fled from the kirk, and ever after, as his master said, " had nas trokings wi' releegion." ' The first part of this yarn may be received and believed; the second part,

which is doubtless a Free Kirk embe .ISB ment, I should read as allegory. C*ea/»1S to an Erostian Establishment after m betters had left it, this Presbyterian colli* experienced tha natural consequences— a condition of slumbsr ending in moral lapse! and a judicial blinding. To illustrate the unintelligible intelligence of dogs this correspondent <tdds a Itory — non-theologica* — about Sir Henry Irving's dog "Fuzzy.

In the old days Sir Henry declared he cou.d hardly act unless "Fuzzy" were theie^ to watch him from the wings. When starring for his first American tour he decided that ha must- ler.ve his pet behind in Lonaon. So he bade tho clog good-bye at Gra*ton street, went off to Euston, and took train to Liverpool. As he stood on the steamer thafe was to bear him across the herring-pond, what did he behold but " Fuzzy, ' hastening, wi-h panting breath down the gangway to join ins master on board! And how ••Fuzzy" (who ■was taken to America after all) got into the train or found his way to the steamer Six Henry does not know to this very day. Whilst I am on dogs, I may mention thai* a New York "society leader" recently gave a birthday party in honour of his wife's Pomeranian dog. Eight deg guests sat down at table deco-ra-ted with- flowers, and the dogs' mis.resses sa.fi behind and helped the waiters to serve. As thei dpga ccuid neither, smoke nor plsy bridge afte» dinner, cats -were introduced to be hunted, to the 'immense - delight of the dogs and the ladies* who belpngad to them. „ ; The dogs no doubt behaved as dogs, the cats as cats ; neither- would have any .cause to feel ashamed v But- what of the mem and women? On points of breeding and decency few members of their own species would have reason to shun comparison with these leaders of New York society, nor certainly any dog, or cat, or ass, or ape. Civis.

Those who contemplate making the over.; land journey to Milford Sound by way of the Clinton "Valley and M'Kinnon's Tc-za will be plpased to learn that the track, .though still too rough for ladies, presents no difficulties to prevent men making Ihs journey. ATe Anau correspondent, writing on the 24th inst., states that the- previous few days had materially reduced the snow on the^mounfcains. 'To show thairthe jour« ney presents no graa,t difficulties, our correspondent states that two convalescents havo " just returned over the track and two office lads have completed the journey. Our correspondent's statements are confirmed. by Mr Moon, the district agent for the Tourists Department, who went over the track last week. It will probably be two or three weeks yet before ladies can undertake tha' journey with, comfort/ but even at presents those who would consider the grandeur of scenery as sufficient compensation for a little roughing' it and hardship need nof ' be deterged" frojn making the journey.

The following, reports the Outlook, ara the winners of the book prizes connected with the Presbyterian TheolpgicaL. College examinations just held:— Mr -H." H.- Barton lakes the Ebenezer prize, .' valued at £10;! Messrs Pringle and Tupp divide the Stuart' prize for Ghurchr-history, valued at £5 ; and Mr* Waugh gains the Cameron prize for Hebrew, of £2. These prizes are all giver* in books chosen' by the winners and approyed by their professors. These prizes will be~ open- next year also for ' students afc the TJieoiogical College taking the regular course, or the non-Latin course for the Ministry, but noi-for. those who may take an irregular course. 'The Assembly at its. late meeting agreed thajfc the interest of th® >SSOO legacy of the late Mrs Clark for the! promotion of \sonnd learning at the Otago University ehoukl- be given to those students .who take the highest marks in the ordinary class examinations in' senior Latin, senior English, and junior mental science. ' These prizes — one fer each subject — will be of the value of £7 each, and given in books. They^ are open to all students in these respective classes. *

The special train conveying the Eight Hon. the» Premier and party from Omakai* to Dunedin on "Wednesday made the trip of. 120 miles in record time, leaving Omakau at_ 6 a.m., and arriving ■in Dunedin a' few. minutes after 11 o'clock. Brief stoppages were made at Laudei*. Ida Valley, Ran* furly, Kokonga, .and Hyde-, and there" was^ a halt of 20 minutes at iliddlemareh for' breakfast. The morning was delightfully, fine, an."l e-ven at the early hour at which the train ieft the hfiat of the sun was' making itself fell.', The members of the party, although thoroughly tired cut after tho rushing about the country with but a few hours snatched for sleep, all declare-1, that they had experienced a most pleasantf time, and' were- loud in their praises or the magnificent country they had passed through. The Right Hen. the Premier lefij for Christchurch by the afternoon express. The weekly meeting of the Benevolent! Trustees, held' on Wednesday aftesnoon, was attended by Messrs W. T. Talboys (chair-* man), R. Wilson, W. Burnett, and J. Green. The Secretary reported" that during tha week Patrick Ahem, aged 76, had died in the institution. A 'large parcel of read* able books from Mr Martin and a parcel of magazines and readable papers from Mr^ Rosevear, for the use of the inmates, wer<i received with thanks. Accounts amounting to £84- 15s were passed for payment, and 32 applications for relief dealt with. The vital statistics for Dunedin for tlitf month ending Wednesday, November 3D, are as follow : — Births*. 130 ; deaths, 57 ; and marriages, 1-8. In the corresponding month in 1903 Uie-ro were 126 births, 55 deaths, and 50 marriages.

Some time ago (?ays the Auckland Star) the Customs detained the schooner Clio iir consequence of allegations of unseaworthiness. Surveyors examined tho vessel and found her to bo unsoaworthy. Extensive repairs were ordered, which will be coin,* Dieted next month*