PASSING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2667, 26 April 1905, Page 5

PASSING NOTES.

(From Saturday's Daily Times.)

The Baltic Fleet may be considered, I suppose, Russia's last card ; now that the Baltic Fleet has actually entered Eastern waters this last caid is already played. There remains the counter stroke — the card from the other side. Awaiting that, the world is just now holding its breath. Any day — this day, it may be ; for as I write the cables are not yet in — the two navies may clash together, and, in the issue, decide a good many other things besides the Russian-Japanese War. If Japan wins— -as the omens point, and as every Britisher hopes — Russia will be finally headed off from the Pacific, and must transfer her amiable attentions, I suppose, to India, Afghanistan, Persia, Constantinople. In the same contingency, Germany, if she is to keep her ill-gotten gains on the coast of China, at Shan-tung and thereabouts, will be provided with other employment for her fleet than that of swaggering about the North Sea to the discomposure -.pf British nerves. When peace comes, wittf" a swingeing . indemnity — as it may within a month if Russia fails at sea, — Japan will be able to double her navy straightaway ; will probably undertake the bossing of the Orient from north to south ; may possibly commission an Australian squadron to look in occasionally at Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne. Whereupon the Australian Socialists will experience a sharp change of political climate. The British connexion, which at present they incline to despise, will suddenly have become of life and death Importance to them ; and they will learn to moderate their transports on the subjects of a White Australia. Even in far New Zealand things will not be exactly as they have been, if Japan scores a win. In a sense, then, the naval battle of this week or next is an Armageddon, or Battle of the Nations. We are not going to fight in it personally, but we are all concerned. In racingparlance we all have " something on."

The correspondent -who sends me the operatic jingle given below imagined himself to have read in the telegrams that the Russian Admiral, .being still in his Dogger Bank mood, Has fired upon a shoal of porpoises in the Yellow Sea: —

In the early " seventies " Alfred Celfier, of Manchester, England, produced an opera, " The Sultan of Mocha." (I think). Th© following barnacle, which has stuck to my rocky memory, might be applicable to Admiral Pozen-an-whisky of JDogger Bank notoriety : — Wo only want to stippilato That every jolly chip'll get His share of tin and tipple, et Now and then ihe fun Of a little bucaneering, Aa down the Channel steering, "\Ve meet a domineering Xiittle ship — withotit a gun. I am not for poking any more fun at the Russian Admiral — which his name is Roshdestvenslsy, or something to that effect. I attempt it for the first time, and I take that amount of trouble because I perceive him to be a brave man. Slowly but persistently pushing eastward, in quest of his antagonist, at last he has actually entered Japanese waters and challenges a duel to the death. Roshdestvensky is of the opinion of Montrose : He either fears Tiis fate too nrtich, Or his deserts are small, That dares not put it to the touch, To gain or lose it all. Whatever his fate the world will hold him in respect.

! General Booth comes back to New Zealand as nimble as a cricket, — the same agile and business-like old gentleman he was when first he passed this way. And that must be a good twelve or fourteen years ago. I remember him holding forth at an afternoon meeting in Knox Church and being catechised by J. G. S. Grant, — J)t Stiwrt is the .qhair. Eheu fugaces!

But there is little reason for eheu-ing over General Booth. It is true he looks trained down to nothing, and needing only a pair of wings wherewith to fly. But that doesn't come of over-much fasting in Lent ; it comes of being always on the go. The General must be pretty nearly an octogenarian — or, as Dean Hole's gardener used to say, an octogeranium ; but he is always on the go, and Time toils after him in vain. To what degree his affairs may be prospering in this corner of the vineyard were hard to guess. The local Salvationists seem to me less demonstrative now than at one time, less in evidence, less noisy perhaps, less given to blowing up the trumpet in the new moon. I suspect the music-hall religions run them hard. In the Sunday music-hall you can get all the liveliness you want without being penalised in poke bonnets for youi womenkind, nor in out-of-door religious processions, which are a thing alien to the British character and obnoxious to the Dunedin climate. Then again the Army is handicapped by its growing respectability. As of yore, General Booth is fruitful in good works ; but not as of yore is he rewarded for them. Quite the contrary ! Nowadays we all delight to do him honour. In London he is taken up by the King, in, Washington he breakfasts with the President, in Dunedin he exchanges visits with the Primate ; what awaits him in Wellington may be gathered from the following telegram :

Tho Ministry cordially invites you to be present at a reception proposed to be given in your honour at Parliament Buildings on Saturday afternoon, 29th inst. I shall bs extremely pleased to hear that your arrangements will permit of your accepting this invitation. Kind regards.— R. J. Seddon. This caps all Here are honours enough, to sink a ship. I would suggest to the General that he pray for a little persecution.

A correspondent admonishes me that I neglect my opportunities. Why have I not Passing-Noted the Land Commission? For the leas&n that the Land Commission as delineated in its own reports is so consummately funny that nothing seems left to " Civis " but to confess himself jealous and to complain that the bread is being taken out of his mouth. Furthermore and besides — -

To gild reiined gold, to paint the lily, To throw a perfume on the violet — were " wasteful and ridiculous excess," as Shakespeare advises. So I shall not do it. Rather, in a spirit of generosity, I desire that the Commission should go on drawing its own portrait in colours to its own taste. Taking its members individually, they are citizens like the rest of vs — neither better nor worse, probably quite as well endowed with common sense and practical nous. It is only as bewitched into a Land Commission and bidden dance through the country to Mr Seddon's piping that they become — what shall I say? — well, as interesting as they are. At times 1 have feared for their continuance ; — when evidence, particularly evidence of the right sort, has shown i backwardness m coming forward however diligently hunted up, when, perhaps, there has dawned on them some dim notion of the figure they cut before the country ; and when we have seen them snapping at each other, openly, coram publico. At these moments they have exposed themselves to the suspicion of discouragement and even of meditating a collective felo de se. Happily tTiey must have reflected that they cost the country £40 a day — or £60, is it? — and so have taken heart again. The entertainment is not yet ended ; there's pippins and cheesfe to come.

" A Disgusted Woman "' sends me a newspaper clipping in which Mrs Reeves, wife of the Agent-general, is explaining to the Oxford Women's Suffrage Society the history of women's suffrage in New Zealand.

She confessed that it was incredible how ignorant women were — perfectly incredible. — (Latighter and applause.) They had no idea, of it in England, because if they did talk about politics they generally talked to -women who had considered the question. But in New Zealand they had suddenly thrown the electoral roll over half a colony, ignorant in a way impossible to confess, and a! great number of the women did not evince any interest in the matter at all. When they found they actually had the- suffrage they whjo struggled for it were almost overwhelmed. They had to teach the wonieii to go to meetings, and teach them how to behave at meetings. They behaved at first just like cabbages. If one had 124 women at a meeting one had 124 cabbages to address. — (Laughter.) They stared straight m front of them, never moved, never smiled, and hardly seemed to breathe. Only to a woman is it permitted to talk of wonien as " cabbages "' ; for my own part I almost shudder reporting it, — horresco referens ! It appears however that Mrs Reeves proceeded to make amends. The wo'nen of New Zealand, she explained 1 , behaved like cabbages because they were ,'' so conscientious " ; unlike the men, ihey "would never go and take sides unless they had thought the matter out."' Yes, this is amends, of a sort. But presently she spoils it again.

When they had been tavig-ht to ta.k« pii interest in politics, and they very soon did, and •when one could hardly hear oneself speak because all the. women were talking to one another, they were trken to public meetings. And then they became cabbages again, because they were afraid of the men. — (Laughter.) At this point Mrs Reeves is clearlyromancing. Never before has it been alleged against the women of New Zealand that in public meeting — or, for the matter of that, in private meeting — they are afraid of the men. The boot Is on the other leg — if I may be permitted the metaphor ; the men are afraid of the women. However, let that pass ; also the insinuation that the political woman in New Zealand is hampered at the polls by the responsibilities of maternity. There was apprehension, says Mrs Reeves, '' that some babies might be neglected ; that

the exeitetnenc might cause a baby ox two to bo forgotten" — left behind in tha polling booths. Even so ; — what then? If the mothers had duly voted, what mattered a baby or two? Mrs Reeves doesn't in the least mean this, I admit ; indeed she goes on to boast that no babies were sacrificed and that the first polling under womea's suffrage was " altogether satisfactory." Which phrase of commendation — she must forgive me for remarking — can by no means be applied to her Oxford speech. It is the kind of speech that may be made more safely in England than in New Zealand.

Dear " Civis," — A city merchant recently advertised for an office boy. Among the applicants ■was one whose appearance he liked, but \ hese manners were somewhat below par. For example, he steadily refrained fiom using tha word " sir " when answering ths questions pufc to him by the advertiser, who explained to the boy that when he was young he hr.d been taught to say " Yes, sir,*' or '" No, sir," when answering questions requiring an affirmative or negative reply. " Oh," replied the boy, "my father ha? told roe things are different now, and that men are all equal." " Indeed," said th© gentleman. " but are you not taught to be polite at school ? and don't your Sunday school teachers tell you about the good qualities young people should strive to cultivate?" " Oh, I don't go to Sunday school," replied th. . youth, " my father says it is all tommy rot." Enter at this point the storeman, who takes young hopeful by the lug, conducts him to the street, and imparts motion by applying the toe of a valedictory boot. My correspondent dees not actually saythat thus it befell ; but the dramatic fitness of things requires no less, and I supply with confidence the details that seem to be wanting. Apropos to the incident characteristic of New Zealand life, and with an oblique bearing upon it," conies a curious item of news from the King's navee. Captain Percy Scott, C.8. , when making a farewell speech to the crew of the Excellent on his promotion to the rank of Rear-Admiral, remarked as follows :

I have great objection to the expression " Very good," which has bprome the custom of being used both by officers and men when addressed by a superior. I wish you all to go back to thp old-fashioned, time-honoured answer of " Aye, aye, Sir." This is an astonishing revelation. Ifc seems to me that the subordinate who, being bidden to do this or that, answers " Very good," is presuming to express his approval. And if he is at liberty to approve, he must be equally at liberty to disapprove. Allowed to vote the order very good, how can he be denied the right to vote it very bad? My notion is that if hf> presumes to vote at all he should be requested to seek out the officer for such cases made and provided — the boatswain's mate or the corporal of marines — » and report himself under arrest. As Mr Chucks was wont to remark, flourishing a rope's end, discipline must be maintained; Civis.

L-ast month's return of infectious diseaso eases reporte-d at the local Health Office showed 11 cases of enteric (four in the town and seven in the country), one case of 6carlei» fever in the town and one in the country^ one case of diphtheria and one case of tuberculosis in the town, and a case of blood-poisoning in the- country. No further indications of typhoid ha,ve manifested themselves in the Mount Pisa and Cromwell district.

The single electric tramline along Cargill road was inspected on Wednesday by Mjr Ussher, for the Public Works Department, and everything being satisfactory, was at once opened for traffic.

There is no intention whatever on th» part of the Government to introduce th© metric system at any definite date (says tha New Zealand Times). The authority o£ "Tli© Weights and Measures Act, 1903," is merely permissive, enabling the Government to pi-oclaim the decimal system at anytime after Ist January, 1906, that ifc may think fit. But, as Colonel Pitt explained when the bill was before Parliament, Tvewt Zealand would^not be likely to set np an isolated decimal system without, say, England or Australia doing the same. Tha action which the Commonwealth vow prcposes to take may forward the object in. view, but at present the proclamation of the metric system "'s quite indefinite.

A work of some importance- is now being carried put in the railway workshops at) Adclington (says the Christchurch Press*. where four express locomotives of a type altogether new to the Australasian colonies — indeed, to the Southern Hemisphere — ai© being constructed. These engines are an, adaptation of the Bosquet de Glelm balance* compound locomotives, ?o successfully ancf largely used on th© Continental railway?. The Great Western Railway Company Las recently introduced this 'type of engine, with equal success, on its lines, nud a number of the locomotives are also in use and under construction in the United States. Those now in course of constriction at Adclington will have two highpressure cylinders (12in in diameter with a 22in stroke), and two low-pressure cylinder* (19m in diameter, with a 22m stroke). Tha working pressure of the boilers will be 2251b. The engines, when in working trim, will weig-h about 72 tons (inclusive of tender), and will be capable of running a. heavy express train at a, speed of 45 miles an hour on the- level. They will bo uscl over the lino between Cln-istcliurch and Invcrcargill. The whole of the construction, including the preparation of the plans, is being executed by the staff of the Railway Department.

The Lam? Commission hats decided to proceed to the North of Auckland di-t> ict after

Easter and take evidence there. This decision has been arrived at owint» to the fact that some of the loads in parts- of the North Island are impassable during winter.

It is stated that the ship's company of H.M S. Challenger have decided to devote one day's pay towards the erection of a monument- to the memory of the lad Hector Ennor, -who was killed on the narjhip at Napier recently throug-h falling !rom the " crow's nest."

Two more convictions were obtained at Sydney recently against persons using rooms for bettiug purposes, and heavy | penalties were inflicted. Ernc~t Thompson", in respect of a room in Market street, and Samuel Doylo, in respect of a room in King stieet. were each fined £100.