PASSING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2804, 11 December 1907, Page 5

PASSING NOTES.

(From Saturday's Daily Times.) Baisuli has, I see, successfully pulledl off his big coup. The episode conclusively proves that despite the modern accessories ' of wireless telegraphy, airships, graphophones, and other trifles of a like description, human nature remains very much the same as it was a couple of thousand years ago. Still does the spectacle of "the wicked flourishing like the green bay -tree" compound gall and wormwood for the righteous man, and still must he take such cold comfort as he can from the knowledge that ''virtue is its own reward." | The apotheosis of Baisuli, in the great , transformation scene " From -a Bandit to a Pensioner ' is — once the safety of Kaid Mac Lean assured — full of delicious humour. The deep diplomacy of the terms on which the ransom of the plucky little Kaid has been arranged! is masterly, considering the diplomats were held by Raisuli in a very cleft stick indeed. , Twenty thousand pounds of good English 1 money is a nice little sum, but moderate enough when regarded) as not only the ransom of Sir Harry Mac Lean, but as the purchase money of the most up-to-date and well-conducted brigandage business of modern times. Raisuli has never advertised himself : in accordance with the older traditions of the trade he has left' that for his clients (or customers) to do. Yet, from the irresponsibly picturesque point nf view, what a. falling-off is here ! Into what a dull dead level of obscurity has the " gentleman named Raisuli, quite one of the leading lights of the profession,"' consigned himself. Protection for hia past misdeeds (a pretty big order this, I take it), a modest sum of £5000 to set up in private life respectably, and the remaining £15.000 invested," with the interest paid regularly as the re/ward of — successful villainy. liiis constitutes the mess of pottage for which an admirable rascal has sold himself into respectability. One can scarcely doubt the ultimate success of the experiment. There is nothing like the receipt of a certain income for inducing the growth of the middle-class virtues, and . we may yet hear of Raisuli as the equij valent of a country mayor or a village J.P. If anyone possesses some French illustiatedi papers commemorating the triumphant flights of the airship La Pfitrie or Lobaudy, I confess I should very much like to ?-ee them. One would like to compare them with the aggressive selfcomplacence of the British magazines and illustrateds on the successful voyage of the Nulli Sec-undub from Aldershot to London. The national game of " brag " is always ironically amusing — and the nations are , all playing it in such deadly earnest ! Now it is military brag, and again industrial ] brag, and back of all racial brag : and . ' this is the windiest and most tiansparent | brag of all. But in regard to their somewhat belated success in aerial navigation, | the English have fairly "chortled in their joy." Under a paltry photograph of the ' ugly aerial monster, the Review of Re- ' viev.'6 blatantly querns, '' Shall Britain 7 rule both sed and air?" the Graphic, I with a lull page photograph taken from * the Chuich of St. Bride, complacently c purr« '" Our Army Airship Conies to Town" ; while the Sphere goes, one better ( with an oiigmal drawing by Wyllie, * aiid refei.-> to this absolutely hideous * brobdignagiiin cigar as "floating with stately grace above the myriad roof-tops a of the metiopulis" — propounding moreover j the manifestly unanswerable query, "What v does our gieat Kelson think as our first < war aiiship swima into his ten?" The a last lieing. of course, apropos to the passage n of tlie Xulli Secundus over Trafalgai c sqiuie. All of this jubilation, though c pretty enough, and quite peimifcsib'e in h the national game of "bluff" and "'brag,'' & merely l elates to a 3-\lc won aixl paitial c success, and is solacing fioni th^ fact i] that it places us " amon^'' the Uadeis t c

of aerial navigation, where (France still ' ranks first. And how much, or, rather, how little, " first " means in. this matter of aerial navigation the latest cablegrams conclu- . sively prove — for " the wind bloweth I where it listeth." Yet before I leave the - topic of the Nulli Secundus (otherwise "Dirigible No. 1") too far behind, let me contrast the said with the unsaid, which last is 6O often the most important. In response to an invitation to lunch, 6houted by the manager of the Crystal Palace through the brazen throat of a megaphone to the dauntless trio in the , airship, "Colonel Capper skilfully brought the great airship to earth," is the accepted version. It was in a quiet corner among "the notes for the day" that I found: "Owing to damages- inflicted by the high wind the Nulli Secundus is being taken to pieces at the Crystal Palace to be despatched to Alderehot." So we can sympathise with France in the little anxieties in connection with her famous tame airship performing dissolute antics over the respectable city, of Glasgow ; though as a matter of fact neither the damage done to the British nor the irresponsible antics of the French airships will be reckoned too serionsly by practical experts who have already encountered the sinister, silent antagonism of Nature so often. We • hear of the successes ; they know of the failures. It is only about eighteen months since Count Zeppelin's first airship was as completely wrecked as the Nulli would have been had she not been promptly deflated, and under almost identical circumstances. After accomplishing a long over Lake Constance w ith brilliant success, it was attempted at nightfall to return to the shelter of the enormous shelter-shed. The rapidly-rising wind, however, drove the airship inland. While, trying to effect a. descent in a. sheltered spot, the huge craft was caught by a sudden gust and hurled against a clunip of trees. To parody the " Mad Dog " : . . . The tr«es got well:' The ship it waa that died. The Lebaudy airship— which is stationed at Meudon as an aerial training school — met with a similar fate in the first part of its career, though, being rebuilt, it afterwards had a veTy successful record. *or Wellman's failure to do more than " get going " for that extremely unpleasant place the Pole by airship I have a really genuine sympathy. There was something so fascinating about the optimism which bade the world look out for the departure of the America, planned comfortable quarters for the dogs, and packed the trailrope with a nicely-chosen menu ! , The dignitaries of the Church of England are much in evidence just now. The 1 old-fashioned game of " How do you like |t? when do you like it? and where do you like Jt?" fe being played by the public, with the bishops and canons as the objective. With regard to xcanons, the answer appears to be unanimously in favour of liking them to be " in residence " for one thing, instead of letting the canonical houses (on sound principles) for as much as they can get. Yet I fancy, since canons are only men, adequate leasons for letting your official residence at an excellent rental of £5 to £7 per week, and living pleasantly abroad yourself, might be temptingly eaßy to find ! I have my little personal sympathies vrhh canons — minor and otherwise. A genial and beneficent figure upon my youthful horizon was an uncle who was also a canon of Winchester Cathedral, and had a very fine instinct in the matter of schoolboy " tips " — a fashion pleasantly prevalent in my youth. A bit of a clerical fop, too, he must have been, for there was a family joke to the effect that uncle Charles had once received six dozen hats from a new hatter, who concluded from the minute and technical nature of his instructions that his new customer was "in the trade" himself! To successfully tether the absentee canon who lets his official residence, enjoys himself on the Continent or elsewhere, and draws his emoluments the- while, it is proposed to make general the prafticp of 'having only oTic canonical residence, in which the four canons shall take their alternate months of residence. Meanwhile the bishop*, — '' Luwnsleeves in Congress" — present the- edifying spectacle of proposing to give up their palaces, together with the largo incomes absolutely necessary to their maintenance, in favour of a more simple stylo of life. It must be three years ago, or more, since that most practical pielute, the Bishop of London, stated that his necessary expenditure over and above his official income of £10,000 a year amounted to more than £700. A modest "Hat in London, and a country cottage for rest and recreation, would, he declared, meet at once his wah*s and inclinations more truly than hie palace at Fulham and all its accompanying state. The importance of being "earnest" is nothing to the importance of the point of new. Our solitary example of a bad preeminence—Lionel Terry, to wit — is an nstance of this, poor chap. All over the ivorld he has been quoted as a case in >oint — now ate, the unique advertiser of his leglected pamphlet, now as an instance jf the length to which racial prejudice nay cany a man, and now as an interesting cas« of homicidal insanity. All, ,ou observe, arising out of the different joints from which the original man is •iewe-cl. finally, we our&elves have to !o with the very difficult combination of ill these ethical considerations embodied n- the six-feet-four of physical perfection vluch still roams at large, defying our louble claim upon his freedom. The spect in whkh Lionel Terry has forced is to regard him—that of either a criminal >r a lunatic — is ?ad enough surely to xcuse the sympathy -which ho affronts the ivpereritical moralist. Really theie eems a flavour of what Mrs Brov. n pitomkes as " well known to he jealousy a them as hasn't got 'ein'' about tin* ar.d omments on the sympathies evoked by

Terry'a physical advantages. To be quif« honest, -vrhich one of these severe moralists would not like to tow«r thus above his fellows— mye elf included, — sound in wind and limb, well-favoured, and apparently possessing attractions, of manner na less than matter? And yet again which one of us woxild barter our respectable mediocrity for all—but there! that is the worst of these topics : like the youthful bushranger to Mr Justice Denniston, they induce moralising. • Let us get back to the point of view. And this time it is the Spring— not "The flowers that bloom in the spring, tra la," of Gilbertian opera, but an episode of Spring translated to a' back-country store. Enter a young girl with a gown as fresh as the" bunch of spring flowers she carries. " Look ! Aren't they early? My word! Don't they look like Spring?" 'The old man, dried and wrinkled as a winter pippin, sniffs and grunts and sniffs again. "les," he answers with a meditative air, '' Spring's come right enough, the bluebottles ia buzzin' round again." And again at the recent exhibition of jthe Otago Art Society the point of view was everything — a not uncommon thing 1 in Art ; but it is Nature I referred to, Hot "Art. Art is a whimsical tissue of entirely fanciful values known only to\the cognoscenti, and by them quarrelled over with almost .Philistine acidity. Give me human nature for mv Yield of observation. There was a thin and worried -looking little woman pioneering a bi^j placid fellow, round and round the galleries while sh« anxiously looked up the prices to see how many pictures she could get for the value .of her art union win. From time to timer he showed how tired of it all he. was, and? finally remarked with an air of absolute) boredom : " Just get what you like ;' but why don't you take that one that 1! measured to fit between the windows-.. Frame matches the one Jack gave us fo* a wedding present. Funny you never noticed it: jolly nice frame, that." And) there was a /genial gentleman whom I took to be an artist, for he set forth to othe* interested critics that "'twould be ai mighty good thing when the show waa over; this hanging about pushin' iti along 's playing the very mischiefs wid me." And there was a pretty girl who never saw the pictures, for the simplereason that the saw only the man who accompanied her ; but she didn't want the 6how to close. " I wish- they would keep it open another month, and if only they) had afternoon tea and a promenade con-> oerfc at nighte, wouldn't it be sweet? '*■ Which entirely unexpected criticism reminded me of that remark of the two) elderly ladies returning to their genteel home in the suburbs after seeing " Antony and Cleopatra " : " How different to th« home life of the late Queen ! " Cms.

I The weekly meeting of the Benevolenl Trustees was held on -the 3rd inst., the chairman welcoming new members and ex< pressing regret at. the loss of Captain: Easther and* Mr Tapper. The secretary' re< ported that since last meeting Mary Griadell (aged 86) and James Johnston (aged 82f had died in the institution. Hearing of the caee M'Lennan r. Mac-* pherson (claim, £50 for damage to sheep) was continued at tho Magistrate's Court? I on the 3rd, before Mr C. C. Graham, S.M". The plaintiff (Ewen M'Lennan) is owner of a farm at Berwick, and on March 15' lasti was grazing sheep, comprising 64 stud owes and 280 crossbred awes. Defendant (Mr* Mary- Catherine Macphereon) i« owner of rams, w'hioh, as alleged, trespassed on M'Lennan'e farm amongst his ewes, and in* consequence 86 of the ewes — 11 stud and 75 orosabreds — lambed about six weeks befora the proper time, and before there was sufficient fodder to enable the ewes to rear tho lambs. Manj owes and lambs died or were depreciated in value, and extra cost was involved in attending and shepherding the ewes. Defendant made a counter claim for £90, the value of two of her sheep'dogr*, which were shot by plaintiff while on his land. Mr Hay appeared for plaintiff, and Mr Bundle for defendant. Further evidence was taken on both sides. Tho magistrate, in giving judgment, said it waa evident that p'aintiff's flock had suffered damage as the result of the trespassing of defendant's rame. He gave judgment for. plaintiff M'Lennan for £44, with costs (nine guineas). In regard to the counter claimt made by the defendant, be was. of tho opinion that plaintiff was within his right* in shooting the two dog« when he found them trespassing on his ground and among: ,hia sheep. He accordingly gave judgment' for M'Lennan, but did not alkrw costs. Speaking to a Lyttelton Times reported in regard to the future of the ferry service between Lyt-telton and Wellington, Si* James Mills said that, in view of tho approaohing completion of the Ncorthf Island Main Trunk railway, it would bd necessary for the Union Steam Ship ConM pjtny, at an early date, to have a fleoondi Maori on tho service, in order to meet the} needs of th<»- express service in both islander.*' "In regard 1o the Sydney service," h«, added, "it is quite safe_ to Bay that th<* time will come when it "will be necesaarjf to have a special intermediate 6ervioe b]^ turbine steamers between Sydney ar.'i Lyttelton and Wellington. "' At the examination hAi\ at tlie rfonvenk Port Chalmers, on "30?h ulf. in commotion with the London College of Mu»ic, all thd candidates presented (35) parsed. The fo!* lowing h iho liyt . — Associate (A.L.C.M.), MU-. DraUo: -ouior. Mi«s Dnwr, 75; inter* medial" -Mic- K>tile 82. Mi«s M'Demndi 68; elementary — Mibi Menzice 85, Mis^ Varnpy 81. Mi-s Anderson 77, Mi«« Wifeogf 77. Mi-* M'Cann 74, Master Mead it n .NJatri-T M'DornMfl 66; primary — Mi«s Knew-stubb 84, Mise Cu^ack^TS, Miss Birkncr 71, Mica Mackie 6^-