PASSING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2805, 18 December 1907, Page 5

PASSING NOTES.

(From Saturdays Daily Times.) Being unable myself to view the Dundonaldf curios, I sent someone else, which was, in softgoods parlance, "the best we could do at the price." From my point of view every able-pursed citiaen whose duties, like my own, called him elsewhere, might fitly have sent his admission fee for the benefit of those plucky victors in a lonp seven months' fight with the grim spectres of despair and starvation. As evidences of the vitality of those '" hearts of oak " which the pessimist affects to doubt the existence of among our modern sailor men, the' souvenirs of the Ihmdonald and her crew are worth many shillings from each one of us. They\ bear mute testimony for the sailor men whose speech — on shore — is apt to be beside the point, and show what even the most ordinary man will dip "between the devil and the deep sea." Nor could the landlubber desire a more convincing proof that familiarity does indeed breed contempt than the frail improvised boat in which these sea-dogs braved the stormy waters of the budAntarotic. These were relics better worth looking at, finer to possess, than the relics of Ola Newgate, which found such eager purchasers not a year ago. £13 — that ominous , number — for the door of the >oondeavned cell showed a nicely cultivated taste in morbidity in the purchaser. The old bell, cast in 1775, with its quaint admonitory inscription — Ye people all who hear me ring, Be faithful to your God and King — was purchased for Madame Tusssaud's, together with the fittings of the condemned cell, for £100. The steps by which so many doomed men mounted to the scaffold — dread via dolorosa of detected criminals — went dllrt cheap at £1 12s. Cheerful thing this to introduce to the villa garden or the back piazza! In fact the different lots moved off so easily that the splendid new Sessions House only contains two souvenirs of Old Newgate — a bit of the gallows beam, showing the groove worn by the executioner's rope, and part of the door of the press yard. Quant, suff. The American magazines — anathema to the purely literal mmd — are always safe to provide a programme of mental exercise. There is such a great deal to digest. The salt of discretion is in such constant demand that the process of deciding which juicy morsel we shall accept, and which reject, never flags. We are "kept going" all the time. Just now, all that relates to the commercial interests of the East, and America's connection therewith, even to the smallest details, is much in evidence. A certain Dr Woods Hutchison writes in " The World's Work " on " The Mongolian as a" Working Man," and diffuses throughout his article an atmosphere of dispassionate common sense quite refreshing. Having been a migratory resident of the Pacific Coast from Vancouver to Los Angeles during the last seven years, and ' r being neither a day labourer nor an employer of labour," he claims some qualification to speak from the impersonal point of view. And first he sets forth that while there is an honest desire to keep the Pacific Coast a white man s country, here is a consensus of opinion among all classes, " except labour unions, j hoodlums, and the politicians and editors vho truckle to them, strongly in favour of limited Mongolian immigration." A course for which, according to the writer, there are very obvious reasons. First and foremost the American day labourer takes ! himself both seriously and haughtily. He . is a day labourer only "in transitu " — while he works for a stake. "As soon I as he has earned one or two hundred dol- ,' lars, off he goes to the fisheries, the mines, ! the timber or homestead claim to set up | for himself." Briefly, no American day labourer expects to pass his life in that peaceful but somewhat monotonous professions "h« v too ambitious and too in- ]

telligent for that." Naturally somebody must do the work. Apparently, of all available " somebodies " the Chinaman — whom we barricade ourselves against with a hundred pound premium and an educational qualification which might with perfect justice be applied to the missionaries we are kind enough to send (unasked} to China — is immeasurably the best. Ruling rates for Chinamen with us have long been high, and I see that the Government has just netted a comfortable £400 entrance fee for four able-bodied Chinamen. May they find the game worth the somewhat highly-priced candle. On the Pacific Coast, too, rates are apparently high, bat in a different sense. In that labour market the Chinaman has justified himself to such good purpose that he has exploded one more of our oldest and most conservative bogies — Chinese cheap labour. And that too in the very plpoe where Bret Harte (of beloved memory) coined the phrase for the immortal Bill Nye. It is as curious as it is interesting to watch how the dead leaves dance before the wind from the East that sweeps ever in increasing -force through the Western world ; how Europe has been freed from that dread Russian nightmare before which she cowered, only to fall tinder the darker, more sinister nightmare of the Yellow Peril; how the little matter of Chinese labour, which has bulked upon every labour programme prefaced by the word " jheap " — synonymous with the ugliest cuss word procurable — is being exploded by the East itself. There on the Pacific Coast "the phrase provokes a smile, for the Chinese labourer gets at least as high a wage as the white man of the same class, usually a little higher on account of his superior industry, honesty, and trustworthiness." The Chinaman working in orchard, mine, or icannery commands his eight to twelve shillings a day, and the capable Chinese house "boy" is snapped up at £8 a month ■and board. "Chinese labour," says Dr Woods Hutchison, "fills a gap which no white man or woman on the Coast ,is willing to fill except temporarily, under stress of circumstance." All of which gives point to the cablegram of a few days back stating that some Californian industries were threatened with extinction for want of suitable labour. ' From these fat figures, which are comfortable enough to tempt any but the denizens of our foolish pocket Dominion, where milkers scoff at £2 a week, it seems actually paltry to turn to the straws which show how the current sets concerning Chinese cheap labour with us. However, ' heTe is one — regard it as you please : Lady, calling at Chinese laundry and tendering four coppers to smiling proprietor. "Want my collars,, John — there's the money." "Oil no, missie, wantura eight penny." "No, four collar, four penny, that's all right," "No fear! no more allite. Allite before, jess now no more. No more workum Sunday, no more workum night-time : eight hour go up, wages go up, me go up too." " South Africa strongly nermeated with the Ritualistic craze, and New Zealand 1 said to be following on the same lines"! | This is " seeing ourselves as others see us " , with a vengeance. Without disputing the ' hoary truism that outsiders see most of i the game, I have certainly been under the impression that if we had any craze in church matters it was toward an amiable tolerance, accompanied by a good deal of musical interlude in public places. Moreover, have we not been far too busy keeping out quack medicines and Asiatics to bother about Ritualism? Appearances point to a general " go-as-you-please " in the matter of ritual, and I for one am glad of it, for in the expression of his religion more than most things one man's meat is another man's ooison. Yet one craze I do wish that we were infected with — a more critical taste in sacred music. Evidently there, is an accepted theory that anything is good enough for the Almighty — in the musical line. Otherwise how could we tolerate the atrocious devotional discords of "certain bands? If our streets are to be unconditionally given up to itinerant musicians (heaven save the mark !) and the work-a-day mixed miseries of graphophones, barrel-organs, and string bands give place on Sunday to the doubledyed villainies of the Army bands, life will scarcely be worth' living. The M.P. who brings in a little bill for regulating street music on the lines of a compulsory standard of excellence may be sure of my vote. Regarding the prospects of the New Theology in our midst, which were alluded to in a quite disquieting manner at the, tail end of the same cablegram, I think I may safely reassure the timid. The rumour that a certain genial and wellknown runholder had burnt Ins copy of the book appeared at first sight to promise the danger and dignity of martyrdom for the too emotional Mr Campbell. Further investigation, however, caused the incident to fall lamentably flat. It seemed after all that in the first place our friend* "couldn't understand it," and in the second place there was nothing else at hand to light the fire with. Merely a case of "to what base uses may we come." There are two or three much-harried topics which clamour for the justice of brief mention — they will get no -more. One is Lionel Terry, derelict between the ugly Scylla and Charybdis of mental hospital and prison. We have, each one and all of us, decided long ago which frigid hospitality should rightly claim him — in our opinion. I merely give the following instance of the relative values of human life as a species of sidelight on Terry and his mistaken methods. Early in this present year of grace a jury in Thun found Mdlle. Tatiana Leontieff guilty of wilful murder. Her amiable intention was to enter an effective protest against Mons. Durnovo by shooting him. By an unfortunate error, hovever, the too impetuous Tatiana shot the wrong man — an entirely inoffensive tourist. In view of which extenuating oiucumsfcances U»* iury

[ " made tie punishment fit the crime' by exacting a fine of ninepenee half - penny seconded by a term of four years' imprisonment. " Pott scriptum" finds me still with a topic or two on hand. Let me hasten to get rid of them, for already there ia a holiday breath of irresponsibility in the air. first, as to the defunct Houses of Parliament, for this year will henceforth take its place with the historic years of "the great earthquake" in the north and " the Old Man flood " in thej south. There are no doubt' compensations in this, as in most disasters. W$ all know that the effect of a fire in what? may be called " private life " is often* Phoenix-like in the renewed splendour with which the family emerges from its loffl of jewellery that they "nevefc wore " and " family plate " that no one. ever suspected the existence of. Then" the ethical aspects of these things bulk largely. In the private case it is the> rich flood of sympathy which never seems to fail, and, like the rain, falls on tha just and the unjust alike. In the public event the field of ethical compensation is -simply enormous, as time will Know. E foresee many a parliamentary tight place in which Lords, and Commons, and? Cabinet Miniatere alike will discover int the recent fire a blessing in disguise. What troublesome discrepancies, whatf unfulfilled promises, what documentary good intentions the red pencil of tljose flames have scored out we shall begin; to learn without delay, and continue to learn for many a year. And, finally, like the magnificently comprehensive curse of the Cardinal Lord Archbishop of Rheims, when all is said and done the State fire of '07 will perhaps be summed up as : What gave rise To no little surprise Was, no one seemed one penny the worse. Commemorating another less spectacular Wellington incident, the following frag« ment reaches me from a genial correspondent always mindful of my needs :— Tmc Wbujhoton Hxaßomt Board, thh UNION CbMPAWT, AND THE PATENT SLIP. (A Fragment.) The *Board thought they wanted the Slift And th»t it was well within their grip; So the Unjbn Company granted Just what th« Board wanted, For it's patent they gave th«m the slip !—!£. Civis.

A meeting of creditors in the estate of James Jackson Munio, horee-traimer, of Dunedin (now of Gore), was to have been held on the ,10th, but was further adjourned owing to the absence of the bankrupt. Thim ; is the fifth adjournment that it has bean found necessary to mako from one cause oorr r another. The official assignee on the lOttf (Mr C. *C. Graham) received a telegr*mT from Mrs Munro, stating that her husband* had gone up country. Two or three oredi-' tow who attended at the hour of meeting were not pleased at the bankrupt's nonj appearance, end something was said abouti taking out "a warrant to compel hia ttf attend. Some sensational xumours were abroad id the North-Ea»t Valley la»t week concerning the cause of death of * bojr who died at his parents' residence on the Bth intt. It is as well, perhaps, to make pointed reference to the case so that aa pointed a! denial may be given the unfounded allege tions. Shortly put, it was stated in notf » few quarters that the boy had beeri neglected by his parents, and that testimony to that effect would be forthcoming at tfcql inquest. But the inquest revealed nothing of the sort. All the evidence went tn« other way. The boy, in addition to atten r tion from his mother, had received advica from two medical men, who attended himr at his homej and was also visited by Sisters of the Church, and to none of these was iti evident that the boy was neglected or uncared for in any way. One of the Sister* gave evidence to this effect at the inquest* After the jury had given its verdict a! local clergyman, with the permission of th«f coroner (Mr 0. O. Graham) addressed somet words to the jury to show that every care had been given by the Sister of the Church? to the case, and that there was no ground" for allegations of neglect. Our Greymouth correspondent telegraphed) last wrek: — "I have good reasons for. believing that early in the new year Mr R. - Slater, at present the worker*' representative on the Arbitration Court, will be called to the Legislative Council in/ recognition of the services he has rendered.'' The rateable value of the iDunedin Drain* age and Sewerage Board's district for the' coming year, it is estimated, will be within' a few thousand pounds of £500,000. Mr F. O. Bridgem&n, who returned from. Hobart recently per the lonic, obtained from the purser of that vesseel a contribution of £3 to the funds of the/ New Zealand Shipwreck Belief Society, being a bhare of Sunday collections received on the outward! voyage. This is the first donation received from tibie line of steamers, the collections having previously been divided: between the Seamen's Missions at Wellingr ton and Lyttelton. It is to be hopeq that in future the Shipwreck Belief Society will receive a fair share of same, and th« society is indebted to Mr Cummins, ths purser of the lonic, for making a etart hi this direction. At the meeting of the Land Board on th«f 10th a letter was received from the secretary of the local branch of the New Zealand! Farmers' Union asking that in future the meetings of lite board should be held twice a month, instead of monthly. The request was remitted to the Minister of I-ajula /«*< bis favourable consideration*