PASSING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2859, 30 December 1908, Page 5

PASSING NOTES.

(From Saturday's Daily Times.) Whilst the authentic critics are celebrating, con amore, John Milton and his three hundredth birthday (December $> just past), there are on that subject^, certain private heresies of ,my own which I should take occasion to ventilate^ — did not decency forbid, -I -was nearly saying ; — -let us put it^ another way and say, but for my infallible g^odl - taste. „ I like Milton little as a man, as a Puritan less, least of all as a master of English epic. However, letting 'these things pass, I am one -jvith all the Milton claque in . praising his" Nativity Ode, a piece which , I read religiously every Christmas Day. J Not altogether for religion^ sake, reli- ' gion being a subject on which Milton is no guide, on which, indeed, you never know where you have him. Not at all for religion's sake, but for the sake o£ sheer delight,— -the poetic charm and distinction, theMjuaint and curious point of view, the ancient myths made almost . credible — when Peor and Baalim forsake their temples dim, and when from ' haunted spring and .dale the parting genius \is with sighing sent; again the tremendous energy of expression, and ! jet, withal, the music. Ido not quote ; it were easy to quote; I might make out [ my appointed darg by quoting; let any doubting reader turn to the poem itself. The Nativity Ode, the Allegro, the Penseroso, the Lycidas ; these are the four pillars of Milton's lasting fame. Leave us these and take all the rest. Had Milton the poet not been also Milton the Puritan ; had he avoided to write religious epics which everybody praises and nobody reads ; Milton might have , out-Shakespeared Shakespeare. Christmas comes but once a year, — for which thanks be, and O let us be joyful. Without wishing to seem uiigracious, stUl lees to play the cynic, I feel impelled to say that Christmas brings wi-th- it much that,is disciplinary! Either you go to the country or "you don't go to the- country. Yon can't have it both ways ; which is a mercy, for either way is a distress. A picnic once in- a while is all very well, perhaps, — I speak doubtfully ; but about i a picnic every day through a lengthy succession of days I speak without any hesitation whatever. What is worse than a pig under a gate? Two pigs under a gate. Paterfamilias when two , days in the country bethinks him of this rule ; much more when he has been there two weeks. lam not iJiinking of troutfishing, or mountaineering, but of the family flit ; on which subject experto , crede. On the other hand if you stop in : town there is the trouble of holidays. Half the time your maid of all work does no work at all. It is yours to kindle the fire, cook the meal, sweep the kitchen, wash the dishes, make the beds, and yourself dismiss with " not at home" your nearest and dearest callers. Then there is the bottomless question of tips, —the postman, the dustman, the newspaper boy, the milk boy, with all the other boys, butchex, baker, candlestickmaker;—how much apiece? A shilling ?/ — half -a-crown ? You hate to be mean, yet to overdo it were ridiculous. Why doesn't the Arbitration Court or the -Minister for Labour settle these things by a tariff? Finally, and with solemnity, let me mention the moral obligation ot eating a€ Christmas time what you know you can't digest. Christmas fare is traditional; equally so is Christmas dyspepsia. The cooking may perhaps have something to do with it. But this is a delicate subject, and I can only adumbrate my meaning by a story. The late Archbishop Trench, a man of singularly vague and dreamy habits, resigned the See of Dublin on account of advancing years, and settled in London. Ht once went back to pay « visit to his successor, Lord Plunket (father of our respected Governor). Finding himself back again in his old palace, sitting at His old ainner table, and gazing across at his old wife, he lapsed in memory to the days when he was the masler of the house, and gently remarked to Mrs Trench : " I am afraid, my love, that we mtist put this cook down among our '* failures." Delight of Lord and Lady Plunkel' Possibly the repast under remark was a Christmas dinner. To "Cms."— Dear Sir: Would you kindly tell us, in Passing Notes, whet is meant by true temperance. It &eems that you and the editor and the Eev. Thomson and many others object to nolicense because' it doesn't promote true temperance, and it isn't a cure for drunkenness. Now, I suppose, if we take the six districts that have been under nolicense for the last three years, we shaJl find that drunkenness and all court cases, from the Police Court to theSupremo Court, have been reduced at l&ast *90 per cent. ; but yet that isn't true temperance; and rather than Dunedin should be like Invercargill or Oamaru, where they haven't liadi one drunk man a month, you would prefer that it should remain as it, is, with drunk people rambling through the streets and a stream of yoimg men going through the Police Court from one end of the year to the other. I can't understand it. — I am, etc., A Reader of Passing Notes. "What is true temperance?" The inquirer, if a temperate man, as I suppose he is, has the answer already in posses- , sion. He exemplifies and illustrates ii

every day. He is a temperate man although neither are the means of intoxication locked up out of reach, nor is he i himself locked up under no-license dis- ! cipline in one of his Majesty's prisons, S where alone may no-license in perfection jbe found. He is a free man in a free | and open environment, yet a temperate I man. Why is he temperate? Because he prefers so to be. That is the whole account of the matter. His motives may be as mixed as you like ; . he -wants to save his money, save his self-respect, save his soul, save all three; — but whatever i his motives the result is a free preference and a free choice : In spite of all temptations To. intemperate potations, He remains a temperate man. «.' And that is the true temperance. .Not so rare a thing, surely, for it is the ' temperance of nine men out -of every ten. On the other hand the inmates -of His Majesty's prisons, living as they do under the only efficient form of no-license, have a temperance of their own. .They don't get drunk because they 'cin't. Give them the" means, and nine out jdf lien of them would get drunk immediately. That is how the case sAndiF- between temperance that is real said %eiiH>erance that is a sham. Practical "^inferences from the contrast my -, correspondent maybe left to tlraw for h'inr'-K. The fighting prphibitibriTst who signalises his opposition to -\"' Crvis ',' v and sweet reasonableness "i>y 'calling himself "Sivic" — which is ' Crvis ", read backward — still haunts the correspondence columns of the Daily' Times and is still amusing,'— slightly malicious; perhaps, but on the whole qnit-3," goocL-fun. ■ .That being so, hfs proper place, if he knew it, is Passing Notes. Why doesn't he write to me? Why waste himself on an unsympathetic editor.? His letters are always money in my pocket, and mere gratitude would move me to accommodate them with,' a place of privilege where hospitality- is mine to bestow, not to mention the convenience of exhibiting . bane and antidote in the same column. Spite of appearances, -^ye should get along together quite easily, I .imagine, ii , content to please the public, and for that laudable object willing to give and take,— like *the allies' at the siege of Algiers-: - . \ From north -to south, > t Austria and France shoot in each other s mouth. . ( , i But there is a better comparison. Mr Merryman cracks his managerial whip 'about the ears o£ the clown who is cheeking him: but no harm is done. .They understand each- other, and it as alj in the way of business. The amenities of this column, I should hope, are at the least - not inferior to those of a booth afc a fair. During the Christmas season, at anyrate. Prohibition is one in principle with monasticism. said I 'the other week. Which doctrine can " Sivic" by no means digest. How could he, when his very name is a declaration that he takes things wrong end first? However, this being a case of acute dyspepsia, relieving- it will ] be a. work of mercy congenial to the season. Then let us set about it. Prohibition and monasticism are 6n&_ in prm- . ciple, I said, because " neither system teaches th«'weak brother to resist; each j would save him the trouble of resisting. | Which nobody can deny. No denial is attempted by* " Sivic " ;— he contents himself with constructing .some illusory parallels. Neither allopathy nor homoeopathy J would leave the sick brother to die; each would endeavour to combat the diseiase and save the patient; therefore they are one in principle. Neither the reciprocating engine nor the turbine would leave a, vessel at the morcy of ,the wind ; each would render it independent by means of one or niors propellers; therefore they 'are one in principle. They are one in pprpose, not in principle. And I had 6aid nothing about purpose. In purpose quack and anti-quack are one ; they would save the _patient, and incidentally collect' a fee. In purpose the p^addle-wheej, the screw propeller, the sails of a ship, the oars of k rowing boat are all one; their common purpose is to get tRe ' era ft along. Prohibition and monasticism are also one in purpose, as respecte the prevention of drunkenness ; but, in addition, they, unliktf the other examples, are one in principle— -4 he method by which their purpose ie to be effected. Purpose and principle, most sapient ," Sivic ";— try to distinguish. Each of them has two p's, but don't let that peculiarity muddle you. Remember \\\o fallacious parallel between' Alexander of Macedon and Harry of Monmouth, a parallel based on the two M*s. Moreover, says Fluellen, clinching the argument, " there is a river in IVfacedon and a river in Monmouth, and there is salmons in both." Last week we had a Supreme Court i Jud&e confessing for the encouragement | of duffers that at school he was a dull boy ami took no prizes. Or he may have meant to encourage the boy who takes no prizes to think hiraself not necessarily a duffer. As the. Judge in question is, in Otago at lea6t, a person of name and fame, I think probably that would bo his meaning. It may be backed up by the example of Mr Winston Churchill, also a person of name and fame. When a boy at Harrow Mr Wirston Churchill was always at the bottom of the school. So say the English papers. Recalling a story told of Lord Randolph Churchill, Mr Win-" ston Churchill's father, I find it possible to believe them. The story is that once when Henry Irving was acting Hamlet in Dublin, Lord Randolph, leaving the Vice-regal box. went behind the scenes to Irving's dressing-room after the second act and introduced^ himself. With an apology that was evidently sincere, he expressed his regret that, owing to a reception at the Castle, he was unable to wait for the conclusion of the performance. He declared himself, however, intensely interested with what he had seen, and begged Irving to tell

him in a few words, as his time was limited, how the play ended. Irving, taken aback and suspecting a jest, was with difficulty convinced that he had before him a sincere inquirer. But at last he supplied the information, desired, doubtless with singular pleasure. According to Panch it is sometimes the distinction of young guardsmen to find Hamlet, if by any chance they Tiear it, " doosed full of quotations." Compared with this, Jiord Randolph Churchill's ignorance justifies the Milton paradox : And in the lowest* deep a lower deep. Yet Lord Randolph was no duffer. t Eivis.

Interviewed last week at Auckland, Sir Joseph Ward stated that a Royal Commission .would be set -up at the beginning of tihe year to go into the question of the importations of Oregon pine into New Zealand, and to .consider questions pertaining to the timber' industry generally. Asked (says, the Press Association) what the constitution of the commission would be { and i wher^Ker;- th«' ; Buia<ters'-^Association will be represented, as Had been suggested) fhe Priqgfe- Minister said it, was not possible at .jiresilht feo .divulge- 4ny ? particulars regardrpijf. the constitution of the commission. > A case of wife desertion caused consider- ■ able* 'discussionV at £he meeting *of , the Benevolent Institution*" Trustees last week The ~ man had v - left^ his wife -&n.d in Dunedin and foujnd his way to Hobart. where, it was" stated, jhe was in lucrative employment, yet had sent his wife bujfc very little assistance. • The wife, on being called in, declared^ her willkignesß to give evidence against her husband if he was brought back to Dunedin. One trustee expressed very grave doubts as to whether they or the wife would be any better off if the man were brought back, but the other trustees evidently disliked the idea of the deserter remaining undisturbed at Hobart, where, it was alleged, he was living with another woman, and escaping the punishment they considered he richly deserved. It was finally decided that a warrant should be obtained £or hi 3 arrest, and he will: ba brought back to Dunedin. An ordination service was held at 9f« Paul's Cathedral on Sunday; 19th inst., by the Most Rev. the Primate, when Mr Hubert Blathwayt. and Mr Cyprian .Webb, were admitted to the diaconate, and the Revs. W. Wingfield and H. Parata were ordained priests.. The sermon was preached., by the Yen. Archdeacon Neild, ancPCanon Woodthorpe- sang' the litany. The -■was a most -solemn- one, and rendered the more impressive by the excellent singingof the choir. The Rev. H. Blathwayt ha» been appointed assistant cufafre to the Rev. H. Packe, of Queenstown, and the Rev. C Webb will act as assistant curate at Pa'merston to the Rev. Hubert Jones. The directors of the late firm of Howe" and Co., have (says a Masterton telegram)' instructed Mr W. B. Chennells, liquidator, to pay All claims against the estate in full* more as a moral than as a legal obligation-^ One director, who. had not signed a certain guarantee bond for a considerable overdraft at the bank, topk up the position that ho wOuld have signed had he been requested, and therefore paid the full share with the other directors, who, on a strictly legal basis, could only havejbeen called upon to pay 7s in the pound to ordinary creditors. One of the cases set down for hearing in, the Supreme Court, on the 21st was that of -Watson v. Watson and Turnbull, an application for dissolution of marriage on the grounds of adultery. When the time for the case came on Mr Finch, on behalf of the co-respondent, Sydney Turnbull, of Mosgiel, applied for the dismissal of the action on aoeount of 'the non-appearance of either the petitioner, Benjamin Watson, jun., of Wingatui, or the respondent, Elizabeth Lavinia Watson. The case was dismissed ftiid Turnbuil was allowed costs up to am* including the preparation for trial, and also costs for one witness. A Christchurch message states that Mr T.. W. Stringer, K.C., has issued a writ daimign £2000 for alleged libel against the proprietor of New Zealand Truth. The 5.6. Invercargill left Dunedin on, the 22nd inst., having been chartered by a number of gentlemen for a 14-days' trip to the West Coast Sounds. The following gentlemen— mostly commercial travellers—, make up the party :— Messrs G. Wafson, J. Gordon, T. Tobias, D. Cooke, D. White, R. .Nicholson, T. Nicholson, J- Ulckison, J. Byrne, R. Jack, A. Binnie, G. Brodie, A. Grave, A. Mackay, P. M'Cann, R. Ewing, D. Scandrett, H. Lambeth, and E.' Falck. The Justice Department in all likelihood will have at. least five vacancies in the •magistracy to fill early in the new year. Of these five, two have already been provided for in recent appointments to the bench. So far as can be gathered the vacancies that; are to be created by retirement do not affect the cities, but important districts are nevertheless affected. Quite apart from retirements there is a probability of a citj magistracy becoming vacant through it/ present learned occupant being promoted^ to a higher sphere. Thfi decision touching the question of oosts for ratepayers' _ appeals against the Assessment Court against the classification of their larofe on the Taieri was announced by Mr Waddowson, S.M. (president of the--court) on the 22nd inst. Mr Widdoweon said that hie had -carefulljr< cUneld^Bea" the matter, and had decided that all parties should pay their .p.wn .costs. There was the report of the Royal Commission to be considered, together with the fact that certainof the lands were excluded from classification. The act also contained »ew and* important conditions. All of the partial would therefore pay their own cost*.