What Everybody Says.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 1884, 16 January 1875, Page 2

What Everybody Says.

" In multitude of counsellors there is safety." . —Oro Pitorm.

When every body went to rest on Satur. day night last, lulled to sleep by the perusal of what everybody had said of the famous article on navigation, net one dreamt of the fearful news which was being conveyed to the colony ota, disaster at s^a. The Co?patriek was. being anxiously waited for, and, she came not. Instead, though, came the intelligence of her total loss by burning, and the loss of nearly five hundred men, women, and children ; the terrible alternative of being burnt to death or drowned suddenly being thrust upon the hundreds who crowded the ship's decks. The news was soon iii everybody's mouth. It was the sole topic of talk at the Corner—everywhere, in fact. The Ohinemuri excitement paled before it; the price of scrip , was not asked ;, a disaster had happened, terrible in extent and dreadful in its effects. If the ynfortunate'victims had been altogether unknown, the erent would have caused a -sensntipn ; but the poor passengers by the Cospatrick had come to be looked upon as pa> t and parcel of ourselves; loving friends were waiting to embrace them in their new home, and to renew those kindly relations which had been interrupted by long separation. The expectations have been rudely dispelled; a terrible visitation overtook those at sea, and the hopes of happy meeting after year* of separation are for ever banished from the breasts of some who are in our midst. Everybody feels for the victims and for the bereaved ones; and everybody is painfully anxious to know as much as can ever be known of the causes which led up to such a disaster as that to which reference has been made.

Everybody has come to look upon the news generally received as " cablegrams " as uninteresting. Usually, it is true, European politics occupy a prominent place ia this class of news, wired to Australia at an enormous cost. This same political news only a very small proportion of the community care anything at all ' about, although some affect t» devour it. with avidity, understanding as little about it all the time as a donkey does of botany. Bat the past few days—over a week ia fact—have seen budget after budget of cablegrams and telegrams containing a ', succession of horrors. Fearful railway accidents, dreadful colliery explosions, shipwrecks, &c, by cablegranw By means nearer home, murders of every degree and shade of atrocity. Certainly it would be better to have no news than surfeit of horrors. No news would indeed be good news, and everybody •rcept a morbid few would rejoice. The alluvial gold question has kept everybody in better temper regarding Ohinemuri than anything else would have done. If perfect quietness had been maintained about the Upper Country,, by this time loud grumbling would have been heard; gold has been got, and everybody has seen it; hence it is only fair aad reasonable and wise to exercise a little, more patience/and calmly await the opening as law-abiding citizens. As usual, theorists have not

been slow to give their opinions about the gold; and the same opinions are as different as they can well be. Is there no one who can give a reasonable theory of alluvial gold; It seems not, for no one has come forward to answer certain . queries put forth the other night. It appears to be a fact that geology is sadly at fault as regards the original formaiion and subsequent distribution of gold. When it exists in plenty, people are content to take as much as they can get. When it is difficult to get, then the science «t the mineral loses its attraction^ Theorists, be they ever so lrarned, are not much sought aftor as mates on a new rush. Everybody would rather peg in with an old Australian, Otagp or We*t Coast miner than cast in their fat with

one who can talk glibly of "formations," &c.

It has been reserved for Good Templars to introduce a new tiling in social gatherings— speeches without toasts. 'So judge by tHe talk as reported the after luncheon speeche-we c neither be ter nor worse than similnr lucubrations delivered under different circumstances -where the voice had been m#&wed with wine, the tongue loosed, andj/the manly bosoms of the speakerfKexpanded by the penial influences W the table. The usual amount of palaver—on the cawing principle -just a s r<upgon of contrariety to give a relish, and th* Good Templar speeches were as like t > the speeches of other men who take something stronger than water to assist their digestion as peas in a pod. Do the Good Templars ever .'n their widest dreams estimate the number of the institutions they aim at destroying in abolishing the liquor traflic ?