What Everybody Says.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2123, 23 October 1875, Page 3

What Everybody Says.

" In multitude of counsellors there is safety." —Old Provbrb,

After three months and a day's talking the session has been closed, and everybody feels relieved. The Governor has dismissed members from their duties ■with the usual hackneyed phrases, and the customary gubernatorial benediction. After all that has been said during the last thirteen weeks the Governor's speech reads somewhat comically. He thanks members for the zeal and attention which have marked the discharge of their onerous duties. Not a word of the misgiving lie must have felt at one period that the zeal of some members would outrun their discretion. He thanks them for the' liberal supplies voted for the public serrice. There he is no doubt sincere, or, if h» is not, responsible ministers are, aDd he is the mouthpiece of responsible ministers afc prorogation time. The liberal supplies are the most important part of the business of every session. As long as ministers can get them through they, seem quite willing to listen to unpleasant remarks about themselves, and very y£ew sessions have ever been held during which, more unpleasant things have Wbeen said than during the one -just ended. Everybody agrees that the Government have made one great mistake. At the last moment the Treasurer rescinded his promise about the subsidies. Instead of doing what he voluntarily asserted would be done, he has so very largely reduced the subsidies that it will be. surprising if he does not have to put up with more unpleasantness, not only 1 from members but from everbody. Municipal councils and road boards will be declared enemies, * and ministers generally will be in bad odour for som» time to cotne. Politics may be all very well for menit is manly to affect politics, but women like something more sensational. A murder, for instance, is more in their line. Not all women, be it said. Would that it could be said that no woman displayed this sort of love for the horrible, but it can't. Two days this week, the Court House was crowded—with asprinkliDg of the " softer" sex, in the expectation of gazing upon a poor creature who had killed her two children j and on two days numbers of women crowded into a close room for the. same purpose and to listen to the harrowing details of the shocking affair. This is not creditable to the sex generally, for it displays a morbidness of feeling to which they should be itrangcrs. Can anyone explain why it is that a woman who has lived in a humble position in the place for eight years without attracting any notice should suddenly become such an object of curiosity simply because she has in some undefined condition of mind committed murder ? Some of these curious ones were satisfied when they had " seen her." Others stood but .aweary three hours in a close room to hear all they could, to see a blood-stained axe and a woman's dress before they had a surfeit of the horrible. This peculiar ' feeling is unfortunately not confined to ■"time'or place. At one of the settlements on the East Coast where a devoted missionary was hanged and then decapitated, a mantel-shelf in a cottage was shown to visitors, on which the missionary's head had been placed after being severed from his body, and one visitor to the district went the length of cutting down the branch of the tree (it was a weeping willow) on which the missionary was hanged for the purpose of having ifc made into little souvenirs of the dreadful deed. Everybody will remember the visit to the Thames of a gallant major in the New Zealand Army on aD inspection duty ; how he "pitched into" one company, rather undeservedly as was supposed, and how the captain of that company cut up rough and cheeked his superior officer. So zealous was the gallant major on that occasion that he at once suspended the Captain, and recommended his dismissal (nothing less would satisfy him) from the service in order that the discipline of tho forces might be maintained. The same gallant major is said to be in trouble himself, and the cause, his refusal to withdraw an impertinent letter written by him to a superior. His recomnienda- • tion of dismissal might well be acted upon now, for if field officers can be guilty of insubordination, what can be expected of subordinates. The discipline of the service must be maintained, and perhaps this choleric mayor may find it out, as he no doubt will, unless he eats the leok, by withdrawing his offensive letter and promising never do so any more. The result of that special appeal on behalf of the Hospital may be* satisfactory, but very little is heard about it. The offer made by " subscriber " to give two guineas if nineteen others would com© forward with a guinea each has been lost sijjht of. If everybody might offer a word of adviqe "subscriber" should pay up, and then perhaps eight or ten will be found equally liberal with himself, which would be as good as if nineteen came forward with their guinea apiece. These conditional donations are bad in principle: they don't draw, or- if they do it is a sort of bravado giving, which is not exactly in accordance wi tv thai; method recommended by which the left hand is to remain in blissj^Kfcl.i^Oiacaj.eo'.tif what the right hand doeth. Why uon't f3&»kdies set to_ work and get Up a fancy fair, or something of that sort. x Once upon a time a good_ round sum was 'realised for the Hospital by a bazaar, and as it is a long time since there was such a thing, it might be tried again with every prospect of success. Everybody would do a little in some way or other, and indirect appeals to people's pockets are more successful than direct abstraction. •