What Everybody Says.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2129, 30 October 1875, Page 2

What Everybody Says.

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

The members of the late Opposition, including four Superintendents of Provinces, have lost no time in commencing a sort of crusade against that dreadful, impending infliction Abolition ; and they have begun it with eating and drinking. It would be wrong to suppose lhnt these gentlemen are influenced in the slightest degree by a love of feasting or the applause of the multitude; in these respects they are above suspicion. They no doubt fancy and believe that as the Superinten dents of the four powerful provinces they will largely influence public feeling. They are preparing the way for some of the small fry who will try to get into parliament by clinging to their skirts and repeating parrot like the lessons they will learn at the feet of these political Gamaliels. Of such politicians everybody should beware. Sir Georue Grey, and his three trusty followers, Messrs Macandrew, Fitzherbert and Bolleston, cannot represent more than four constituencies, and as they have declared their late opponents —the powerful majority—to be a corrupt lot, and generally denounced them as unfit to be representatives of the people, they will possibly use their influence to replace the corrupt ones by men holding opinions similar to their own —men who will help them to turn the tables on the late dominant party. They have commenced early, and the campaign has been opened with considerable eclat. It will be well if they succeed in getting together a good colonial party, but if they expose their little game too early they will only put their opponents on their guard. Johnny Sheehan has found out that there is a place outside Auckland, and no doubt some of his friends have by this time discovered that their own Little Peddlington is not the only place where existence is tolerable. If the peregrinations of the opposition do no other good, they may result in removing local prejudices and conducing to the formation of that colonial opinion the absence of which in politicians has been so often deplored. The reports of the recent debate on the New Zealand Parliament on the abolition question have acquired a startling interest in a neighbouring colony. Recently, it is reported, the remarkable intelligence was conveyed to the Pleasant Creek News by means of the telegraph that the Government had carried the " Abolition of Providence Bill through all its stages! " Everybody thought that the decrees of Providence were far removed from the arena of colonial legislation, and this piece of news must naturally have had a marked effect upon the nerves of tli© denizens of Pleaiaat Creek. Fortu-

nately for them they are not much affected by JNew Zealand legislative enactments.

Mining reports are no doubt very entertaining reading, sometimes more so than at others. For instance the following specimen is unique in its way, only it is a trifle vague. Coming as it does from such a high authority as the goldfield morning paper it must be right, but it is capable of additional light being thrown on the matter. The passage referred to appeared in Monday's paper, under the head " United Pumping Association," and runs thusly:—" The three large boilers hay© been thoroughly cleaned, internally and externally, and the whole five berdans have been fitted with smoke-consuming apparatus. These are found to work admirably, and no doubt effect a great saving in fuel, for there is no longer a dense volume of smoke ascending from the smoke stack." Perhaps, after this, we may expect to hear that the show of amalgam on the boiler plates is good, and that Bay of Islands coal will run two ounces to the ton.

A Maori has been vindicating his honor in thoroughly civilized fashion by tomahawking the destroyer of' his domestic peace. Such is the inference to be drawn from the telegram detailing the tragedy in Waikato. " The murderer an« his wife were educated and married by Archdeacon Maunsell." If the couple had been buckled to in Maori fashion, the injured husband would doubtless have taken satisfaction according to Maori custom, by taking his neighbor's goods. A few horses and cattle and other worldly gear would have been seized as utu, and the offence would have been condoned But having been educated and married like a white man, nothing but blood would appease the injured husband's wrath. If this is one of the fruits of civilization, some Maories at least might wish that they had remained in their normal state of barbarism, in which conjugal infidelity could be settled by damages—without even the formality of an appeal to the judgment of a divorce court. What will the Government do under the circumstances? Punish the murderer •«nd get up a little native difficulty, or let him flee to Tawhiad's city of refuge ? Humour is a common liar, so 'tis said, and therefore it is not worth contradicting, especially if what rumour cays be without foundation. Some people think otherwise, and of such must have been the writer of a paragraph which appeared the other day with regard to " a foolish and exaggerated report," etc. The report may have been correct, but very few people heard anything of it until the correction appeared, and then everybody with common consent commenced to talk and to comment. If the " report" had been let alone not one in a hundred would have heard of the painful circumstances which gave rise to it, but the contradiction made everybody as wise as the clever artist who attempted to set matters right. The New Zealand Times says the banquet to the Superintendents in Dunedin was a huge failure. I hat's a good word. Huge failure. As far as numbers go, for a banquet it was a huge success,' but possibly it is intended that the speeches were huge failures. Of this nobody <an judge from the hotch po eh wired to the newspapers. The artist who reported these speeches is a huge failure evidently, for he has failed to convey any clear idea of what the speakers said. Those Superintendents can talk; evidence of that was forthcoming during the lato session ; and to say that at the banquet they all failed would be to insinuate, that the wine or the enthusiastic reception had got into their heads and operated upon their tongues. 'I hat the gathering was a huge failure the telegraphic report belies, for the cateivrs get the credit of having made it a bu^e success, the New Zealand Time* to ihe contrary notwithstanding. :he sooner these peripatetic Superintendents ami their tails come home the better for^ their own reputation and their Provinces' welfare. It is fervently to be hoped this first attempt at stumping the colony will last them for a lifetime, when it is pronounced a huge failure by the leading paper of the colony. Everybody was sorry that last week brought to a termination the short dramatic season of Mr De Lias' company. During the time they were here they produced seven plays besides minor pieces, and of these five were in every way pronounced successes The remaining two " The Merchant of Venice" and the " Colleen Bawn " were of that kind which it is utterly impossible that any company, however talented its members may be, can placß upon the stage with justice, with only one day at their disposal in which to prepare them. Independent of the great attention which must be paid to the language of the " Merchant of Venice," ifc requires a considerable amount of scenery, while the " Colleen Bawn " de- j pends almost entirely for its success upon ! stage effects. It is manifest that one day is totally inadequate a time to prepare these in a fitting manner even had the company any amount of scene painters with them, and as they had not even ouo —Mr Thornton being employed the while at Auckland —we must in justice to them say. that these two plays were rendered as well as they could be under the circumstance. The other five pieces, were all good, and were all appreciated, I indeed it would be very hard lines if they had not been. The plays themi selves were good, both in plot and dialogue, well written and well acted throughout. Perhaps the more modern ones, "School," and -'Pygmalion and Galatea" were more appreciated, but everybody, on this point, is not of the same opinion, and many speak very highly of " Love's Sacrifice, ' and " Playing with Fire." Of those who took part in them, as far as acting goes, Miss Carry George is facile princeps; her talents are very versatile and she was equally at home in delivering the curse of Leah or the light flighty dialogue of .Naomi Tighe. Mr Lawrence is one of those actors of whom the more you see the more you like and apprecia c them. Cast him how you will it seems impossible to put him out of place, and he must be a most useful man to any company as he is equally at home in any part. His acting seemed mo>.t natural in the character of Jack Poyntz, and best as Dr. Savage, but he was good in all. Mr Collier is too we 1 known at the Thames to require much comment. Everybody noticed, ' however, his finished delineation of Nathau the renegade in "Leah." The same, as regards being known, may be said of Mr Jroolo, save that he acted better than ever especially as Chrysos in which his get up and conception of the part were inimitable, he was very good too in " School," " Love's Sacrifice," and " Playiug "with Fire.' Miss Lizzie Mor-

gan and her singing made an immense impression on everybody at the Thames and everybody is anxious that she should corrte here again. Her songs, though she was suffering from a bad cold, were remarkably sweet, and created a pVrfect furore here; th-re is no doubfc about her success. Kverybody is not so pleased, however, to find that her now tumous song '.' Silver Threads'" has also infected the juvenile mind with an ambition to •hine as and it is not so pleasant to hear it hummed, whistled or howled with every variation of time and tune winch these same minds can conceive, wherever everybody can by chance go. Mr Searle played well in " Love's Sacrifice," Mr Burton in " School," and Mr tiweeney in the "Colleen Bawn," and this is all that everybody cim say on the matter.