PARS ABOUT PEOPLE

Observer, Volume XIV, Issue 795, 24 March 1894, Page 3

PARS ABOUT PEOPLE

Harry Whitaker, late of Auckland, is living in Matabeleland.

Mr R. Maudsley, one of the crack bowlers of Wellington, will be in Auckland for the next week.

Dr. Kennedy told an Auckland reporter the other day that Count Mattei was 84 'and expects to live another 30 years.' Whew !

Sir John Hall has left for England on a visit. He will be able to enjoy himself now that he is away from politics, and, after all, he is much better off.

Judge Richmond declared the other day in Wellington (with a barg on the desk of the judicial fist) that there was a legal maxim that the judge is condemned when an offender is acquitted.

Arthur Dixon, the well-known Wellington yachtsman, who took the clipper Jessie Logan away from us, is on a business visit to Auckland.

IPettitt, the dramatist, used to say, ' When I die, I'm sure it will be between four and five o'clock.' He complained of always feeling a loss of vitality at that time. His death ocourred at five o'clock.

The Eev. Tommy Spurgeon appears to be filling his celebrated, papa's shoes to the satisfaction of the big London Tab. It is highly improbable that Aucklanders (unless they go Home) will ever gaze again upon the gifted Thomas.

Cabled that General Booth is still thinking of that Australasian ' Salvation colony.' Bat the subscriptions don't appear to roll into the Harmy's coffers quite as fast as they used to. The fickle public wants even its religion up-to-date.

Hearty congratulations to Mr Mark Cohen, of the Dunedin Star, upon his success in gaining a seat upon the Otago Education Board (writes Editor Wilson, in the N.Z. Mail\ fllr Cohen has long taken a very keen interest in matters educational in Dnnedin, and he is the right man in the right place on the Education Board. He is on the City Council also, and some day — we venture into the perilous grounds of prophecy— he will be one of Dunedin's members ; and an able and exceptionally intelligent M.H.R.. he would make.

Lord Boseberry said repeatedly before Jabez Balfour was arrested that he would ' never, rest until that fellow was bagged.'

Sir Andrew Clark left a fortune of more than two hundred thousand pounds behind hi*ri. He started in life without so much as the usual two-and-six.

And so Tom Sullivan, Auckland's own particular Thomas, has been and gone and done it!— that is he has joined the benedicts. Congratulations, Thomas. Happiness be yours !

Mr Knott, temperance lecturer (he formerly ran a outler's shop in Greystreet, Auckland, if we are not mistaken) met with an unpleasant experience at Clyde, Otago, the other night. While he was lecturing in the Town Hall, larrikins improved the shining hour by cutting his buggy harness into little bits.

Writing of the late Bishop Colenso a London correspondent says :—Havingturned Humanitarians the whole family have given up worrying the Pentateuch. The Bishop's particular brand of heresy is quite out of date. Heresy is one of those things whioh requires to be kept up to the very latest fashion or the public won't look at it.'

Dr "Wilkins appears to have had a very narrow escape with his life, by thebursting of a kerosene lamp in his spectaoleroom. The lamp waa blown into a thousand fragments, the window shattered, and a very large stock of spectacle glasses and other goods damaged. It was only by the greatest exertions that the building was saved, because for a time the room was filled with flames.

Mr Henry Wilding, who recently returned from a trip to the old Country, holds the New Zealand agency for Messrs J. and F. Howard, of Bedford, whose portable railways and permanent light railways, waggons, etc., are so well known. These railways, Mr Wilding informs us, can be laid down over reasonably level country at a cost of something like .£SOO a mile, so that they should he of great value in the opening of new districts and in establishing connections with railway lineß already existing. The Messrs Howard are fortunate in securing the services of a gentleman of such high business standing and extensive commercial connections as Mr Wilding to represent them in this colony.

Rev. S J. Neill intends to conduct unsectarian aervices at Auckland and the Thames on alternate Sundays. We hear that Mr L. Ehrenfreid has given him the use of St. George's Hall at the latter place, and, if so, he has behaved very ereneroualy. The Ladies Association of the Thames Presbyterian Church has taken up Mr Neill's cause in a very emphatic manner and seceded in a hody because Mr Neill was debarred from the privilege of saying farewell to his congregation. The Presbyterian authorities are bo shortsighted in this matter that they cannot or will not see beyond their own noses, and their narrew policy is doing them much harm in the estimation of the Thames people.

The Premier was returning through the township of Kihikihi from his visit to Bewi. He alighted at the principal hostelry for refreshments. Saleyards were in course of erection just across the road and the carpenters at once knocked off work and followed the Premier into the sitting-room. They wished to pay their respects. They were in fact the Town Board. Its funds were too meagre to admit of the building of public sale yards by contract. So the Board had taken off its coat and by means of a working bee was putting up the yards by the sweat of its own manly brow. Mr Seddon was charmed. ' Gentlemen,' he said, ' you are giving a practical exposition of the selfreliant policy which the Government is trying to inculcate. I wish I could call upon the entire colony to witness this very instructive object lesson.' Bravo Kihikihi!

Alfred King, the journalist, who has jnst died at Wellington, was a powerful athlete twenty years ago, at which time he was a reporter on the stafF of the Auckland Star. One night, it was his duty to attend the opening performance of a circus that was playing in the Market Square, but when he presented himself for admission the door-keeper refused him entranoe for the reason that he had no ticket. King was very indignant, because the neglect to supply a press ticket was the fault of the management, and he at once turned to leave. Of oourse the doorkeeper had to be insolent. It's a way they have got. He muttered something about impostors. King's blood was up in a moment. He coolly surveyed the fellow for an instant, and then seizing him by the seat of his pants and the coat collar he lifted him up in his arms like a bag of oatmeal and threw him clean over the high wooden barricade into the tent entrance. And then he left. Next day the circus proprietor offered an abject apology, and brought the v door-keeper to make another, but King only laughed. He had had all the satisfaction he wanted.