"ParS About People"

Observer, Volume XV, Issue 858, 8 June 1895, Page 5

"ParS About People"

John Washington Ikying Abbott thinks that a third-rate man would have done quite as ■well with our million-and-a-half loan as Mr Ward did. Self-praise, John, is no recommendation. Mr J. J. Craig, than whom there are few more popular men in the city, was dangerously ill from typhoid fever at the moment of writing. This is much to be regretted, but we trust he will have a speedy recovery. It is said that Mr Craig has made some thousands of pounds by the rapid advance in the values of mining stocks during the last few weeks. Rev. Alexander Carrick, who died of typhoid last Sunday, was considered to be the most scholarly and eloquent preacher in Auckland. He was an art student in his early youth, but gave up this pursuit, and entered the Presbyterian ministry. Mr Carrick had the charge of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church for eighteen years. Old man Pearce, up Patea way, knows a thing or two. He has a patent process for bursting up big estates, and he is ready to brew cider against any man in the colony. If you meet him at Larsen's any day. give these two subjects a wide berth or you must hear him out to the bitter end. Foggon is the euphonious name of the last individual who escaped from Wellington gaol. In this case, there is a horrid suspicion abroad that a lady is at the bottom of ' it.' The fair one is said to be a dealer in old clothes, and being desirous of the company of the enterprising Foggon. contemplated proceeding to Sydney, but the steamer was put off at the last moment till the following day, thus spoiling the plans of the eloping pair. Mr Richard Arthur, of Ponsonby, was, we regret to say, very ill at the time of writing. Mr Arthur has devoted himself very closely to business for several years past — too closely, perhaps — but his energy and capacity have regained for him the ' position in business that he largely lost several years ago, through no fault of his own. Let us hope that he will recover and live for years to come, to enjoy the fruits of his industry. Oldham, the frozen meat magnate at Patea, who won his action in the Supreme Court against a Sydney firm, and who also came out on top when the case went to the Privy Council not long since, boasts that he has ' never yet lost a court case. Bless your hearts,' he said when the Privy Council judgment was cabled out to the colony, ' I knew how it would be. The Privy Council was not going to break my record.' Young Aucklanders are planted thickly along the fat and fertile plains of Taranaki, and appear to be flourishing like the ticriptural green bay tree. Herbert Mason, brother of the well-known Queen-street hairdresser, is Dominie at Waitara, and true to the political instincts of his family, he cropped up on the recent occasion of the Premier's speech there to second the vote of thanks and confidence. Hugh Gourley jerks the lightning from the Waitara telegraph office, but is too good a man to be buried in so small a place. Mclndoe, who formerly drove the Mount Roskill 'bus, now drives the "bus between New Plymouth and Fitzroy, and his twelve-year-old son it was to whom the Premier recently presented a gold medal (subscribed for by the residents) for jumping into the Henui River and rescuing a drowning child. Bob Xiusk still hangs out his shingle and kicks the football at Stratford, and George Smart is at the same place, making his pile as a plumber. Audus Raynes, once the best- known boniface on the Northern Wairoa, now runs a pub at New Plymouth, and his son has aspirations in the direction of the Permanent Artillery. A. G. Bennett, son of draper Bennett, is a solicitor at Manaia, and John Munro, formerly in the service of the Bank of New South Wales at Auckland, is now the veuy popular manager of the Bank of New South Wales at Patea. The wife of Mr C. E. Major (Mayor of Hawera) is an Auckland girl, one of the Fernandez family of Newton. Mr Hooker, a painter once wellknown at the Shore, now paints signboards in New Plymouth, but still swears by Auckland.

Sir Maurice O'Rorke is back from Australia. He says he never ,-enjoyod a trip more than this one, and 1 according to him things on the other side are not so depressed as they have been. Charlie Syme was wanted to second the motion of confidence in the Government on the occasion of the Premier's speech at Patea the other day. But Charlie is strictly non-committal. 'No blooming fear,' he is reported to have said, 'I must hear him first.' Everything is blooming with Charlie ; even his cheeks. 'Tramp' Wickbam was up Hikurangi way the other day, and during his tour through that progressive countiy appears to have given annoyance to the correspondent of a contemporary, who crushes the Tramp out of shape thusly : - ' I met with a few kindred spirits on the North train when coming here. The jokes, as might be expected, were immense ; so tremendously immense and far-reaching were some of the problems, that a few ladies who were on board became visibly affected, and no doubt have been thankful ever since that the train arrived without serious mishap, this track not being considered suitable for the carriage and explosion of such heavy artillery.'

Crown Lands Mueller has come back from his trip to the West Coaat of the South Island, whither he went in connection- with the seizure of the Midland Railway by the Government. He. doesn't seem to think very highly of the value of the line, and Bays the whole thing is not worth £700,000. Neither does he appear to look upon the company as a too stable concern. Mrs Oscar Wilde is a handsome and clever woman, of artistic and literary tastes. She is much to be pitied, and will probably be the greatest sufferer by reason of the downfall of her husband. Weather-man Edwin is a genial little fellow, and dearly loves his joke. Lately, a Wairoan (Hawke's Bay) sent to him for a rain-gauge. Now, Edwin has somewhat to do with prescribing our weather, but the Department of Government who records the meteorological vagaries that actually occur, he has no connection with. To this effect he replied to his correspondent, adding that he considered all he had to do was to spill as much rain as he could, and it was the duty of the meteorologists to catch and measure it. People often wish that Edwin would spill a little less than he does.

FOR EIGHTEEN YEARS MINISTER IX. CHARGE OF ST. ANDREW'S PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, AUCKLAND.

James Rae, ex-pawnbroker and now tlec trie healer, is back in Auckland. We breathe freely again. What would have happened to us if we had lost our ' own James ?'

George Dixon. the Secretary of the Auckland Rugby Union, was recently on a trip toUotorua, and while there he joined an excursion party to Mokoia Island, in the centre of the lake. George thought the island was uninhabited, but scarcely had he landed upon it when two Maori youths, in football costumes of most aggressive colours, sauntered up and talked ' the game ' with him. George was at home at once. He can talk football with anyone. Then, the taller of the youths hauled a subscription list out of his pocket, and submitted it to Dixon foxinspection. It was a prayer for funds to enable the east side of Mokoia Island to do football battle with the west side. George's heart was touched, and at once his pocket was also ' touched ' for a half-sovereign. One must be loyal to the game, you know. But imagine his feelings on bis return to Botorua to learn that the ' plootball ' subscription was a money-mak-ing dodge invariably worked with success upon all unsuspecting visitors to the island.

Alfred ELidd is said to have struck it rich in connection with the mining boom. If report is to be believed, he has made a few thousands clear during the last few months. And he deserves it. We wish him luck. It is currently reported that Mr Kidd has bought the property above his hotel, in Shortland-street, and contemplates a bandsome pile of buildings.

Two of the most popular bonifaces in the Taranaki district are O'Ponnell, of the Commercial, at Hawera, andL&rsen,of the Central, at Patea. The man who strikes these hostelries may safely depend on being well looked after. O'Donnell was formerly head warder of the Lyttleton gaol, and when he left, both he and his wife were made the subjects of public presentations He might now have been gaoler at Lyttelton, but he finds that hotelkeeping is an easier road to fortune. Besides, the Hawera people would not part with him. He will yet be in the Mayoral chair and when he climbs into it, you may depend there will be plenty of fizz about. Larsen is a Dane, ana years ago was working as a stonemason on the Patea jetty. He is the architect of his own fortune. Thrift and industry were his implements.

Constable Carroll has been stationed at Kihikihi. And Kihikihi is to be congratulated. It has got a splendid officer.

W. C. Smith who, it is said, is to be called to the Legislative Council next session, was in his time one of the most cordially disliked men in the House. This report has evidently been put abroad by the opponents of the Government for political purposes, with a cunning eye to the fact that Mr Smith was the Hon. Mr Cadman's partner in a timber-milling business in Hawke's Bay, and also because of Mr Smith's unpopularity. Certainly, from an educational point of view, Smith would be no acquisition to the Council.

Mr David Goldie has been away on a trip to the Islands, where he has considerable business interests, and has returned looking well and prosperous. The odds are twenty to one that Mr G. has planted a Primitive Methodist mission somewhere on one of the ' Summer Isles of Eden.'

Sir Matthew Begbie, Chief Justice of British Columbia, recently deceased, once had before him a man charged with having killed another man with a sand- bag The evidence was conclusive, and the judge charged the jury accordingly, but a verdict of ♦ Not guilty ' was promptly brought in. The judge was astonished. ' Gentlemen of the jury,' he said, • this is your verdict, and not mine. On your conscience the disgrace will rest. Many repetitions of such conduct as yours will make trial by jury a horrible farce, and the city of Victoria a nest of crime. Go ! I have nothing more to say to you.' And then, turning to the prisoner : ' You are discharged. Go and sand-bag some of those jurymen ; they deserve it.'

Constable Davy has been removed from the Thames to Dargaville. This will be very sad news to the Thames. Let us hope that pair of ducks had nothing to do with the removal.

Mr ' Johnnie ' Gordon's soul is sad — his heart is heavy. He has served hia country faithfully and well, he says, and all he has got in return is a J.P.-ship and a sup of whisky. And now, Mx Gordon says, insidious influences are at work to make him appear as a blanked scoundrel. Indeed, Mr Gordon said something worse than blanked scoundrel in his speech at the Hospital Board. This all goes to show that there is no profit in public life, and we shall take warning by the example of the indignant Gordon and decline any J. P. ships that may be offered us, as well as any seats on the Hospital .Board — by the grace of Elizabeth.

Te Whiti does the thing in style. When the Premier paid him a visit, the other day, a sumptuous repast was laid out after the most approved European fashion in the prophet's own villa. Hoast pheasant, roast duck, and roast goose formed the piece de resistance : then there were plenty of sweets and pastry galore, the get-up of which would make Waters or Canning die with envy, while as for beverages, Te Whiti provided the cup that cheers but never inebriates. In another villa three long tables were laid out with snowy tablecovers, glittering cutlery, and choice dishes and plates and glassware, with an artis-tically-folded serviette tucked away in every glass. These three tables, however, were not called into requisition. Te Whiti's own table sufficed for all the visitors. But he was prepared to entertain three times the number. Report says that when visitors of distinction are expected, he sends to New Plymouth for the best baker and cook that can be procured. Verily, there is no make-believe about the lavish hospitality of the Maori. It takes him to play the host to perfection.

George Fowlds was acquiring heaps of cheap popularity by advocating the compulsory closing of shops on Saturday. But no sooner did the recent half holiday prosecution fall though than the versatile George gaily jumped the rail and set the fashion to the Queen-street shopkeepers by' opening on Saturday night. What a 'rail ' politician he would make, eh ?

One of the sights at the Queen's Birthday race meeting in Otaki (Wellington) was that of a damsel in distress — hun? up in a barbed wire fence — and a wellknown corpulent half-caste in similar plight not far off. The crowd were ungallant enough to laugh at both. .

Mr J. H. Wright, of Pukekohe, has been elected a member of the Board of Education, and should prove to be a useful addition to that body. It appear? that the school committees are interesting themselves in the constitution of the Board now, and as a consequence of the strained relations that have existed between the Board and some of the committees they are applying an effective remedy by putting their own men on the Board.