Pars abought People

Observer, Volume XV, Issue 895, 22 February 1896, Page 14

Pars abought People

Versatile William Jennings, M.L.C., is once more identifying himself with the Tailoresses' Union, to which and the kind offices of Miss Morrison he owed his good fortune in being lifted from absolute obscurity into the Legislative Council and the enjoyment of an easily-earned living of £150 a-year. But, taikoa. Isn't this the same Jennings who, a little while ago, was interesting himself to make it appear that the Auckland tailoresses had no grievances ; that they were really better paid than they had any reason to expect ; and that the new agitation was a Dunedin one, against which we ought to set onr faces ? Was it our owu versatile William who was saying these things, or was it some other Jennings ? We pause for a reply. And, in the meantime, what new ambition has Jennings to gratify that he seeks once more to make use of the tailoresses of Auckland as a stepping-stool ? Does he also wish to be knighted ?

Rev. W. Evans, of the Cambridge Presbyterian Church, is giving up the active ministry after fifty years of service . Half-a-centmy's labour in the vineyard ought to have produced some harvests.

John Kirkwood met Dr. Laishley the morning after the publication of the * Plea for a Title ' article in last week's Observer. 'Well, how about Mayor Holland now?' was John's form of greeting. And the Doctor, not a bit abashed, chirruped : ' Poor fellow, I am really very sorry for him,' and hastened on. It was pure, and so characteristic of Laishley.

George Fisher, the Mayor of fellington, who is nothing if not pugnacious, is playing a game of cross purposes just now with his Council. He offers to resign if all the Councillors will do the same. But George's gauntlet still lies in the arena. The only George is evidently determined to make things hum down at Cook Strait until the bell rings for the general election. At that auspicious moment he is ready to strip for the fray.

Captain Amodeo has left on a holiday trip to Sydney. It is not true that he has gone across to arrange for a service of ocean tramp steamers to carry the silver bars away from the Great Barrier silver mine when operations are commenced. He baa not been in the best of health lately, and it is his intention to spend a few weeks in the invigorating atmosphere of tht Blue Mountains. Though Captain Amodeo has been in most other parts of the world, and traded for some time to Melbourne, he has uover before been in Sydney.

Hmiun. (i/i-i/o.

A Leading Member of the Auckland Bar, whose name has recently been mentioned in connection with the Attorney Generalship, and one of the Candidates for the vacant seat on the Auckland Board of Education.

Miss Lilian Edger, who is the acknowledged high priestess of Theosophy in Auckland, has been in Christchurch during the last week or two promoting the spread of theosophic teachings, consolidating the branches of the New Zealand Society, and preparing the way for that other high priestess, the Countess of Wachmeister, who tours the colony shortly. Big audiences have assembled to hear Miss Edger, who, by the way, is well known in Christchurch, having been one of the first lady students to graduate at the Canterbury College.

A parson at Foxton, yclept the Rev. Mr Barnett, allowed his tongue to wag so freely in the pulpit that he has been brought up short in the law courts. In one of his sermons he said of a local hotelkeeper that ' the people of Foxfcon were spending their earnings in drink, and that instead of giving the money to their wives to clothe themselves and children, it went to provide dress for Mrs Stansell." So Mrs Stansell summoned him for language calculated to provoke, etc. His reverence had to humbly promise the court that he would not make statements of a similar nature in future, and being thus assured the Magistrate dismissed the charge, subject to the payment of £4 for coats.

On dit that the remuneration of Keating, the man whom Mesmerist Kennedy puts into his week's hypnotic sleep, is £25 for the job. Also that he likes it so much that he follows Kennedy round and wants to have a week cut out of his active life in each town.

Mr G. S. Kissling, of Auckland, has resigned the Commission of the Peace. In other words, he has declined any longer to be a J.P. Time was in New Zealand when it was accounted an honour to be placed upon the Commission of the Peace, but that time has gone. Nowadays, so gross have some of the appointments been, a man is ashamed to go upon the Bench as a Justice lest he should jeopardise his good name by having it published in conjunction with that of some fellow of doubtful repute, who is also a J.P. Several weeks ago, for example, justice was being dispensed in an Auckland Court by a man who is still an undischarged bankrupt. No wonder a well-known citizen, anxious to swear an affidavit, was told the other da.?, in answer to his inquiry ' Are you a J.P.? ' No, thank God, I have not come as low as that yet.' We congratulate Mr Kissling that he has vindicated his own good name.

One Monce, of Utah, asserts that the evil habits and criminal inclinations of children can be overcome by hypnotism. But what is the matter with the old-fash-ioned tawse ?

Amongst the ex-Aucklanders who have lately drifted into Wellington, is Mr H. Carrick, formerly of the reporting staff of the N.Z. Herald, who has just entered the. head office of the Government InsuranceDepartment. It has been facetiously remarked of this department that it has become a refuge for pressmen, but Carrickat least, will ' work his passage ' fairly in it.

H. Ell was one of the" chief barrackers for the Tory candidate at Christchurch. H. Ell, eh ? No wonder Lewis got in with such a power a3 that behind him.

The Honorable William McCullough, M li.C, has packed his little portsammy, and is ready to start on Saturday for another jannt to England. Just look at that now. But what is in the wind ? Is this another commission from the Government to go Home and study the latest styles of printing, or is the Honorable William hankering to spend that £130 that he ha&n't got yet for printing the Laishley book ? Or, again, is it a race between the Honorable William and Dr. Laishley for that title they are both so anxious to get ? It is whispered that sundry copies of the Laishley book, with the crest and motto and City Council imprint, are going Home by the outgoing mail on Saturday. Surely, Mac is not playing it down on Laißhley by trying to get Home first, so as to be near Her Majesty when the Birthday titles are given out on the 24th of May. Adieu, Mac ! May you come back to us a prince.

Madame Tenetahi is, as becomes one who has the rangatira blood in her veins, a bit of a heroine. On one occasion, when Tenetahi's boat was capsized at sea, she,* by her courage and bravery, saved his life. Tenetahi frankly acknowledges his obligations to her. Had she been really •on the job ' at the late eviction, the hoiis would have given her a wide berth.

Newa has been received of James Oakley Browne — another son of the well-remem-bered ' Snyder,' of Auckland journalistic fame — that he has now returned to his old occupation of ' lightning jerker,' in the telegraph office of Coolgardie. Like others of his family, James Oakley was in journalistic harness for a long time, on Auckland, Tauranga, Christchurch and Wellington papers. His last billet in the colony was as reporter for the Wellington Post, and after that he was heard of as being buried away at NhiD, in the back country of Victoria.

Dr. Laishley, in his now famous Catalogue of Autographs book, publishes in two places the letter received from Mr Devore, at that time Mayor of Auckland, asking him to allow the Leipsic diploma to be framed with his photograph and placed in the Free Public Library. But the sequel is omitted. The Doctor acquiesced in the request— of course he did — and Mr Dsvore bad the diploma and photograph framed at his own expense. The strange part of the story is that the frame and its contents were hung in the Library for several seconds, and were then taken down and put somewhere out of sight. Why ? That is the question Mr Devore does not always explain himself, bnt perhaps he had sufficiently good reasons for what he did. Anyhow, the frame, diploma and photograph were shoved away in some lumber room or other recess during the Devore regime, and also during Mr Crowther's period of office ; but when Mayor Holland came in he was prevailed upon to tiot the thing out, get it dusted and hang it up in the Library, where it now stands a monument to the beneficent services and great abilities of the modest Laishley. Evidently, Holland has a great veneration for Dr. Laishley, but the printing account for £130 is calculated to knock the sentiment • out of his admiration.

James Lee Goon is a fair type of what the Celestial colonist may develope into when scope is afforded him to follow the natnral bent of his inclinations. James was a boarding-house keeper in Christchurch, and when he was accused at the Police Court of keeping a brothel, he indignantly denied the impeachment, and vehemently offered to blowee urn matchee, kissie allee bookie, or do anything else the Court liked to prove that he was an innocent, guileless young Chow who would do no wrong. But, ala 3 for James. The Magistrate discovered from the evidence that the place was a low Chinese den, where opium was smoked and young women were harboured, and the morals ot all who approached the place were contaminated. So that James Lee Goon was sent to gaol for six months. But will he be a better colonist when he comes out again ? Also, what do we want with the Goons and their filthy countrymen, anyway ? They are a social cancer wherever they go. 'r

Harold Batger has returned from Sydney He did not stay away very iong.

Mr Prentice, of New Plymouth, is rejoicing with his friends. The other day, he received a cheque for £1100 odd, being the - second prize in a recent Queensland Cup ■contultation. Eleven hundred, eh ! Well, he's no prentice hand at the Bweep business now, anyhow.

Tim Doolan went into a shop in Paeroa the other day to buy eggs. 'What are egga to-day ?' he asked. * Eggs are eggs to-day, Tim,' replied the shopman, looking ■qnite triumphantly at two or three young lady customers who happened to be in the shop. 'Faith, I'm glad to hear you say bo,' replied Tim, 'for the last ones I got here were chickens.'

It requires a good deal of judgment to give a testimonial in favour of a patent medicine. For instance, the feminine keeper of a boarding-house testifies that she has suffered much from indigestion — very rough on her hash foundry — and that she has been cured by the use of the new remedy.

Miss Lilian Edger, who is the acknowledged high priestess of Theosophy in New Zealand, comes of a family remarkable in Auckland for mild heterodoxy. Her father was the late Rev. Samuel Edger. who came to Auckland with the Nonconformist settlement party away back in our earlier ages, but who was never able to reconcile the narrowness of dissenting orthodox with his own ideas of freedom of tongue and conecience. So, for years, he ministered to a circle of advanced minds in the Lomestreet Hall, and if he didn't amass dollars and wool-worked slippers, he at least enjoyed the satisfaction of speaking his own mind. The Rev. Samuel had no sons to imitate him, but his highly intellectual daughters are undoubtedly chips of the old block.

Premier Seddon has got his eye ou the clubs — God bless him. He said publicly the other day that gentlemen's and working men's clubs should be brought under regulation and control ; in fact, any place in which liquor was sold should be under the regulations, and if this were not done, then the liquor should be taken away from them altogether. If he could do it. clubs would be brought under the regulations. And quite right too. "While hotels are compelled to pay a high license fee, they should not be placed in unfair competition with clubs, nor should they be subject to supervision from which clubs are exempt. There is more gambling, for example, done in one club in Auckland that we know of, than in probably all the hotels put together.

Dr. Laishley'd aspirations to knighthood were well-known long before the City Council printer turned them loose upon an unsuspecting community at a cost of £180. Some years ago, when Mr Shera was addressing the electors in St. James' Hall, he scathingly told the story of how Laishley had been pestering him to use his influence to get a title for him. The thing was so preposterous that many people scouted the story, and Laishley himself denied it, but now we have proof positive in the form -of the now famous book and the unpaid printer's bill for £130. By the way, when Sir George Grey was told of the denial of Shera's story, he wrinkled up that off eye of his in the way he was accustomed to do, and dryly remarked : ' Surely there must be some mistake. Dr Laishley could not possibly have denied the story. Why, I knew of it myself.'

City Councillor Myers, of Wellington, is one of the youngest men who have ever graced a municipal board, also a man of considerable grit. But want of ballast threatens to mar an otherwise promising public career. Last week he made himself a laughing stock at Mayor Fisher's public meeting anent public baths. Myers is one of those who thought the Council — which, by the way, everyone is jeering at for its tergiversation over this question — was quite capable of doing all that was necessary to carry out the scheme. He. therefore resented Mr Fisher's reference of the question to public meeting, and, what was more, came before the public to say so. Mayor George had just before craftily harped upon a municipal setting of the lamented Mrßallance's motto : ' Trust the People,' and had got the gathering upon very good terms with himself. Consequently it only needed Councillor Myers 1 challenge to raise a howl. a.nd here is where his lack of judgment came in ; for, when the uproar began, he dramatically folded his arms and glared at the noisy audience, in a manner that plainly said defiance. Then, of course, the crowd yelled some more, and it became a tug-of-war. Myers and the Mayor (who was in the chair) werer-see.n to iaterlocute, apd as the result Mr Fisher announced that ' Mr Myers has declined my assistance ; it is now a matter between him and you.' This decided it, for it soon became evident thf t the Myers voice was a mere Mrs Partington mop as against the Atlantic tide of Wellingtonian roar. So, efter some ten minutes of mutual defiance, the rash councillor had to yield and retire very crestfallen.

J. H. Hannan has been in bed for some considerable time lately. Poor fellow. What a trial to his angelic. temper. The story goes that ' he is developing a worse leg thai* ever. Does this mean another action against the Devonport Ferry Company in contemplation ?

Mr C. F. Goldie, one of the sons of Mr David Goldie, after three years study of art in Paris, has been awarded the first and only prize given for drawing from life in the December ' Concour,' for the united studies of Julian in Paris. More than 300 students from all parts of the world took part in the competition.

William Parkinson, formerly of the Loan and Mercantile, who cut his throat at Ponsonby on Tuesday, was an agreeable, estimable man, of splendid personal qualities. Latterly, he has been suffering from melancholia, which followed upon a shock caused by his being thrown from the Eatorna excursion train, when taming a sharp curve, about twelve months ago. Parkinson had hosts of friends but not a single enemy.

The "Wellington Bowling Club intend to send up three rinks (12 players) to the Tournament, which opens at Auckland on Monday next, 24th inst. The representatives of the Empire City will be the following (two of tnem it will be noticed are ex-Aucklanders) : Neil McLean, James Russell, Andrew Campbell, T. D. Scoullar, (skip), J. M. Geddis, F. F. Grady, J- H. Mentiplay. Thos, Ballinger (skip). J. Telford, Allan MacDougall, Thos. Whitehouse, Alex. Sample (skip).

Postmaster Park, of Taupo, who is in custody at the instance of the Government Auditor on a charge of embezzling public funds, was a kind of Pooh-Bah or Czar of the district in which he lived, and his arrest occasioned much excitement. So also did his incarceration in the lock-up, where the pigs were accustomed to wallow. But if all we hear is true, the constable wasn't anxious for a carpeted drawing room in which to confine hiß prisoners. They were not good enough for that. But how comes it that in a remote district like Taupo a postmaster could have a shortage of £400 ? Why, that is Burely more than a year's income. It looks almost as if there had been a laxness in the previous audits.