A Quill for Everyone.

Observer, Volume XVI, Issue 925, 19 September 1896, Page 11

A Quill for Everyone.

Interesting excerpt from the Star's account of Tuesday's Police Court proceedings : — ' John Alex. Beale and Chas. Cholmondeley Smith were charged with obstructing the footpath in Queen street on the 2nd September, after having been requested by Constable Hyde to move on. — Dr Laishley appeared for defendants. — Sergt. Gamble explained that the facts had been forwarded to Mr Cotter, city solicitor, who did not think the obstruction sufficient to justify a conviction. — Dr Laishley said that his clients were quite wishful to obey the law, and they were prepared to show that they caused no inconvenience. It was raining hard at the time, and they moved on to the edpe of the kerbstone when requested to do so. — The informations were then withdrawn.' Now, it is a great pity this case was not proceeded with, bbcause it would have disclosed much unlawful over-officiousness on

the part of the police. The force has got the ' move on ' craze very badly lately. Any two people meeting each other in the walks of business and stopping for a moment to shake hands are incontinently shoved into the gutter. . Auckland on the footpaths must keep moving. It is esteemed an offence to stop and look into a window. And for two people to linger a moment to exchange commonplace good wishes or say ' good-bye ' is intolerable, even though there may not be another soul within ' coeey.' And so it happens every day, as in this case, that business men are hustled off the footpath on to a muddy roadway, perhaps in a shower of rain, in order to obey the police mandate that there shall be no stopping on the footpaths. This state of things, which has arisen from a Btupid and dunder-headed interpretation of the by-laws, has caused much annoyance. As we stated a week or two ago, and as the City Solicitor has advised the police now, it is 'no offence for two people to engage in conversation on the footpath, unless they are actually causing an obstruction. And in interfering with people and hustling them from the footpath as they have been doing, the police are incurring a certain risk of and liability to

proceedings against themselves. It is one thing to keep a footpath clear for traffic, and another thing altogether to interfere with people in conversation on a kerbstone or wnere there is no traffic. It ib really a pity this case was not heard, because it would have disclosed a police abuse that the good sense of the authorities ought to have suppressed instead of encouraged.

The Maoris at Wellington have farewelled Lord Glasgow, and Tureiti te Heuheu, of Lake Taupo, presented him with an engrossed address. Shades of Potatan and Maniapotol what would Te Heuheu's illnstrions grandfather have said or done if he had known his degenerate descendants would descend to the pakeha level of presenting an illustrated address ? He wonld have tomahawked him straight away, doubtless, and eaten him afterwards. We almost expected to read of a purse of | sovereigns accompanying the ' few well- , chosen ' words, but the Maoris weren't giving any. Lord Glasgow has already received most of the flax mats and greenstone axes of the Maoris in the colony, and if he pays any more visits to the natives they will have to present him with their pipes and wives. If the Rev. L. M. Isitt were to have his own way in New Zealand, none of the sinners known as publicans would be allowed to go to church. We gather this deduction from the report of his last lecture in Auckland, when he condemned in his characteristic strong language the practice of the churches of accepting ' the fruits of the liquor traffic ' in the monetary offerings from publicans and brewers in aid of the church funds. He thought that the cursed traffic should not be allowed to benefit the places of worship, or pay the parßons' salaries. But it is a question of now far

the Rev. Isitt is allowable to abuse those engaged in the publichouse trade. It is not an illegal traffic, and there are many upright and estimable people in its ranks, even though they do sell liquor. If Mr Isitt were to apply to private individuals, and specifying them, the epithets of opprobrium which he bestows on the trade generally, he would soon find himself up for criminal libel. But generalities are safe. Anyhow, he haß struck the mark when he complains of the churches taking money from publicans and brewers. Consistency is a jewel, and, to be logical, the parsons who abuse the liquor traffic should not take a penny from those engaged in that trade. But do they refuse it ? Hardly ! In at least one of our principal churches, a publican actually takes round the plate ! Some preachers never lose an opportunity of improving the occasion. A clergyman preaching up at Aratapu, Kaipara, the other day, even improved a firebell. He had just entered upon his ' secondly, dear brethren,' at the local church last Sunday evening, when the sawmill firebell rang out, and the bnlk of the audience left in confusion, the rest of the sermon interesting them not. The half-dozen who lemainea badly wanted to gee oat to Bee where the fire was, and, accordingly, the preacher

dismissed them, with an earnest injunction to remember the last enmmona which would one day come ' just as suddenly as that firsbell Bounded the alarm.' The audience didn't see anything homorous in it, either, and solemnly wended out, thinking of the tire-alarm waiting for them when their last day came. The parson worked a good stroke of business there. Warning his flock against the Big Firebell which will ring for them some day, he no doubt created an impression, and if his earnest reminder has any effect, that congregation will effect an insurance against the big Fire to Come straight-away. It is spreading! They've all got the mania. It is the fever for the ' snn-bnrned ore,' which is the grandiloquent way in which the Farengarenga sand hills correspondent of the Herald refers to gold. There is precious little chance of finding gold np at the God-forsaken North Cape, but the sanguine souls in the district of Parengarenga have fitted out a prospecting party to fossick the ranges near Cape Keinga, where the ancient Maori was supposed to take bis final leap into the Great Dark Night of Death. There is about as much chance of getting gold there aa there is of finding kauri gum in the streets of Dunedin. 'The lay of the country is somewhat similar to that of the West Coaßt, South Island, and the prospectors feel confident they will strike something.' Yes, even if it's only a lump of coal or a Maori skeleton. Keep on believing. Dear Observer, — Mr Seddon is still venting his prejudice against rifle clubs He thinks they should not be formed in centres where there are volunteer corps. But he is only voicing a military fad of Colonel Pox, who doesn't believe in anything that is not under the strictest redtape control. But rifle .clubs would be a valuable auxiliary to the volunteers, and would teach the use of the rifle to many who have no time for actual drilling, which, ie mere detail compared with the making of a good shot. It is markmanship, and not front-rack dressing and ' marching past,' that will avail us in time of war. An application has, it is said, been sent to the authorities from Auckland for thirty rifles for the use of a rifle club in connection with the volunteers, but the chances are that, with the short eightedness for which the powers that be are famous, the moderate request will be refused, although there are plenty in store. — Yours, Rifleman.

The Spectator finds it difficult to understand why Government and the Kailway Commissioners should so persistently snub Mr Samuel Vaile and his l system ' Goodness knows it's about time somebody's ' system ' was substituted for the muddleheaded one at present in force.

We are assured that our recent paragraph referring to the assault case in Wellington, Maher v. P. Cahill, was not correct as regards the reasons which the Magistrate gave for dismissing the case. We must give the following extract from the Magistrate's decision: — 'Inspector Pender and himself bad taken every precaution to have the actual facta brought before them un biassed. The statement the woman made to him and the one she made in the witnessbox were very different. If the first statement bad been true, she would have repeated it in the witness box. In the face of such an utterly impossible story, be was not going to put any man to the expense, indignity, and degradation of having to stand a trial in the Supreme Court. It was clear his duty was to dismiss the charge.'

A while ago it was reported in the papers that a Danedin Charitable Aid Inspector had visited a family who were supposed to be in a destitute state, and that he found they possessed a piano, while the little boy owned a violin. And when the said inspector asked for ' a tune,* the little girl Bat down to the piano, while the boy played a violin obligato, and between them furnished a regular musical treat. And when the inspector questioned the boy, he found he was receiving lessons from the leading Dunedin violinist. And then the inspector went to his ' Board ' and reported what he had seen and heard, with the result that the ' Board ' refused to allow the family any further assistance. And wben the story got into the papers people read it and shook their heads and wondered how these ' paupers ' who owned a piano and who3e boy received music lessons from a crack professional ever had the cheek to ask for ' charitable aid.' Bat what are the true facts of the case ? Simply these : All the family have a genius for music, and the father and mother stuck to the piano as a dear friend. The boy was getting music lessons, but they were given for nothing, the leading violinist being only too happy to assist a promising youth. As a resnlt of these half -inquiries and the discontinuance of relief, a few shillings had to be raised by a person for whom the man had on a few occasions done odd jobs to keep a roof over the heads of the family and provide them with bread. It is clear from the above that the Auckland Charitable Aid Board is not the only Board in the colony that looks upon squalor and dirt as the sole recommendation for relief.