"Pars about People"

Observer, Volume XVI, Issue 925, 19 September 1896, Page 22

"Pars about People"

Mr J. M. Dargaville returns to Auckland by the next San Francisco mail steamer. It is whispered that he has got £15,000 subscribed in London for the purposes of a new evening paper in Auckland. Alsso, he is intent upon a seat in Parliament, and is anxious that his memory should be kept green by the ratepayers. Ovide Musin, the violinist, has had the privilege, or otherwise, of playing before a whole crowd of crowned heads. Amongst the more remote of them he fiddled ' Pop Goes the Weasel ' and ' The Maiden's Prayer ' before the King and Queen of Siam, the Sultan of Djacja (where on earth ia that, Musin ?), the Sultan of Solo (here is an opportunity for several weak puns), the Sultan of Jahore, and other royalties in the Coast and the Straits Settlements. Few of them knew a violin from a tambouiine, or a tenor from a fog horn, but they weie delighted, and Musin got. dollars and tin medals galore. The Sultan of Pakwanakwak, we hear, was bo e\er joyed at M. Musin's masterly rendering of ' Two Lovely Black Eyes ' that he immediately ordered the execution of three of his favourite wives, and made his grand vizier drink a poison draught composed of imported rum and cloves as a sign of delight. Then he invited M. Musin to dine with him on fricasseed infant, but the eminent violinist, to his eternal credit be it said, firmly refused, and had a banana instead Travelling musicians have some queer experiences. J. C. Firth complains that the Government will not spend a shilling to develope his idea of electric power from the Huka Falls. But the Government may be forgiven. It is costing them a few shillings just now to see a profitable way out of J. C 's other idea of a big annual revenue from the Matamata Estate. So Father Lenihan is really to be Roman Catholic Bishop of Auckland. His recent appointment has been fully confirmed, and the consecration ceremony ia to take place next month. We offer our Roman Catholic fellow-citizens our warmest congratulations. No appointment that could have been made to the vacant see could have been more judicious or popular with the people than that of the Rev. Father Lenihan By the way, much satisfaction has been expressed by the Roman Catholics of the city, as well as the people of other creeds, at the news that it is the new bishop's intention to appoint Father Walter Macdonald to the charge of St. Patrick's in Auckland. Auckland to day ia inhabited by men and women who, when they were little children, a genera tion ago, revered and almost worshipped the generous-hearted priest who had always in the recesses of his pocket a penny for \ any or every child he met. Is it any wonder that the men and women of . the present generation, whatever their religion, have a j soft spot in their hearts for the bountiful friend of childhood, and are glad to hear that his familiar face and figure will be amongst them once again ; also, the elderly people of the charge, amongst whom Father Walter laboured so lovingly and acceptably in bygone years— rejoicing with them in their joys and sorrowing with them in their grief — they are delighted to hear that his period of practical banishment i<» at an end, aDd that he will labour amongst them once more. This appointment by the bishopelect 13 an act of graciousness that has made his elevation doubly popular with the people. The residence of the Hon. E. Mitchelson at Remuera, where that gentleman and his wife celebrated their silver wedding last Saturday, bears the poetic name of ' Waitaramoa.,.' the old native name of the locality. Waitaramoa was the original Maori name of the point of land jutting into Hobson's Bay on which Mr J. L. Wilson's house stands, and the surrounding district as far as Remuera and Little Rangitoto Here the old Waiohua and Te Taou tribes in ancient days had their cultivations, and not far from where Mr Mitchelson's house now stands, there stood in 1830 1840 the trenched and palisaded settlement of Te Tinana (' The Corpse '), of Te Taou tribe, from which people most of the Orakei natives aud the dusky footballers who laid out 4 Trilby ' at the North Shore on Saturday last are descended. '"Waitaramoa ' is | historic ground, and its owner has done I well in rescuing from oblivion one of the original Maori names of localities about Auckland.

Mobs lievy's death the other day was regretted by everyone who knew him. Genial and affable in private life, he was as popular aa one well could be, and in business he was reckoned by those who had dealings with him to be a thoroughly white man Cancer of the throat was the disease from which he died. 3. F. Edgar, formerly of New Zealand, is leaving the Bab editorial chair of the Melbourne Herald, and goes on to the staff of the Argus. Colonel Goring stated at. the meeting of citizens on Friday evening that the number of oar rifle representatives had been steadily dwindling because the championship meetings are held in other centres. But, in 1885, Auckland sent 59 men to Wanganni, and a good many went each following year, while three or four years ' ago a considerable number went to Wellington. So that the Colonel's reason is hardly a correct one. But since the issue of his own insulting circular about the disreputable appearance (as he thought) the Auckland men cut on their way to the Association meetings, very few of our shots have chosen to go. They didn't find it necessary to travel in search of insults. And, by the way, that memorable circular nearly brought disbandnfent of the local volunteers about the Colonel's ears. News was received by cable last week of the death from consumption of Mr Charles O'Bara Smith, son of Captain Smith, of Wellington, and brother of Mr E. C. Smith, sharebroker, of this city. The deceased gentleman, who was Chief Auditor of the Lands Revenue Department, joined the Treasury Department in 1873, and was transferred to the Audit Department in 1879. In 1892 he was promoted to his late position and retained the appointment until his death. He became a member of the Star Boating Club soon after its formation.and has remained on its list of first-class oarsmen. For some years Mr Smith was a non-commissioned officer in the D Battery of Artillery, and he only severed his connection with the company because he found that his official duties prevented his devoting sufficient attention to volunteering work. There was at one time no one in Wellington who took a keener interest in field sports, and he was, in years gone by, one of the best amateur athletics in the city. He was a Past Master of the Wellington Lodge of Freemasons. His official duties were discharged in a very able manner, and by hie death the service loses one of its most fearless and conscientious officers, and, by the way, one who has been instrumental in laying bare some gross abuses in high places. M.H R. Massey : — ' There is not a more independent or intelligent class in New Zealand than the gamdiggers.' Robert Farrell's dormant military ardour wrb roused at the meeting held the other evening in connection with the forthcoming Championship Rifle meeting to be held in Auckland, and so he rolled his martial eye around and flashed it on the admiring volunteers present, he slapped hia cheat with a fiery gesture, and cried in accents wild and high : ' Yes, gentlemen, I. even I, was a volunteer once, and when I hear the news of this shooting business I am like an old warhorse, and I want to be at it again.' Then the warlike Farrell proceeded to say how he felt inclined to sned tears \. when he looked at volunteering as it is now and compared it with what it was then — the * then ' being of course the remote period when he used to don pipeclay and port arms in the seventies. The volunteers need regenerating. Cannot Mr Farrell give the Minister of Defence a hand, and advise him what to do with our citizen soldiery ? Miss 'Harrie' Keane, who was some J time ago connected with the stage in Auck--1 land and elsewhere in New Zealand, left for Sydney by the Tarawera on Tuesday, en route to her home in Greenock, Scotland. It's T. Mandeno Jackson now, and not Tom M. Jackson — which is typical of the up-to-date style of dropping your front name to an initial letter if it happens to be plain John or Tom or Dick, and working your second, Algernon, Cholmondely, or Everard Llandudno, or whatever it is, for all it is worth ;as thus : 'Mr T. Drummond — Veresly De C. Smith, the well-known mining authority, has opened business in Auckland.' Apropos of this sort of thing, & Ponsonby man informs us that his wife told him that her sister was out at a neighbour's house the other day, where an addition had lately been made to the family by the industrious mother. ' What have you named the baby V asked the visitor. 'We Bhan't name her at ail,' was the reply. ' That's very odd.' ' Well, you see, we named the oldest girl Mary and the boy "William. Now one signs herself ' Marie ' and the other 'W. Leonard.' We're going to let our last one fix up her front name entirely unhampered.* Which reminds us that a girl we knew at . school as plain Bridget Kelly is now Miss B. Marie Vera Kellye, and she explainsthat B. stands for Benedictine or something of that sort.

Sir Geo. Bowen, ex-Governor of New Zealand, is about to take unto himself a second, wife, in the person of Mrs Henry White, a well-known society dame in London. Sir George is 75,bathale and hearty. His first wife, who was Countess Condiano Rema, lived 40 years, and expired three years ago. Tom Russell's connection with the Bank of New Zealand should be one of the first things exposed in connection with the Banking Inquiry, says the Wellington . People. Rumour has it that he had an extraordinary agreement with the Bank, by which he was absolved from large payments. Yet the man lives in London at the rate of £8000 to £10,000 a year, and was one of the syndicators who operated the Waihi mine. Edouard Scharf, the clever German pianist who is in the Musin Company, speaks Japanese fluently. Adam Cairns is the subject of a story told by the local correspondent of the Kawakawa paper. The story goes that that well-known Maori personage, Mrs Nikorema, had been making anxious inquiries for our only Adam at all his favourite haunts, hinting that she had some very special business with his highness. Of course, the numerous friends of the popular councillor were all agog to know what was in the wind. The murder came out at last when, the fascinating wahine ran her quarry to earth in a busy hostelry, and, before the crowd, told Adam that she had something very good to offer him. She said she was going to take the Pier Hotel, and, as she would require a manager, she knew of none more capable of filling the post than 'the quondam host of the Star. Those who know the characters in this little play will appreciate the joke. David Twohill, manager of the Pier Hotel in "Wellington, and formerly one of the licencees of the Park Hotel in Auckland, died very suddenly a few days ago. The Post, referring to his death, says : Yesterday week, he complained of a pain in the head, and treated himself for a bilious attack. As he continued to feel unwell he left off business, and on- Thursday his condition was so bad that he was removed to the Hospital, where it was found that he was suffering from paralysis of the brain. He rapidly sank, and on Saturday morning he died. Deceased was 44 years of age. His father is a well-known resident of Greymouth, and he has a brother, Mr Edmund Twohill, at the Thames. The decision of the Robinson divorce suit has restored peace to the minds of i some dozens of young bloods in Wellington ! who were quaking in their shoes lest their flirtations with the frail respondent should lead to their .being in some way or other drawn into the case. ' Pretty Mrs Robinson,' as she delighted to be called, was a lady possessed of some facial charms, whose fondness for display had been the subject of comment in Wellington for years It was only in February last that her husband was led to suspect her fidelity to him, and then he secured possesion of compromising letters that she had received, which have sines aided him in procuring the dissolution of the marriage tie. Immediately after the discovery of the letters, the erring wife made an attempt to throw herself into the harbour over the breastwork, but was prevented by her husband. She is now supposed to be somewhere in the Auckland district, and W Heywood, the co-respon-dent in the case, was also, until lately, a resident in this city. Young ladies are smart now-a-days, and like smart names. One of them, who resides in Masterton, and rejoices in the not uncommon name of Sarah Jane, went to service at a certain house. To be quite aristocratic, you know, she assumed the name of Doris. She had been in the house only a few days, when the mistress called out ' Doris 1 ' There was no reply. Three times the name was called, and at last it occurred to Sarah Jane that it was she who was wanted. She promptly called out 'yes-mum!' The mistress queried, 'Did you not hear me calling?' Sarah Jane •would have been spared had she not, in an evil moment, given herself away by answering ' No mum, not until you called the third time.' Next day her box was packed. She has assumed no 'ristocratic names since then. Miss Barnicoat has won a lot of Icudos in Wellington by the way in which she reported officially the proceedings of the Legislative Council's Banking Inquiry Committee. She was the sole shorthandwriter employed — as the authorities were concerned lest by having too many reporters their proceedings should leak out — and had each morning to bring down her completed report of the previous day's sitting. Evidently the Council's officials derided the fears as to a woman's inability to keep a secret. Miss Barnicoat earned £195 in six weeks. And now we find women invading yet another occupation hitherto sacred to the sterner sex, for at the Wellington' city elections the Returning Officer had two girls, one of them his own daughter, engaged as poll-clerks.

Leslie Aschby, arrested on Monday just as the Mararoa was leaving Dunedin, for alleged malpractice, was until recently practising as a doctor at Otantau, Southland. Here he attended a married woman — Mrs Beek — in her confinement, and she died. At the inquest the coroner made some very pointed remarks re unqualified men who practised medicine. By the- way, was not Aschby formerly practising at Paeroa, near Auckland, under another name' We fancy we remember 'Dr. Friesabourg.' Ovide Musin and the Chevalier de Kontski are at daggers drawn . Musin says ' ze Chevalier* cannot play, and de Kontski loftily retorts that before he was seven years old he had forgotten more than the Musin ever knew. Musin says the Chevalier's ' pairformances ' are ridiculous, but de Kontski relates with triumph how he, the Chevalier, even knocked the musical stuffing out of the great Liz3t himself and turned that maestro green with envy. Put two rival fiddlers against each other and you'll hear a nice ' derangement of epitaphs.' Chiarini, of the famous circus, used to tell, some good yarns. Cne was this : Walking along the streets of a Sydney suburb one day he came upon a small shop in the window of which appeared the legend : ' Laundry work done here. Collars 2d. each.' Chiarini walked in. 'Do you do up any kind of collar at that price ?' 'Oh yes,' Chiarini went back to the circus. In the wild-beast show was a giraffe which the clown used to dress up in a sort of dude rig, including a high collar— about 6ft high, in fact. Selecting one of these collars the circus man sent it along to be washed and ironed. When the laundry- keeper opened the bundle and spread out that mammoth collar hejsaid : ' What's this?' 'A giraffe's collar,' said-the messenger. 'So : it is,' replied the laundry-keeper, just as though giraffes' collars came along to the wash every day. ' What time will it be done ?' asked the messenger. ' Five o'clock,' was the reply. And the man found it ready for him at five — a roll as big as a stove pipe. 'How much?' said the messenger. 'Twopence, please,' replied the laundryman, and he swept the two coppers into his draw with a ' thank yon ' that showed how game he was to the last. However, Chiarini wasn't going to be mean. Quite satisfied with his little joke, he sent the laundryman -1/- for the collar — about a fair equivalent for. the labour it had co 3t — and a couple of free passes for the show as well.