Pars About People

Observer, Volume XXI, Issue 1178, 27 July 1901, Page 6

Pars About People

PARENTS and guardians who are accustomed to allow young girls belonging to them to travel to and fro on steamers without taking the precaution to place them under the charge ot trustworthy escorts should lay to heart the lessons taught by a recent lamentable occurrence on the coast. A young girl who was sent home per steamer without escort landed at the lirst port, and in her walk through the town, met a young man whom she had known very well in Aucklaad. lie told her that he was going on to Wellington by the train just starting, and urged her to accompany nim, leaving her things to come on by the steamer. The train would reach Wellington lirst, he said, and she could go on board the steamer when it arrived, and her friends would not be any the wiser. She was easily tempted by the prospect of the overland rail journey, and unsuspicious of ulterior motives in the young man's mind, allowed herself to be persuaded, the more readily so when he undertook to pay the expenses of the overland journey. Beaching Wellington between nine and ten o'clock at night, she realised for the first time that she would have a night to put in before the steamer arrived. Her friend undertook, however, to put her up at a respectable boardinghouse, where she would be sale till the morning, and with some misgiving she accompanied him to a house, where there was only an old womaa in charge, and the girl retired. It seems now that the fellow represented them as husband and wife, and later on he had the entree to her room, and overcoming her scruples, passed the night with her. Next morning, she was on the steamer when her friends arrived. But a lady who knew the girl well had seen her leaving the train in a hurry with a young man, and having casually mentioned the fact, suspicion was aroused and the whole affair was disclosed. The occurrence has been a very painful one to those concerned, and is not likely to end where it is. But it illustrates to a very striking extent the dangers to which young and easily led girls are exposed when they are away from home and travelling without responsible supervision. Prohibitionist William Richardson, who made things so merry in Auckland at the last elections, is finding it a more awkward and troublesome business to abuse individuals and disturb meetings in Sydney than it was in Auckland. Letters from the other side state that he is in trouble again. This time, William endeavoured to open up an argument with the parson of the Pitt - street Congregational Church, in the course of the sermon, maintaining that it was impossible to make public houses respectable. However, the clergyman was not talking back, and, as William declined to apologise, gave him into custody. They take a serious view of disturbing church services on the other side, and, at latest advices, William was committed for trial.

Cr. Baume is mentioned in some quarters as likely to be the next Mayor of Auckland. But how about Cr. Kidd, who is expected to succeed to the position by arrangement ? Also, now about Cr. Masefield, who is known to have some ambition in this direction, and in whose interest a move was made by his friends at the time a DeputyMayor was being chosen last year ? The honour is one for which there jis likely to be some competition next time. No endeavour has been made by the friends of the girl Jessica Minns to obtain the considerable bail necessary to her release while she is awaiting trial on the charges of murder and arson at the Supreme Court. Her mother considers that she is just as well where she is in the meantime, as she is relieved from the worry and unpleasantness of being questioned and harassed by indiscreet though inquisitive friends. 'The story goes that Mr Brookfield is annoyed at not being entrusted with the defence in the Supreme Court. He had acted for her in a claim for unpaid wages, and evidently considered that this entitled him to appear for her in this case also. There has, it is said, been some correspondence on the matter. In Mr. J . C. Martin, however, the girl has the services of one of the ablest barristers in the colony. Mr. and Mrs. Minns, the father and mother of the girl, are very old residents of the Thames, the father having been a carpenter and miner there for the last thirty years. Mrs Minns relates several very interesting episodes of Jessica's childhood to show what a strange child she was. One of her characteristics was an intense love of all living things. Mrs. Minns missed her once, and, going into the garden, found that she had collected all the snails from the strawberry garden, and was seated on the grass with the horrid things creeping up her sleeves and over her pinafore, to her intense delight. The foundation for the extraordinary story of mesmerism she told the jury was a performance in the Thames Academy of Music by a travelling showman, who made a specialty of mesmerism, and who claimed that he kept one of the men of his company under the influence, in a coffin, for several days. McLachlan (Ashburton) had his own way of telling the House how nice it was to find ' Dick ' following the Duke around so closely. Said ' Mac ' : ' The show would have been like a managerie* without the elephant had he not gone around with them.' The House simmered. I Councillor James Stichbury, who is looked upon, and rightly so, as an authority on city finance, has surely been putting the Council away or showing a very bad memory. And not only Stichbury, but also the committee who reported to the Council on the proposed loan. The loss of memory, or whatever it ' is, occurred in their separate allusions to the wooden paving in Queen-street. Both are in favour of borrowing £8,000 more than was borrowed in the last loan. They say, to use their own words, that ' £8,000 is required in addition to the £10,646 already arranged for.' Now, the amount already arranged for, according to the Loan Bill, was £12,646, just two thousand more than Councillor Stichbury and the committee say it was. Lately, the axiom is that if it's the Council you would know about, don't ask a Councillor, and after this show up the axiom, seems to have verification. Whatever they bring it down to, the faat remains that the amount is what we state, so where, oh where, has that two thousand gone? Oh, where, oh where can it be ? Is it -wandering round for a Government auditor, like other little sums that havo strayed away occasionally from the Council treasury ?

' Preserve me from goats ■ is the heart-felt ejaculation of the charniyoung woman who presides over the destinies of a certain wellknown pastry-cook's establishment in Queen-street. And not without reason, for a stupid and obstinate goat gave her a very awkward half-hour in Symond-street the other morning. The girl was on her way to business with a female friend, when the goat intercepted them on the footpath and butted them with friendly playfulness against the wall. They shrieked with dismay, and endeavoured to ily in opposite directions, but to no purpose, for the goat, with all the craft and ability of a sheep dog on a big contract, gathered them together, and rounded them into a corner. This done to his satisfaction, he lowered his head . and prepared to admonish them with another butt. Then the girls shrieked in chorus for " help,' whereupon a gallant young man from a certain tobacco establishment, who was also on his way to town, rushed to their rescue. Seizing the goat by the horns aud applying his foot to its rearquarters, he endeavoured to thrust the goat oil' the footpath. But the goat would not go. "With a forgiveness of disposition that puts the average human being to shame, it ignored the young man's rough behaviour, and trotted past him in pursuit of the fluttering females, who had incontinently taken to their heels. The dismayed girls, finding they could not outpace his nimble goatship, lied for refuge into a fruiterer's shop, and thither the goat pursued them with a fine disregard for ceremony, and butted them vigorously up against the counter and around the narrow confines of the shop. The girls shrieked enthusiastically, the woman of the house plied the domestic broom, but all to no purpose. The goat had a mission to fulfil, and he was going to fulfil it. Suddenly, the Symonds-street bus hove in sight, and the fair divinity of the pastrycook's shop, terrified beyond measure, stopped the vehicle and got in, notwithstanding the efforts of the goat to butt her off the steps. Thus she escaped. When the truculent goat was last seen, it was contentedly trotting down Symonds-street, gazing steadily on the flying figure of the other girl, and evidently satisfied that it would reach her in time to see her safely to business. John Leydon and Host Montgomery, of Karangahake, are booked for a little flutter in litigation this week. Montgomery owns a hall at Karangahake, which is sometimes used for amusements and sometimes for other purposes. John Leydon travels the goldfields districts occasionally, with a stock of useful and ornamental goods, which he sometimes sells by auction and sometimes displays for private sale. In the course of his peregrinations, he honoured Karangahake with a visit, and engaged Monty's hall for his bazaar. Just at the same time, Ferry, the Human Frog, descended upon Karangahake and also engaged the hall for his evening entertainment. This, however, did not suit John Leydon, who reckoned the hall belonged to him night and day, so long as he paid the rent. Monty, however, thought otherwise, and after an intercharge of compliments between the two, the locks on the doors were changed and the Human Frog croaked out his pleasantries to an appreciative audience. Now, John Leydon is suing Monty for £150 damages for interfering with his business, and judging by the fact that such a great legal gun as Mr Cotter is going to Paeroa to conduct ihe case, thero will be ' wigs on the green ' beforo it is all over.

Percy Dix is going the proper way about it to make his variety business a perfect little gold mine, lhe arrangement with Mr Harry Rickards, by which Mr Dix gets the use of the best of the talent from the Sydney Tivoli, ought to boom the Gaiety business in New Zealand as it has never boomed before. Lord Ranfurly stands very high in the estimation of the returned troopers who travelled up from Wellington last week, as indeed he does to an exceptional extent with the whole of the people of the colony. His Excellency rounded the whole party up and stood ' treat ' before they left the Empire City, and on the journey they found him to be a most generous host, and one who found no little pleasure in seeing ' the boys ' enjoying themselves. Talking about Lord Ranfurly, reminds us that the old veterans of Auckland fairly idolize hi» and the Countess. An American paper publishes a group picture entitled ' The Right Hon. R. J. Seddon, Premier of New Zealand, and other prominent Maoris.' Such is fame. There is reason to believe that the Borthwiok who had a narrow escape from the Anthony Hordern fire in Sydney, and who broke his leg by dropping a distance of 30 feet from a short rope, is our friend of the same name who was employed for so many years at T. and S. Morrin's, who was a prominent member of the Artillery Band, and who at one time was frequently engaged playing dance music at balls in Auckland. He went to Sydney some seven or eight years ago, and found employment in the ironmongery department of Anthony Hordern's, and it was in escaping from the ironmongery department that the man Borthwick in question was injured. Jupiter nods again. In the London ' Times ' of May 21 there appeared this cable from Wellington : ' Mr John McKenzie, late Minister of Lands, who has been appointed member of the Upper House by the Governor, has left for Sydney to confer with the Duke of Cornwall for his New Zealand tour.' Alfred Oldham, the well-known broker, who has resigned his position as Stock Exchange secretary and gone to Australia, will be missed by the commercial, social and educational communities. As a broker he was straight and much esteemed, in social circles he was highly popular, and in matters educational he had a large experience and was very useful. As a teacher under the Board he had a splendid record, and later on, when he left the service and became a school committeeman, his knowledge of al] the ins and outs of school work stood him in good stead, and made him an invaluable member. Here is an instance. Years ago, it fell tcx the lot of the committee that he was a member of to find out which of three suspected boys wrote an improper letter to a girl attending the school. The boys were duly suspended, and haled before the committee, but the examination failed to elicit any proof, and the committee, after a brief discussion, had almost come to a ' no case ' verdict, when Oldham, taking the letter and underlining some words, asked that one of the three (naming him) be again brought in. Well, he was brought in again, and put through a severe spelling bout by Oldham. The ex-master plied him with word after word, and wrote down every one that was wongly spelled. On the boy retiring, a comparison of the words taken down with those underlined in the letter showed that the spelling (wrong in both cases) was precisely the same. His guilt was thereby established, and he was promptly expelled. j

Sir Joseph Ward is still the re-" cipient of congratulations and presentations in recognition of his elevation to Knighthood. The latest is a cigar and cigarette case from the Labour party in Wellington. The only discordant note in the flattering harmony has been struck by a Wellingtonian, who, with execrable taste, has published a pamphlet reviewing the story of the bankruptcy and the ' oats ' episode. Was it with a view to this that the Premier mentioned in the House the necessity for reviewing the law of criminal libel ? The business dealings of a high banking official who recently resigned his appointment are engaging the attention of several legal gentleman at the present moment. In some of the cases, it is said, the Bank is not responsible ; but in others cla:ms for substantial sums are likely to be made upon it. Meanwhile, the gentleman most concerned is awaiting the outcome of events.

Sinoe the recent enquiry into the Grand Hotel fire the sale of ' penny dreadfuls ' ia said to have fallen off considerably. And anent thiß, it is whispered that a girl in one of the suburbs, who is a constant reader of this class of literature, has shown so strong an inclination for ' doing something ' lately that she is now under lock and key. The young man who writes the operatic slush for the ' Star ' ought really to be looked after by his friends. With the season only half through, and all his superlatives exhausted, and his torrents of bathos subsiding into a trickle, he is in a pretty plight. AU the leading artistes of the company, according to the extravagant language of this young man, are the best we have ever heard in New Zealand. Which simply means that the critic in question has not lived in New Zealand for more than two years or else he has an uncommonly bad memory.

J

He was a sad jojter in the Star office who put under the / heading of ' Funeral Notices ' the announcement that the Loyal , United Brothers Lodge of National Oddfellows ■ would pay a fraternal ' visit to the Loyal Pioneer Lodge. Did he mean that the journey would be a funereal procession ? Or . was he fearful of ' the funeral tomorrow,' as a consequence of the conviviality on the occasion ? The cabled news of the death in Sydney of Fred. Hiscocks, theatrical, recalls the fact that twenty years ago he was one of the most popular and successful managers in the colonies. He visited Auckland several times, once as the head of the celebrated Hiscocks and Hayman's minstrels, and anon with other capital companies. For a number of years, more recently, he has been resident in Melbourne and Sydney, engaging in the work of the profession. The deceased gentleman was the father of Mr E. F. Hiscocks, artist of the ' Free Lance,' the well-known Wellington society and illustrated journal.