Pars ABOUT PEOPLE

Observer, Volume XXIV, Issue XXIV, 26 December 1903, Page 4

Pars ABOUT PEOPLE

ROBERT WILLIAM DYER, barlister and solicitor, of Hamilton,^ who has accepted the position of Registrar of Deeds and Lands .at Invercargill, is a pretty old identity of the Waikato, though still in the early forties. He is an Auckland boy, only son of Mr R. C. Dyer, until recently headmaster of the Cambridge State School, and now one of the Education Board's relieving teachers. Robert William received his education at the Church of England Grammar School and St. John's College during the reign of the late Dr Kinder. He went from school to the office of the late Mr E. A. Mackechnie to serve his articles, and remained there five years, being admitted to the bar in 1881. If our recollection serves us, he was the youngest lawyer admitted up to that time. Selecting the Waikato as a field for his operations, he accented the post of manager of the branch office of Messrs F. A. Whitaker and John Sheehanat Kihikihi. Those were the days of the Land Court boom, and Mr Dyer gained a large experience of native work.

Kihikihi was a somewhat important centre then, and a considerable detachmsnt of the Armed Constabulary was stationed in barracks there. The commanding officer was the late Major Minnitt, whose daughter Mr Dyer subsequently married. Mrs Dyer is also a granddaughter of the late Sir Frederick Whitaker. On the closing of the Kihikihi office of Whitaker and Sheehan, Mr Dyer removed to Cambridge, and began to practice his profession thereon his own account, but in 1889 he removed to Hamilton, where he has since remained. He has taken a very active interest in local and general politics, and in church and educational matters, and his many good social qualities have been duly recognised. He was a member of the Hamilton Borough Council for a considerable time, and served as Mayor for two successive terms. In colonial politics he has been from the very first a consistent supporter of the BallanceSeddon Administrations, and rumour has it that he has more than once declined a reward. He has, however, aspired to represent the Waikato in Parliament, and very nearly went to the poll at the last election, only retiring at the last moment in favour of Mr.Greenslade. By the way, has this fact anything to do with the appointment ? •

Most people think of the Grace Darlißg of New Zealand as having heldnged to a generation now passed ay/ay. But if the Nelson district papers are to be relied upon, she is still in the land of the living, and was in Westport the other day looking to her interests in regard to native land. The person to whom the proud title belongs is Mrs Julia Martin, a Maori woman, and the act by which she earned it dates back to forty years ago, when she was a young and blooming girl.

A brigantine, the Delaware, went on the rocks some fifteen miles from Nelson, in September, 1863, and all efforts oi the crew to get ashore were baffled. Just as they were reduced to despair, five Maoris appeared on the beach, and two of them, of whom Mrs Martin was the foremost, swam oft' through the boiling surf, and succeeded in bringing ashore a rope thrown to them by the sailors from the doomed vesseU— Along this line all but one of the crew, a man who had been injured, made their escape. Julia Martin was rightly acclaimed by public and Government as a heroine, and her act was recognised by suitable presentations, and more permanently by the conferment of the title of the Maori Grace Darling. But if she is still to the fore, her light has in veeent years been kept under a bushel.

Again the periodical rumour is going round the papers that Richard 3eddon will shortly retire from the Premiership of New Zealand. This time it seems to be based upon a statement that on the last day of the session, after his big deliverance upon the Appropriation Bill, the Premier told someone in the lobbies that that was the last speech they would hear from him in the House. The remark has been eagerly caught at as indicating his early withdrawal from active politics. But, if there were any ground for the idea, and Mr Seddon wished to make his intention public, he would have found some lees oracular way of proclaiming it ere now. Most probably he was pulling his hearers' legs. He may have meant, right enough, that it was his last speech in the House — till next year. But did he make any such statement at all ?

It is true that several times in the course of the session King Richard let drop remarks which seemed to suggest weariness of politics and diminished zest for polemical warfare. But they were mere passing observations, and were forgotten as soon as any subject he deemed worthy of a struggle happened along. On such occasions he fought with all the vigour of hi.s best days, and with the same lust for victory. No ; Richard Seddon has enjoyed the sweets of power till they have become second nature to him. He will not set them aside until the voice of the electors bids him do so, and that day is far distant.

Rev. C. A. Tisdall, of Remuera, just appointed vicar of Roiorua, is one of the few Anglican parsons in the colony who have been able to unbend from ecclesiastical dignity and take a live and active interest in the pastimes of the young folk of their parishes. Wellington, Taranaki and Auckland have all benefited by his active promotion of athletic sports, and to some extent his personal participation in the games. Kotorua can do with the help of so energetic a man.

C. A. C. Hardy, member for Selwyn, enjoys the distinction of being a silent member in a House of Representatives conspicuous for its jaw-power. He never speaks a great deal, and in th,e late session did not once open hie mouth. Not that C. A. C. cannot speak forcibly when occasion requires it ; but he declines to talk for mere talking's sake, and on most questions is content to let his opinions be indicated by his vote. A few days ago he told his constituents bluntly that if they were dissatisfied because he was not always talking, let them get a better man. But the electors are satisfied with having a man who prefers deeds to words, for they have returned Hardy by big majorities, despite his taciturnity. It would be an advantage to the country if some other members could be inoculated with his spirit.

C. W. McMurran, the pushing Yankee journalist who got the ear of the Government a year or two back, and " did " New Zealand at the public expense, is back in New York, and has established himself there as a resident newspaper correspondent. He now stars his New Zealand and Australian knowledge as part of his stock-in-trade. If there is any advantage to be gained by the colony from the advertisements he promised to give us in Yankeeland, as his return for Ministerial favours conferred here, we ought soon to hear of it. By the way, when is the much- vaunted McMurran book on New Zealand, which has been undergoing extensive re-construccion in Wellington, to make its appearance?

Bishop Neligan has thrown down an apple of discord among the good people of Taranaki by reviving the story of their differences with Bishop Selwyn over the land question. He is said to have compared the pioneer pre late's opponents to the rabble who cried to Pilate; " Crucify Him, crucify Him." The incident referred to dates back to forty odd years ago, when Dr Selwyn was reported to have been either hooted or hissed in the streets of New Plymouth by a knot of settlers who considered themselves aggrieved by his philo- Maori attitude in the land controversy that caused years of bloodshed and widespread ruin to back-block colonists.

Those were the days when feeling ran strong, and injured men were apt to pass hasty judgment upon those people whom they considered to have brought about their wrongs. The present generation are content to bury the details of the old friction, and to remember Dr Selwyn only as a great and good man. whose largehear tedness and love for the Maoris warped his judgment in regard to the sufferings of his fellow-colonists. But when a new-comer amongst them rakes up the old question, and roundly condemns in public the action of their own forefathers, it is small wonder that they rliow resentment. Dr Neligan must restrain that aggressive Irish spirit of his, or at any rate regulate it with tact, unless he wants to stir up Donny brook fairs wherever he goes.

Inspector J. H. Pope, the father of the native schools of New Zealand, has made his last official round of the schools dotted over the wilds of Auck* land, for he retires from the Govern* ment service with the closing of the year. Away back in the seventies, Mr Pope was chosen by the Government of the day to organise the system of educating the young Maoris, which up to that time had been carried on ji a haphazard method. Probably he knows the out-districts of thin province better than any other man than the surveyors, and in his periodical trips of inspection his kindly ways have won him hosts of friends in all places to which his duties have carried him. Mr Pope is a gentleman of high literary ability, and also an enthusiastic astronomer.

If it is true, as asserted in the South, that the Government .have, invited j. A. Kinsella, their former Dairy Commissioner, to come back from the Transvaal and resume his old position, the conclusion can only have been arrived at as an inevitable way out of a difficulty. For it was no secret at the time of his departure to Africa that Kinsella cherished grievances against the Government, in that he considered himself unduly hampered in matters where his expert knowledge should have had weight. In the meantime we have had another Commissioner, whose services we are now losing, and the newly-imported Danish expert suffers from insufficient knowledge of English. So Ministers have had to pay their former chief expert the highest compliment in their power by asking him to come back, and presumably have yielded to him on the old points of difference.

The other day, in referring to the career of Mr W. K. Carter, the name of another well-known New Zealand coaching celebrity, Ned Devine, was mentioned incidentally. Ned will be remembered by many people in this province who knew Otago in the early days, and some late particulars concerning him will be of interest. Like Carter, Devine was in Victoria in the gold fever times, and the other day he paid a visit to the scenes of his youthful experiences, after an absence of nearly forty years. Devine, who is best remembered by his soubriquet of " Cabbage Tree Ned," was driving the coach towards Geelnngon the morning following the famous tight at the Eureka Stockade, more than fifty years ago, and he observed scores of the Stockaders hurrying towards the bush, endeavouring to escape arrest. Ned still wears a cabbage- tree hat of superfine texture. It is one that was sent to the London International Exhibition of 1851, and was presented to Ned shortly afterwards. It is yet in an excellent state of preservation, and washes like linen.

Mr Napier, ex M. H. X. , Who 'is a lawyer, declared the other day .that it is not true that lawyers take; 1 no physical exercise. In working r ttp a recent case Mr Napier lifted ninety tons in taking down boofjks of re-, ference and replacing them on their shelves. Some of the books of reference weigh as much, as 121 b each. You can work out 'the '''size of Mr Napier's library for yourself.

The salaries of theatrical artists are always the subject o.t more or less haphazard public estimates and more or less fictitious public gossip, hut the aworn evidence in the Slapoffski case at Melbourne brings us ito bedrock in regard to primg, donnas, at any rate. We have it on the authority of George Musgrove that £25 a week has been his maximum, which he lms only departed from in »ne case, that of Miss Leonora Braham. Miss Emilie Melville is mentioned, however, as having received £100 a week for live weeks, presumably under other management. Miss Annis Montague, Miss Clara Merivale, Miss Florence Perry, Miss Pattie Saverne, and Miss Nellie Stewart all came under the £25 scale. The fact that Madame Slapoffaki was awarded £35 a week in the judgment, seems to indicate that the Court valued her services at a higher rate than those of some of the most celebrated singers that have visited us.

Parson Hoggins, of Christchurch, has hurt the feelings of regular churchgoers. He held forth a few nights ago on the question, " Why people go to church," and deplored the fact that the majority attend "because they like it, and not from any conscientious religious motive." This, hesaid,was by no means meritorious. Does Mr Hoggins mean that there is no merit in church attendance unless it is felt to be a veritable penance, like the hairshirt and the peas in the shoes of older days ? : •

Horace Stebbing's latest song, " Two Veterans" — 'written and composed by hihiself and arranged by Mrs Stebbing (Clarice Brabazon) — was one of the successes of the Veterans' Home. fete. Every copy of the edition of 500 was sold, realising £25 for the Home funds, and there is still the sale in the South to be reckoned upon. There is no pretens-ionto daring originality about either words or musif, but the sentiment of the song is in keeping with the spirit that is- behind the Home movement, and whence its popularity. There are 1 not marly songs of which half a- tholusarid copies have gontj oh*' within a week. ■■■■>.■ ><r

. **:■■■> -..- ••.- • . •». Paul Hansen has suffered a bereavement, r U the/e.ws|,s anything offside his.famiTy c^rfilp. that hi^sou) <4#,vf1,.,tp,, it was his.p^.gion'^ey^-oue of, the, playful.firea^jij;?^ wJfc?o/«A livejy doings have already f^peq n jce}ebrated in the Observer , in pj^orial, form. Therefore, whence little chap languished, his . master became concerned, and called in the advice, of a' friend who was learned in the complaints of the simians. Said friend, himself a mon-key-proprietor, advised resort to a hot bath, to be followed by a cold shower — just to close the pores. With all the solicitude that w6uld be paid to a human suffereT, Jacko was bathed and rubbed down, and his symptoms were carefully noted.

But there was still no improvement, and the skilled friend was again appealed to. However, the case had got beyond his powers, and he could only advise resort to a medical man who was reputed to be the most experienced dog and monkey doctor in Auckland. This gentleman's services were accordingly called upon, and with all gravity, he pronounced $ie case to be one of pneumonia, and to require the most careful treatment. It was all of.no use — the monkey was doomed, and though physicked and cossetted with the utrrfgi£ concern, he" pined away and died, jpaul mourns for.it as he might mourn fora hunian friend. That accounts for the touch of sadness you may have observed in his demeanour of late.

A -.veil-known old identity of Auckland has passed away iv the person of J. H. Hudson, of baking-powder fame. He was for many years in business as a chemist in Victoria-street. The firm was originally Hill and Hudson, and Mr T. B. Hill is still alive and hearty in the Raglan district, having long ago elected to enter on the work of pioneering. First love is strong, however, and Mr Hill keeps a chemist's shop going in Raglan township, attending there at stated periods. Moreover, he is the only "doctor" that the bulk of the population sees, and his services have proved very valuable upon many occasions.

One form of affectation to which the school girl, of to-day i 8 prone is the reforming of the method of spelling her Christian name from that which was good enough for her mother and her aunts. Hence the number of Lueie's, and Einilies, and Maries one knocks against from day to day. The latest freak is perpetuated on the bow of.a new West Coast steamer in the South, which bears the fantastic inscription of "Kubi Seddon." Plain Ruby used at one time to be con* sidered to fill the bill.

"Long Drive" Walker has always been one of the optimists whose buoyant spirits have kept hope alive through the dull times on our goldfields. He generally has some project on hand tbat is going to regenerate the mining industry, if only the canny capitalists could be induced to put up the money to try it. "Long Drive has probably ibeen more fruitful of '•schemes" than any other of the old Thames identities. The share he has had in the development of Waibi is well known and acknowledged. This week he writes to the Herald in his old hopeful strain as to the big things he looks for at Waihi. He hopea to live long enough to see the same big results there that mining enterprise has achieved in America. Though he is 77 now, Mr Walker is full of plans of flotations, and, having sold his farm at Te Aroha, he starts for London at once with a pocket full of alluring Waihi options.