Pars About PEOPLE

Observer, Volume XXVI, Issue 44, 21 July 1906, Page 4

Pars About PEOPLE

AGAIN Premier Hall,- Jones gives it as his opinion that the iron horse will be running through irora Auckland to Wellington by Christmas, 1908. If the personal comfort of the Auckland members of Parliament could determine the matter, we should not have to wait even that length of time. No amount of tripping from the Manukau to New Plymouth hardens even the oldest of them against the troubles of sea travelling, and not one member but will be glad to be done with the coastal voyage. Ask Mr Massey, for example, for his opinion on the point. As one of the most consistent susferers, he can speak feelingly.

Bandmaster Trussell, of Waihi, writes to us replying to the complaint that his band enjoys an advantage over all other bands in connection with the special test piece at the Exhibition Band Contest. "This is not the first time by a good many,' says Mr Trussell, " that 1 have had the honour of writing and arranging special test pieces for band contests, not only in New Zealand but elsewhere. My band has always been a competitor, and there has never been a question raised ac to my having any undue advantage. Perhaps the local bandsman who wrote to you is judging me by what he would probably do himself if he were placed in. the same situation."

Frank Bullen, like Rudyard Kipling and other literary lions, has been pestered for his impressions of New Zealand cities. His impressions turn out to be worth no more and no less than those of any other birds of passage, for they do not go beneath the surface of things. Take his views about Auckland, for instance. Of course he was enthusiastic about our port. " A harbour with prospects that must thrill th« dullest imagination," he called it, and so far he was right. But then came the proof of the superficiality of his view. He credited us with ''splendid wharfage." Now, considering that Auckland itself has long ago voted its wharfage a back number, so much so that in its anxiety for improvement it has been deluded into a two million scheme that will carry it to the other extreme, what is to be said for Frank Bullen's depth of vision ? Possibly, though, it was the " splendid " audacity of the Hamer white etaphant scheme that had dazzled him.

William Henry Whiteside i 9 one of the few survivors of an old-fashioned class that is nearly extinct in Auckland. Having, as a bushman, earned a cheque for £21, he hastened to town to knock it down, and succeeded so well that a day or two found tiim in the bands of the police. Twenty years ago, thia sort of public spirit was smiled on and encouraged. It was good for trade, and especially the licensing trade, aud there were few publicans at Christmas time who didn't receive at least half-a-dozen £100 cheques with instructions : " Tell me ■when it is all gone." But William Henry Whiteside has fallen upon unsympathetic times and a more unsympathetic magistrate. Mr Kettle, instead of encouraging his publicspirited endeavour to boom stagnant city trade, coldly told him that we didn't want men like him in Auckland, and sent him to gaol for a month. William Henry will get no cheques in gaol, and the only knocking - down pastime there will be what he will find in the quarries. But, in the face of William Henry's experience, what is a lone bushman with a fat cheque to do ? They aren't all built on the lines of the heart-touched individual from the bush districts who gave the Central Mission a new organ, because he thought the one operated on in the streets on Sunday evenings wa« too «quawky. .

While we in New Zealand are only talking about the Seddon statue that is to ornament the lawn in front of our Parliamentary buildings, a pushful show proprietor in Melbourne has got ahead of us and made one on his own account — in wax. The local papers declare it to be a striking likeness. Possibly it is. But the turning of the great man's face and form to moneymaking account by a showman when he is hardly cold in his grave does strike one as " a little previous."

Isaac Hopkins, the Auck lander who became Government bee - expert a year or two ago, is at present flying around the Waikato district, leaving a distinct flavour of- honey on his trail. Mr Hopkins, so to speak, exudes honey at every pore. He knows the .ways and peculiarities of the little busy bee through and through, and wherever he goes finds little deputations of intending bee-farmers lying in wait for him, to gather up the information which he hardly requires to be tapped in order to supply. By the way, with the Hopkins honey industry pushing its way steadily into company with the creameries dotted all over the country, New Zealand will more than ever be entitled to call itself a laud of milk and honey.

An English paper announces the marriage of Miss Lyonella Fredegunda Cutftberga Ethelswytha Ideth Ysabel Grace Monica de Orellana Plantagenet Tollemache. Let's see, the Tollemache family had a hand in New Zealand's early history. Perhaps it is as well that they got away some time ago. The burden of such a fearsome name might have thrown these little islands quite oft' their balance.

Tuakau has lout a good all-round man in the removal of R A. Tapper, late railway station master, who has just resigned from the Government service to enter into business on his own account at Christchurch. Mr Tapper has been in the Railway Department from his youth up, having worked his way up the ladder from office-boy to station-master. At Tuakau he was an active promoter of sport, and in particular a leader in cricket and football. The people of the district mustered in strong force at the farewell gathering held in his honour. The Tapper family, by the way, fills some space in our military records. Four of its members served in the Fourth, Fifth, Ninth and Tenth South African Contingents, and one is Captain A. H. Tapper, of the Auckland Engineers.

One of Tom Seddon's election meetings took place during a tropical downpour of rain. In the course of his speech, the candidate told the diggers that one thing their industry required was more water. "But there's too much water now," broke in one joker in the audience, in obvious allusion to the hammering on the roof. Young Tom was quick to take up the .point. " Yes, ' he replied, " but the trouble is that we haven't got it in the right place." Hasn't somebody said that Seddon junior is a chip of the old block?

When John Hawker, an elderly individual, was eh u-ged for the fourth time in six months with drunkenuess, Judge Kettle enquired with some asperity where he obtained the liquor. To the surprise of the innocent Judge, the man replied "at the hotels," and the astonished Judge replied that the hotels ought to be ashamed" of themselves. But where would Hawker get the liquor if not at the hotels? Did Judge Kettle think that the Northern Club would give him the run of its cellar, or that the Christian Temperance Mission would furnish free liquor, or that he would get it from the Auckland Crusaders, or the Tramways Company, or at the Harbour Board? If any of these people had supplied Hawker with his whisky there might be reason for being ashamed, but the hotels pay a heavy license fee for the right of selling ligud?. Then why should it appear extraordinary that they should sell it ?

The conspicuous advertis ment of Dr E. H. Pope in the Palmerston papers reminds us that there are people knocking about who have two skilled callings at their command. Ten or twelve years ago, Harry Pope was one of the smartest compositors in the Wellington Evening Post office. Then came along the linotype and played havoc with hand typesetters' prospects. Though he also became an expert operator on the new machine, and was by no means a youngster, Pope decided to quit the printing business and start upon a new walk in life. Accordingly, he served an apprenticeship to a Wellington dentist, passed the examination required in New Zealand, then went to America for further study, acquired the doctor's degree of the Chicago College of Dental Surgery, and took a further course in France. Now he is back in the colony, and is establishing a solid professional position in Palmerston. There are "no flies " on Dr Pope.

The spectacle of Prime Minister Deakin, of the Australian Commonwealth, being fined for cycling on the footpath in Melbourne, suggests the fact that this is a form of luxury in which none of the present New Zealand Ministers is likely to indulge. The reason is obvious — not one of them ever bestrides the wobbly wheels, or mounts the even more fashionable motor-car. In point of fact, our Ministers are singularly innocent of bobbies. Thomas Duncan's penchant tor angling, and James Carroll's enjoyment of the turf, standout with particular conspicuousness among a set of men whose principal occupation is devotion to the work of their departments aud of the platform.

The creation of the new workmen's homes department, if it has done nothing else, has given a definite status to an official whose position has for many years been, in the eyes of the public, somewhat nebulous. J, E. March, the important • looking gentleman with whom everybody that aspires to secure one of the cheap and stylish . suburban villas to be styled workmen's homes is anxious just now to establish friendly relations, has for along time moved up and down the country upon mysterious missions that were understood to be connected with village settlement inspection. Excepting, however, that he was some* thing under the lands department, nobody knew exactly . wbaj; he was. Now we know that he is inspector of workmen's homes, amongst other things, and that it is worth while for a good many people who previously would not have ranked themselves as workmen to stand well with him/ Such definitions are useful, sometimes*

Last week, we recited some sound reasons why Alfred Harris should be re-elected to the seat on the Board of Education that he has so capably filled for some years. These remarks apply with equal force to the candidature of J. D. McKenzie, who may be regarded as belonging to the same party on the Board as Mr Harris, and whose election to the Board has been sufficiently justified by the assistance he has since rendered to the cause of education. Mr McKenzie points to three distinct advances in education that have been effected since he came into office. These are the Technical School, the recently -established Normal School, and the School of Agriculture.

In sympathy with Messrs Harris and McKenzie, and the policy they have supported on the Board, is the candidature of Matthew Armstrong, of Whangarei, well known to country settlers as a member of the Crown Lands Board. Mr Armstrong has been a member of school committees for twenty years, of which thirteen has been as chairman of the Maunu committee, and he has identified hfmself closely with the cause of education. He believes in better salaries to teachers, and a more generous superannuation Behenie, but what is more important to the country districts is his proposal for the establishment of a greater number of aided and halftime schools.

Have you seen W. J. Napier's latest photo, taken in London, at the moment when he was being pursued by dukes and earls eager to entertain him ? He has sent us a copy, and without any previous warning to soften the blow, has hurled upon us the distiessing fact that he has parted with his "mo," that graceful, clinging, curled moustache that set off bis fine features to such wonderful advantage. Now, why did W. J. do this desperate act? That "mo" was a thing of beauty, held in regard by all who knew W. J. Napier, a charming frill to statuesque features, and an amiable disguise to a stern and inflexible upper lip that no one would have suspected on such a winning face as W. J. Napier's. It must have been just such an upper lip that Napoleon, or Nelson, or some such other of the world's heroes possessed. The disappearance of the " mo " has given us a new Napier, not the fascinating one we used to know, but a Napier prepared, if necessary, to hold the whole world at defiance. Verily, a tiny moustache seems sometimes to cover an infinite amount of character.

The introduction into the House of Frank Buckland's frivolous Washers and Manglers Bill, in which he travestied the beginnings of W. P. Reeve's labour legislation, has been mentioned to an interviewer by Sir William Steward as one of the incidents of his tenure of the Speakership. Sir William takes credit to himself for having stopped the Bill as soon as he saw it in print. The real point is, however, that he was so far hoodwinked that the Bill got Us first reading and was printed at the public expense. That was just where the Buckland joke scored.

W. B. Lettingwell has written all the way from America to say that Mr Seddon did more for New Zealand than any other man. By all accounts, he also did something substantial for Mr Leftingwell.

The unhappy predicament of Captain Jackson Barry in having to take refuge in a benevolent home at Christchurch, will strike a note of sympathy throughout the colony. In spite of — or possibly because of — the toughness of his yarns, all who know the grizzled old pioneer own up to a sneaking regard for his sturdy independence. It was his very reluctance to accept charitable aid that impelled him to write his last tfbok, telling the story of his life, and travel round the colony button-holing possible subscribers. It can only be from sheer necessity, and because he is at the end of his resources, and also through the weakening of the mental powers hinted at in the daily papers, that Jackson Barry has fallen back upon charity.

The situation is all the sadder by contrast with the Jackson Barry of better times. Back in 1878, things were very bad in Dunedin ; so bad that relief works at 3/6 and 2/6 a day were instituted. James Wilson, of Lyttelton, tells a Christchurcb paper of the splendid work which Barry then did for the relief of the distress. In conjunction with the late Sandy Inglis, of A. and T. Inglis, he started a meat market, the character of which can be gauged from the fact that it sold a fresh leg of mutton, a smoked leg of mutton, and a dozen oysters for ninepence. Even this was not always the price, for no one who asked was refused, money or no money. Wilson states that the venture cost Captain Barry £2,000, and, as he was in the old man's employ, and connected with the transaction, he ought to know.

Though Timothy Kenealy, formerly of Te Puke, had only his own interests in view when he appealed against the £500 verdict for damages which his son's pea - rifle pranks brought upon him, he has incidentally done the public a service by eliciting a unanimous condemnation by the judges of the sale of pea-rifles to boys. Complete unanimity of the Appeal Court judges on any point is proverbially rare. In this instance, however, every member of the Bench is of opinion that the dangerous pop-gun ought, in the interests of the public, to be put under regulation, and has cited instances from his own district of the gravity of the danger. After such a strong and unusual representation from the Bench, will Parliament hesitate to take action ?

Hon. Hall-Jones says there must be greater accommodation for seamen. But where does he mean 1 The Harbour Board has no room for any more. Even J. K. Kneen cannot find room for his feet without treading on somebody's toes.

The Rev. W. J. Elliott, president of the West Coast branch of the New Zealand Alliance, must be very hard pushed for a quarrel when he has to pick one with Mrs Seddon at a time like the present, when good taste would suggest that the lady be left unmolested in her sorrow. It was hardly to be supposed that Mrs Seddon consented to her son's candidature for Westland without full consideration of all the surrourdings. Naturally, when once be bad, with her approval, been nominated for the seat, she appealed to the late Premier's friends, of whom she regarded Elliott as one, for a continuance to her son of the support they had hitherto given to the father. Mr Elliott's reply to the lady's request was that he " conscientiously thought the whole thing ill-advised," and would, as a friend, advise that young Tom should even yet withdraw.

With frigid decision, Mrs Seddon replied : "Thanks. Need no advice. A Seddon knows his duty. Prefer to prove my friends next Friday. Sorry I misunderstood you." By most people this would have been accepted as sufficient. Mr Elliott, with the

weakness of some women and many clergymen, has, however, a longing for the last word. With extraordinarily bad taste, he has rushed into print in order to reply to Mrs Seddon, reminding her that he had often defended her husband, just as if the self-reliant R. J. Seddon had ever wanted any defence from the Rev. Elliott, of the Westland branch of the New Zealand Alliance, and concluding with this ungracious sentiment : ■' All I have to say now is that if people only yalue my friendship for what they can get out of me it is hardly good enough." That is exactly what the late Premier himself might have said. How many people are going now to show that they " only valued his friendship for what they could get out of him ?" However, Mr Elliott's friendship was not worth, on these grounds, much to Mrs Seddon, because she could not get out of him common courtesy and good taste.

Sir Joseph Ward is prepared to admit certain articles of American produce free under a reciprocal tariff. But Chicago tinned meat is not amongst them. Sir Joseph never ventures where the people will not follow, and Chicago tinned meat was too awful a plunge into the mysterious unknown.

The incident mentioned this week by the Herald of the premature "killing" by Reuter of the novelist Barring- Gould, and of that gentleman's grim satisfaction in reading what the newspapers had to say about him and his work, can be matched nearer home. Journalist Rous Marten, now the Herald'sovrn correspondent in London-, has had exactly the same experience. At one time, when measles, or something of the kind, had about half Wellington by the heels, the correspondent of a Christchuroh paper wired that Rous Marten was "the latest victim," meaning merely that he had been put to bed for treatment. However, an eager sub-editor assumed that Rous had gone to his last account, and wrote up. his biography, with sympathetic comments upon the loss to colonial journalism. Rous smiles still when he comes across the cariosity in his scrap-book and recollects the "turn "it gave him.