PARS ABOUT PEOPLE

Observer, Volume XXVII, Issue 37, 1 June 1907, Page 4

PARS ABOUT PEOPLE

THERE is at least one policeman in Auckland who does not realise what is due to Ministerial dignity. When the Hon. J. A. Millar was here lately, he was standing on the kerbstone in Queen-Btreet talking to a number oi what the daily papers would call " leading citizens." Kobert happened to <jome along that way, and, realising that constabulary duty must be done, emitted a brief and stern command to " move on." J. A. M. and his fellow sinners withered the " mimber ay the foorce " with a glare. But the guardian of the peace was inexorable. " Move on, now," he repeated, feeling thoughtfully for his notebook. Then the assembled sinners grinned collectively and— moved on. And, even now, perhaps that reckless constable is not aware of the fearful crime which he committed. " Where ignorance is bliss," etc.

The Rev. Joseph Clark has just resigned the pastorate of the Auckland Baptist Tabernacle, which he has held for a long term of years. It is his intention to settle down to another form of pastoral life, on a farm which he lately purchased in the Takapuna district. For some time past Mr Clark has found the full charge of a city church too great a strain upon his physical powers, hence the change in his plans. He does not, however, intend to abandon ministerial work altogether, and it is probable that some means will be found by the church that he has served so long and so well for utilising bis services in his spare time.

David Lindsay, for ten years mail agent on the San Francisco steamers, wnose death occurred in Wellington last week, was the man whose smartness saved the situation for the New Zealand mails at the time of the big Californian earthquake and fire thirteen monfths ago. Mr Lindsay had hiß mails on board the Sonoma, just ready for sailing, when the catastrophe occurred, and was spending the night in a big city hotel. His own escape from the wreckage waß narrow enough, for a near friend, who slept in the adjoining room, was killed by the fall of debris. However, Mr Lindsay came out scatbless, and his first thought was for his official duty.

The crisis was one that called ior sagacity and Dronvntness, and David Lindsay Bhowed both qualifications. Within San Francisco all was chaos. The city was blazing, and every man was fighting for his own hand. AH steamers had been placed by the auothorities under embargo, and the New Zealand mail service was effectually blocked. As the interruption of cable communicauon prevented him from getting instructions from New Zealand, Mr Lindsay took the responsibility upon himself, and determined to get his mails through at whatever cost. At some risk to his life, artd largely by personal exertion, he got the mail - bags into a ferryboat, and across to Oakland, at the further side of the harhour, then conveyed them by express train on a journey of many hunderd miles to Vancouver, arriving there just in ■time to catch the outward steamer, and so brought them to Auckland. It is safe to say that his ready resource saved many weeks of delay to New Zealand correspondents. As a matter of course, the expenditure lie incurred was approved by the Postal Department, and his shrewdness in dealing with the problem won him much kudos at headquarters. Personally, Mr Lindsay was well known and liked in Auckland and by the travelling public, and his early death will be widely mourned.

Gradually the scythe of the Reaper is ' reforming " the Legislative Council, by bringing it nearer to popular control. By the death of the Hon. Lancelot "Walker, „ which occurred last week, the number of life members was reduced to a pathetic little band of eight. All of these, too, are well stricken in "ears, and it cannot now be long before the whole Council will come under the seven years apr^ointment system, if it is not in the meantime reformed altogether, and made elective. Mr Walker, who was an Army man before he came to the colony, and then became a Canterbury runholder, was appointed to the Council in 1885, by 'the Stout-Vogel Government. Except in the divisions — '-the Council always divides by the member answering " aye " or " no " when his name is called by the clerk — his voice has seldom been heard in late years. In fact, he has run our own Major Harris very close -or the distinction of being the ' ' silent member."

M.H.R. Rutherford recently ~erpetrated a new and original joke. Thiß was when the Hon. George Fowlds was down Cheviot way. Two Cheviotic identities were told of? — or took it upon themselves — to show the Hon. George round. Apparently these two identities do not find favour in the Rutherfordian evee, for the member for Hurunui criticises them thusly : " Both these gentlemen were rejected when attempting to obtain seats in the County Council. I thus consider

them duly qualified for seats in the Legislative Council." Which is the sort of creed that ought to gladden the heart of Arthur Rosser, J.P. He has been rejected from the City Council, therefore he is duly qualified for admission into the Legislative Council. Verb. sap.

Madame Bahnson, the charming Danish songstress, will be a pleasant memory to musical Aucklanders, who for some time numbered her among their fellow-citizens. It will be pleasant news to her old friends that she will be in New Zealand again next year, on a song recital tour — not. however, as Madame Bahnson. Soon after she left Auckland, Dr. Bahnson passed awayj and Madame has since become Mrs Albert Mallinson. Mr Mallinson is one of the foremost song-conroosers of the present day. For instance, a man whose work is described by the influential "Musical Times" as ' ' comparable in artistic worth and style to the songs of Schubert, must be out of the ordinary ruck or music-writers, and other leading English papers, as well as German critics, are equally enthusiastic in his praise. Mrs Mallinson devotes herself chiefly to the singing of her husband's songs, and she lately had the patronage of Queen Alexandra for a series of recitals at the Bechstein Hall, London. On the coming tour Mr Mallinson will travel with his wife, as manist, and the musical blend should be one of rare quality.

Colonel Gorton, the Bay of Pleaty S.M., is a gentleman who d dee 7 not believe in coming to his conclusion* hurriedlyi It took him jusi, tv^ months to ruminate over the lively evidence given in the case in which young J. H. Cato, the son of an Opotiki clergyman, was sued for the support of the child of a girl to whom he had been dental adviser and attendant. However, the gallant colonel has come to his decision at length, and the public of Opotiki learned last week that he had overruled the Catoniaa contention that on the question of the date of the youthful Cato's admitted foregatherings with thej complainant it was impossible that he could be the parent of her infant, and had made him responsible for the maintenance of his offspring for a term of years. Which, on the whole, is quite in accordance with popular opinion in the Bay. Bat what a longsuffering people the Opotikians must be, if they tolerate uncomplainingly such slow revolutions of the wheels of justice.

Charles Watt, the clerical individual who alternately thunders moral maxims from the pulpit and agitates against Home Rule for Ireland, has been at it again. Charles Watt has taken himself and his talents to Wellington, which is another injustice to the neglected North. Strange to say, the Wellingtonians do not appear to appreciate the versatile Charles. At any rate, they gave him rather a warm time in the course of one of his antiHome Rule diatribes the other night. Probably that was because Charles did not have Councillor A. A. Creamer, of Grey Lynn, one of" the pillars of the Empire, to support him. Anyway, presumably the Press Association man has cabled Charles's utterances Home. if so, the •' disthressful country " will be more " disthressful" than ever, and Joseph Devlin will be trembling in his shoes. If not, he ought to be.

Herbert P. Henton, an ex • Aucklander, obtained an order from Mr Justice Button at Wellington the other day tor restitution of conjugal rights. Usually, nowadays, this is the preliminary step to out ■ and • out divorce, for the wife who cannot be induced to resume her marital duties without the help of the court is hardly likely to do so under compulsion. Henton's story was not a romantic one. Simply, there had been words between himself and his wife over her relations with a boarder in their household. Rightly or wrongly, she took umbrage and left him, betaking herself to the roof of her sister, next door, which she refused to quitAnd the lonely husband, after waiting only a few weeks, invoked the law to bring her back. Incidentally, the husband who cannot give his wife more than a month in which to fix up a serious domestic quarrel seems a person endowed with, little patience, but Herbert Henton possibly knows his own business better than an outsider can.

Reynolds Denniston, shortly to strut the boards of His Majesty's with the Julius Knight company, is not, as one of the papers suggested the other day, a son of Mr Justice Denniston, but his nephew. He is a son of Mr G. L. Denniston, the well-known Dunedin merchant. Mr Denniston, by the way, has leapt rather quickly into theatrical prominence. Till he left New Zealsnd his experience had been confined to commerce. Either the glamour of soldiering or the fervour of patriotism seized upon him, and he went a 8 a trooper to the Transvaal. When the war ended he took to the stage, and for five years had junior parts under Edward Saas and James Nelson. Then , he decided to try bis luck in London, and quickly had the good fortune to get an engagement with Mrs Clement Scott. Next he fell itt|with the Kendalls, and was secured by them for a tour of Great Britain, It was while on this tour that Julius -Knight, then looking out for .fta^-Tdr'-lifujpew^ company, happened across Kirn, and gave him the chance to return and stagger his aid New Zealand schoolfellows with his dramatic talents. ■ >,;. '■ v ;\ , - .f .>-'. ,

John Iredale, who bad a meteorically brilliant career in the drapery business in Auckland a few years ago, as proprietor of the establishment now oWaied by John Court, Limited, and. baa since spent some time in the jiat^r colonies, has just fallen upon his #fjefc in Sydney. Some weeks ago, Mr /jopjdaje was appointed floor manager of J^be business of the Hattee firm, an e&Jj}blißbinent run on the scale of our :fliwjtt Smith and (Jaughey's. It is one pf the prize billets of the retail trade in Sydney, involving practically the management of a large business. f«9 «• ••» Some other items have reached us as to the progress of ex-Aucklanders now resident in Sydney. For instance, Kobert Jack, formerly with the Union Company here, has become accountant to Tailerman and Co.,' a big firm of Japanese traders in the city. Also Harry4||[*tMj' son of the Mr Watts who v^p^Kt.^e time assistant Secretary Jjo ' Jtjjie' Auckland Gas Company, is nojfr passenger clerk in the Union Company's "^Sydney office, and very popular with the travelling public. Harry . Henderson, brother of the genial^ Tom, "and whose wife was in former years "popular on the stage as Miss Maggie Knight, is secretary of one of the big city clubs. «•»■•#• «> Another Aucklander who cuts a large figure in the City of the Beautiful Harbour jusc now, is Harold Montgomery, late Government Tourist Agent in ' Auckland, who was sent across some nine months ago to open a New Zealand Government Agency. Mr Montgomery, who has just spent a three weeks' holiday in Auckland, has an office in one of the principal streets, where all sorts of information is kept available for the use of inquiring tourists and intending settlers, and every opportunity is taken for the development of trade with New Zealand. ' Already the office has been the means of bringing a large number of settlers to this colony. Harold Montgomery, to judge from what we knew of him when running a similar office in Auckland, is just the man to push the colony's interests. m» *•• «• Two significant standing advertisements have been appropriately placed together in the " personal " column of the dailies. In the first, a matrimonial agency " invites ladies and gentlemen seeking life partners " to write or call. Immediately below this, an individual called the flev. M. Walker notifies that he solemnises marriage " quietly, and at the shortest notice." Why quietly? Anyway, why don't these two advertisers amalgamate their respective businesses?

W. C. Somers has signalised hie entrance into public life by stirring up the Minister of Marine on the subject of the lighting of the coast between here and Wellington. William's analysis of the situation is very convincing, if, indeed, an experienced old salt like J. A. Millar needs any convincing as to the favour so far meted out to the South Island in the matter of coastal lighting. With a real live seacaptain at the Marine Department, and an energetic man like William Somers to keep him alive to the necessities of the mercantile marine, there ought to be a prospect of getting something done to shield the public from a repetition of the Wairarapa and J£lingamite horrors. William Wood is a suburban resident who is rather vain of his capabilities as a humourist and his readiness in repartee. He met his match, however, the other day. On the tramcar he happened to sit opposite a friend whose name is Stone. Here, thought William, was an opportunity of getting off one of his famous impromptus. So he leant across the passage, and with one eye on his audience, observed in more than an Irish whisper : "Goodday, Mr Stone, and how are Mrs Stone and all the little pebbles ?" Stone, however, is as quick with his tongue aa his friend, and he was equal to the occasion. " Oh," he replied, " they are quite well. And how are Mrs Wood and all the little splinters?" For once Wood's resources failed him. Archibald John McNeill, the first person to be dealt with in Wellington under the Habitual Criminals Act, had invented a new and original confidence trick of his own. It was in two acts. In the first act, an accomplice went into bhe drapery store of one McDougall and made a small purchase. Then entered the wily MciNeill, expressed pleasure at meeting the first comer, and explained that he had just arrived that morning. Then he suddenly appeared to notice that the draper was a McDougall, explained that he was one of the McDougall clan, and left shortly, afterwards. End of Act I. The following day the canny McNeill turned up once more, and bought a considerable quantity of goods, representing himself to be an officer on the Aparima, from Calcutta, and stating that he would pay for the goods when he got his salary that afternoon. He relied upon the clannish instincts of the colonial Scot to make the plan work, and succeeded. This interesting gentleman has been in gaol almost continuously since 1893 for similar petty offences. His disease is chronic.

Miss Ivy Alison, who left Auckland with her mother and sister some weeks ago for a tour in the Old World, with the intention of obtaining the best advice a 9 to the cultivation of her vocal powers, was in Paris when the last mail left Europe. Regarding her special mission, the reports are of the brightest character. Miss Alison submitted her voice to the famous Madame Marchesi, from whom Melba and other noted musicians received their finishing tuition, and Madame agreed to take her under her care tor a course of lessons. This in itself is a high compliment to the young Takapuna soprano, for Marchesi picks her pupils, and has virtually the world to choose from. In Paris Miss Alison met Miss Irene Ansley, the young Auckland singer who already has her foot upon the ladder of fame, and who had cheerful accounts to give as to her prospects.

The apology from the directors of the Gisborne Times to Dr Morrison, of Giaborne, advertised in the daily papers, has rather a close connection with someone we all know. It arises from an experience of Dr Clive Collins at Gisborne. Recently, the Times published a severe article complaining of the withholding of permission to Dr Collins to see a patient in the hospital, and suggesting all kinds of terrible things as the result of that refusal. To this article Dr Morrison, the hospital surgeon, took exception, and the result is the complete withdrawal by the paper of any reflections upon the hospital and its conductor contained in the article, and an apology for its publication; Somehow-ifc has been Dr <3oHihaV^Bfo#tiiflea toChe^a,lsind -of ■:'■ stormy petrel in hospital matters. t» — <•• t Labour Minister Millar probably curses ?Hansard—T> that is, if he ever curses at all. For it is the resurrection of some of his back speeches that has landed him in turmoil with the southern factory owners who were observing Wednesday or Thursday instead of Saturday as their half-holiday. Back in the days when Mr Seddon was in difficulties over the Shops Bill, it was Mr Millar, then a private member, who was most outspoken in demanding that he should enforce the law in its entirety. As soon as Mr Millar himself took over the Labour portfolio, some of the trade unionists confronted him with his own record*! word* " Nowy" *he^ wM^

" it's your turn. You carry out the law." Mr Millar is doing it right enough, but there are such ructions in the south that he finds the job far from pleasant.

When City Councillor Stopford has acquired a little more experience in the conduct of municipal business he will realise tliat it is not wise policy to attempt to force a scheme upon the attention of a public body by means of a threat. YVhatever the merits of his panacea for the sanitation of the city, it would no doubt have received serious consideration but for the flamboyant sentence with which he concluded his little introductory speech. As it was, his motion was contemptuously shelved without finding a seconder. There are courtesies to be observed in public as well as private life, bnt the .Doctor doesn't yet seem to know it.

Sir Joseph Ward has evidently been employing his powers of blarney on London journalists, or else the said journalists are short-sighted individuals. " M.A.P.," untillately T. P. O'Connor's society paper, and usually well informed in personal matters, describes Sir Joseph as a "slight" man. Conference worries must have pulled Sir Joe down terribly, because he wasn't particularly slight when he left New Zealand. But teaching John Bull the way he should go is a wearying job. Probably that scribe would have described the late King Dick as abnormally thin.

When William Jennings, M. H.R., showed a.perfectly natural interest in : -tlfe:- by^eleotibirTroY 2 Ta-anaki;- -wi»^e r bis home is, there were clever people who formed a theory of their own, and gossipped about ib freejy. Their deduction was that Mr Jennings was personally concerned in the contest, inasmuch as Mr Dockrill, if he won, would be merely a seat-warmer for him till the next general election, when Mr Jennings reckoned upon being* the Government candidate for Taranaki. A pretty political romance, but lacking the essential element of truth. Mr Jennings has destroyed ifc with a word. He has authorised an announcement: that tinder no circumstances will he be a candidate for Taranaki at the general election. Andthose who know William Jennings know that when he says a thing he means it, .■. .•-... .••: ■-.' ' •. ■• ■• ' ■ ■ ■;."■:■;