PARS ABOUT PEOPLE

Observer, Volume XXIX, Issue 12, 5 December 1908, Page 4

PARS ABOUT PEOPLE

REV. J. G. SIMMONDS, the worthy director of the

historic Three Kings College, is an optimist. He regards the world, or the Maori part of it, through rose-tinted spectacles. In his last annual report he refers to the late Native Congress at Wellington. He claims that the spirit of the Congress was deeply Christian aad that no altar was erected to secularism. "We have always laboured undeor the impression that the Maori was a much more religious person before the War than he has been since. The Hauhau schism broke up the old order, and the land courts and the Government laud purchase agents have done the rest.

Mr Simmonds will hardly claim that his efforts are more fruitful than those of the old ante-war missionaries in the Waikato were ; and yet men like the venerated B. Y. Ashwell had no illusions concerning the spirituality of the Maori. Does Mr SimmOnds remember that story (so redolent -of "secularism") about the old Taupiri chief, who after a long period of regular chnrohgoing suddenly absented himself and began visibly to fall away from grace ? " Why don't you come to church now ?" queried the Bey. Mr Ashwell of the rangitira. "I have no blankets to come in," growled the warrior ; " I want more blankets." "Well, we have no more blankets," mildly explained" the missionary (the C.M.S.'s funds were getting low). " Very well, then," grunted the chief, "No more blooming blankets, no more blooming chu.-o!i."

Years ago, Adolph Kohn took a firm grip of his courage, bestrode a playful goat, and was admitted into the ranks of the Oddfellows. Since then, Adolph has proved a tower of strength to the brethren. He was always lavish in trophies and prizes for Premier Picnic events, and was always ready, at a moment's notice, to act as timekeeper, or judge, or handicapper, or lolly-distributor, or baby-show organiser, or anything else that was required. A month or two ago Adolph took unto himself a wife, and the Premier Picnic Committee, being a grateful combination of brethren, decided to do something in recognition of Adolph' s gracious services in the interests of Oddfellowship.

Accordingly, on. Wednesday night of last week, a shivoo was held at the Fountain of Friendship lodgeroom, and the blushing Brother Benedick was presented with an illuminated address. Bro. E. A. A. Ie Houx, who is looked upon as the star orator of the Oddfellows, made the presentation in a manner reminiscent of Marcus Antonius, and Brother John McLeod, tie Oddfellows' boss secretary, proposed the health of Mr and Mrs Kohn in a manner reminiscent of Demosthenes. Brother Adolph, who wore an ex--s>ansive smile and an admiral's uniorm, responded in a manner that was reminiscent of any other classical orator that you like to mention.

But that was not all. Another important ceremony took place. ThU was the presentation to Brottar Paul Hansen of a cross (guaranteed 1 carrot brass) for saving life. \\r,A was quite taken by surprise, and for a time his manly emotion completely mastered him. But it was only for a a moment. Dashing away the rising weeps, Paul rose, and expanding his noble chest, proceeded to indulge in ah oratorical masterpiece that would have put Ned Smith to shame. As for the other events that happened that evening, are they not writ large on the official archives of the Oddfellows P

In a recent leading .-article the Feilding " Star??' sfcksy breathlessly r " Won't somebody with just a little energy move. around and .get thi.is;s going for the good of iTeilding 1" What's • the matter with the "Star's" own. little hustler, Fred Pirani ? It is no office secret that Fred does three men's work on the paper. He presides over the Wan-: ganui Education Board at night, gets back to Feilding first thing next morning, and by ten o'clock has set up the Board report himself on the linotype. Then he dashes off what literary stuff there is to be dashed (it generally dashes somebody else), and runs out arid collects £200 or £300 before noon. If there were much more "energy" of this sort in Feilding the little town would go off "pop." _

The "note" of exaggeration is just a little too frequently in evidence in the language of politics. And those indulging in it are not the most incautious generally. George Fowlds is a conspicuous sinner. Not long ago, when referring to the men decline in the prices of some of our staple products, the Minister for Education said the drop in wool was not so serious as the fall in flax, as the loss on the wool would be felt chiefly by the richer class of people 1 Exaggeration of that sort does not do much harm, certainly, but it is not what one expects from a Scot of Mr Fowlds' s type. There is more

mischief in another little sample, extracted from the Minister by a reporter of a Wanganui . paper a few days ago. Replying to a query touching Mr McNab's defeat, Mr Fowlds said : "Taking him all round, Mr McNab was probably tne best equipped man that had ev«r held a position in any Ministry in New Zealand." We need not go back to the days when giants were common. But what about Mr Seddon, or Mr Reeves, or Sir John McKenzie, or Sir Joseph Ward, or even Mr Fowlds himself ? Is not Mr Fowlds' s implied comparison most odoriferous P

Two colonials, -who describe themselves as " merry men," landed at a Te Puke hotel the other day, en route for Auckland and the Agricultural Show. They spent their money freely at the bar, but grumbled at every- sixpence charged for such incidentals as food and lodging, and when the landlord wanted to be paid for the sandwiches supplied to carry them on overland they rose up in their wrath and denounced him. The information is supplied by the "merry men" themselves, who are further self-styled a " free-hearted pair," and they are very anxious that the Observer should say something nasty about the landlord. It would be interesting to have the landlord's version of the ' ' merry men's " adventures in the meantime.

If the friends of a well-known and hitherto highly • respected member of the bookselling and stationery trade are anxious as -to his whereabouts, the Observer will show them the spot in the office back-yard, where his remains are now slowly disintegrating umder /the influence' of quicklime. He came into the office a few days ago and asked to see the whole staff. -When the expectant orowd assembled^ it was some minutes before he could utter a word. The humour of the thing had overcome him and made of him a mere incarnate giggle. He was calmed slowly and proceeded, between hysteric gasps, like this :

• ■ • "Oh, ah, ho, ho, you will laugh when I tell you, he he, he, ho ho, ah ha, it is too excruciating for any-r thing. A tram was coming up the street — ha ha ha, he he — no down the street, I mean — he he 3 ha ha — it was on election day — oh, you will burst your sid&s when you hear it — he he he he 3 ha ha ha, ho ho ho-^-oh^ you will kill yourselves — I didn't take the number of the tram, he hehe, but you can easily find it out and get the photo of the motorman — oh, Lord, you will laugh — I saw that the place where they put the name — he he he, ho ho ho — the name of the place where the car goes to — oh, goodness, how you will laugh ! — the space was vacaxit>— and I said to the motorman — ha ha ha ha ha ha, oh my gracious, how you will collapse when you hear it — i said, ha ha, why you have " struck out the top line 1" — A dozen strong right hands shot out and smote the humorist at the same instant, and the last laugh died with him.

We are having somewhat of a surfeit of the retiring Minister for Lands just now. The Wellington correspondent of the " Herald '"wrote a lew days ago : "The admirable spirit in which Mr McNab accepted his defeat has caused some surprise, and certainly won him a good deal of genuine admiration." Why should' it surprise anybody that Mr McNabbehaved after the fight just as decently as some sixty or seventyother candidates ? Was it the popular expectation that he would "roust" like W. J. Napier or Charlie Major ? Or is it that long, immunity from common election illshas made the personality of Ministers sacred in the eyes of the multitude ? Mr McNab took his defeat decently because he is a gentleman, and because, if the truth were known, he half expected it.

An Auckland commercial, whose business takes him all over the colony, had a little experience the other day which might have ended unpleasantly. In the business hour before the departure of the Wellington train he went shopping in Queen-street. In a well-known mercer's (redolent of politics) he purchased several articles and paid the bill, amounting to a couple of pounds or so. Then ne asked to be shown some hats. He laid his own (somewhat worn) potae on the counter while he was " trying on," but finding that none would fit he said he. would have to make shift till he got to the^ Empire City, and grabbing for his" own hat and parcel he made quick time for the station.

• . • • He had, however, hardly seated! himself oomfortably in a smoker, when he was roused Dy the Bight of a youth from the mercer's shop, excitedly gesticulating on the plaform, and crying "that'shim !" to a plainclothes policeman. The bobby enter~ed and explained to the surprised commercial that he had taken a hat without paying for it, as indeed he had, quite unwittingly, leaving his old hard hitter behind. If he had been strange to Auckland, a trip to Princes-street would, have followed, but the constable, , being a man of sense, accepted the explanation, re-exchanged the hats, and .the flurried traveller was suffered .to depart. On reaching Wellington, he was further enraged on finding that the pyjamas he had purchased at the mercer's were boy's size, but as, en reference to the bill, lie also found that he had not been charged for them, his anger cooled, and Jie now reckons that lie had the beet of the deaL .-„ ■" .. -■'. ' .-.:■ . ' ■■...•'■ ; .'.■- ' :

Few men were better known in -Auckland, and fewer were better appreciated by those who knew them best, than the late William Adams, v whose death occurred last week. Mr Adams was born in. Auckland fifty nine years ago, and he rtypified in •himself the traits and experiences of the city and province during six interesting decades. The Auckland of his boyhood was a quaint little place, inhabited by a race whos^ most salient characteristic was an 'absence of all false pride. Whatever it was necessary to do to earn an honest livelihood, that men did without shrinking or shirking, and very often for quite incommensurate pay. Young Adams grew up with an md spendent spirit, like the bronzed pioneers around him. Before he was twenty, he was a full-fledged stage carpenter and the trusted mechanical director of the redoubtable Johnny Hall and the enterprising De Lias. He built the stages of the Theatre Royal (now City Chambers) and the Opera House, and his skilled assistance was often requisitioned in after years.

Old residents will recollect Johnny Hall, and his clever wife, Fanny Wiseman (whose father was in business on the Thames) and old members of the Hall companies remember with affection their association with Mr Adams. Only a few days before his death, two ladies now moving in society and long resident in Auckland, who had been actresses in their youth, called to see him, and the mutual recognition was not without a touch of pathos. But Mr Adams was not enamoured of the glare of the footlights, and soon left the theatre for the building trade. He also began to speculate in land, and did a little hotel-keeping in the Queen's Head. Afterwards

he _ turned his attention to racing, and established the totalisator, which foe oonducted in connection with city and suburban meetings up to the tjLme of his death. He took a special interest in the Takqpuna bourse, for which he built the first grand stand, and he benefited it in other ways /vvhen assistance was sorely needed . Mr Adams was the owner of several well-known horses, of which the most famous was Mitralleuse, a- mate with only one defeat to her account.

For the last thirty years or more Mr Adams travelled over the greater part of the Province, and his handsome presence was familiar everywhere. While not a demonstrative man, the .mixture of shrewdness aaid geniality in his manner was singularly attractive. He was never known to speak ill of anybody, or to talk about matters upon which he was not well-informed. He would not have shone in Parliamentary debate, but what he did say would have been certain to add to the sum of knowledge about the subject under discussion. Mr Adams is survived by his widow, four sons and four daughters, as ■well as by several brothers. One of his brothers is H. H. Adams, the wellknown mining authority, and another is Lem. Adams, licensee of the Royal Oak. A third, M. Adams, is in business at the Thames. The eldest daughter is the wife of Mr "W. Blomfield, of the Obseeveb.

The older colonists will have pleasant memories of Mr Adams's father, who arrived in the colony in the year 1841 in the ship Westminister. He had been brought up to the building fcrade ? but the exigencies of early colonisation required that he should turn his hand to everything almost. Amongst other jobs which he tackled

was the cutting down of Shortlandstreet. Money was scarce and shy in those days and p&P&r was the principal medium. The currency had a varying value, according to the health of the public treasury, and as of ten as they could the settlers had recourse to barter. Old Mr Adams used to relate with gusto his adventures with a. kit-full of eggs, the produce of the family: fowls. He hawked them around until' he "was tired without finding a purchaser who was financially sound. Finally no took them to one of the public houses, and there they were converted into egg-flip for the crowd. He used also to tell how half the. population once turned out to look at a pound of butter exposed for sale in 'what, by courtesy, was called a shop-window.

Amongbt recent visitors to Auckland was D. M. Luckie, the veteran who has just retired from the office of Assistant Commissioner of the Government Life Insnrance Department. Mr Luckie was the first Commissioner when the department was established more than a quarter-of-a-century ago, and did all the difficult work of organising, but not many years elapsed before bis health gave way, and, as the Government was anxious to retain his services, the comparatively easy post of Assistant Commissioner was created for him, and this he held until early in the present year. Mr Luckie's visit to Auckland was partly in search of health, but he was unable to get about to see old places and old friends. He returned to Wellington last week.

Mr Lnokie was a resident of Auckland in the 'seventies, when he filled the post of editor of ther Daily Southern Cross (owned by A. 6. Horton), and, after the amalgamation of the Herald and Cross, guided for some months the destinies of the new journal. It was during his' time on the Cross that he wrote the famous "Kaskqwski" skit* which frightened the hair off half the. people {n Auckland and crystallised interest in the matter of defence. Subsequently, and up to the time of bis entering the Government service, Mr Luckie was editor of the Wellington Post.

Mr Luokie came to- the colony originally under the auspices of the New Zealand Company, and landed in Nelson in the fifties. He had. received a training in law and journalism in/Scotland, and founded . the Nelson Colonist, which, under his control, was one of the leading papers of the colony. At one time Mr Ltickie represented Nelson in the House pf Representatives, and he is a veritable gold mine ; of political reminiscence. Mrs, Luokie, who came oat with her husband from Scotland, accompanied

him to Auckland on this recent visit. There are several sons and daughters. One of the former is the secretary of the Great Northern Brewery, and another is a partner in the Wellington legal firm of Field (M.P.), Luckie and Toogood.

The debonnair and gay Eric Smith, whose Absolumite locks and Adonisian countenance have been the piide of the Star Office for the past two or three years, vamoosed the stellar ranche last Sunday, and made tracks for Java, of which Dutch colony he proposes to make an extended tour. Befort Eric's departure, he received two presentations : One, in the form of a substantial cheque, from the Star proprietary ; and the other, in the form of a aovereign case, considerably weighted with bullion, from his late colleagues on the literary staff. That Eric may meet with all sorts of success will be the sincere wish of all who have come into contact with that genial journalist.

C. H. Poole, the Member for Auckland West, was entertained by his election committee at a social the other night, at which there were some surprises. The Chairman read a thick batch of telegrams from the Premier, . the Minister for Mines, the Minister for Health, and the Attorney General, all expressing in florid terms the > Ministerial admiration and affection for Poole, and regretting their inability to be present, etc. DrFindlay, in his telegram, remarked that Poole had won the respect of "all rightthinking people." We have met with the expression before, bat did not expect to see it" flowing from the classic quill of the Attorney General. What does it all mean ? Were the' Ministers simply making themselves agreeable with their tongues in their cheeks, or do they contemplate calling C. H. Poole to the Cabinet ? Or does the foolish adulation imply that the Premier and his colleagues are making the most of every member endowed with the attribute of "personal loyalty."

Bat the greatest surprise of the smug gathering was the appearance of Albert Edward Glover, the chosen of City Central, who attended to add his little stone to the cairn of bunkum. What induced Albert Edward, the votary of sport, the genial friend of the Trade, and the champion of the much-maligned barmaid, to ally himself *iith tka Poiole r All': Qi parties appear to have accepted the J: situation; with the most perfect good grace.. All that 'was wftnted to make the .'■,-,. gathering \ ! »y;mme!tHio^, : .^:^)y.^ i^'^):;■xj congratulatory ,me&agefrbnr (Frank; Lawry and a solo 1 on the cornet. 0: •^ .;g,;W