Pars About People.

Observer, Volume XXIX, Issue 43, 10 July 1909, Page 4

Pars About People.

IT is whispered in circles that are usually well informed that there will shortly be. a vacancy in the Stipendiary Magistracy of Auckland. Judge Kettle, so the story runs, is to be translated to the position of Undersecretary of the Justice Department, the present secretary, Mr Waldegrave, replacing Mr Dinnie in the office of Commissioner of Police. As to Mr Kettle's successor, it is stated that he will be found in another ex-District Judge —W. K. Haselden, at present performing magisterial duties in the Taranaki district. On the score of the experience of two of the officials mentioned in the class of work for which they are said to be designated, the appointments do not bear the impress of probability, but the report is very definite. Should Mr Haselden come to Auckland, it will be very necessary for the local solicitors to post themBelves up in the minutiae of court etiquette, for he has the reputation of being a "holy terror" in insisting upon the utmost deference being paid to the presiding authority.

Announced by a contemporary that one Fort has commenced business in a Waikato town with a " full range " of goods in his particular line. Sounds very military, and suggests that this particular Fort is rather a big gun. The difference between him and the big guns of the Auckland forts is that their range, for modern ordnance, is nothing to brag about.

Adolph Kohn was sitting in his office the other day, when four burly individuals marched silently in and took up a position in front of him. This mysterious proceeding filled Adolph with apprehension. It was not improbable, be thought, that these were enterprising persons who had base designs upon his store of glittering treasure. He was about to summon the faithful Diddams to his aid, and prepare to sell his life dearly, when he recognised in one of his visitors the intellectual and energetic Arthur Bosser. - Adolph breathed freely again. Clearly, no robbery was intended. The other visitors turned out to be Paul Richardson (son of William of that ilk, and president of the Tramway Employees' Union), P. C. Buckley and S. M. Farrelly, and the object of their visit was to present an office chair to Mr Kohn on behalf of the Tramway Employees' Union. The gift was well deserved, for Adolph Kobn has been lavish in practical assistance to the Union at their picnics and similar functions, and he richly merits the esteem and respect of which the gift was an outward and visible token.

- The carrying of No-license in Ohinemuri is bearing fruit. Recently, Michael Walsh, who presides over the ; destiny of the City Club hostelry, was the recipient of a bulky parcel, upon which was stamped the Waihi postmark. "Aha!" said Michael, as he surveyed the mysterious package, "this must be something good for - me." Then he proceeded to investigate the contents. This was a task of some difficulty, because the string , was strong, and the wrappers were many. -After much toil, however, , ; accompanied by remarks of a severely ; classic nature. Michael disinterred the kernel of the nut, and found it to consist of a flask containing water, the said flaßk being adorned with , a label bearing the simple inscription : < ' " Special Waihi Brand. " Michael has his suspicions concerning the identity V. of the ipractical joker, and is taking steps to verify them. It would be £-j well, therefore, for the said joker to betake himaelf to a faroountry, lest p|, evil overtake him. Michael has % |( sworn vengeance.

Horace Bastings; who died at Ponsonby last week, had left his footprints on the sands of colonial life in many and various ways. The active portion of bis career was spent in Australia and the South Island, in both of which he counted for a long period as a political and industrial force. Before coming to New Zealand he was mayor of Brunswick, a suburb of Melbourne, then he was mayor of Lawrence, in Otago, for six successive years, chairman of the Tuapeka County Council for seven years, represented Tuapeka in the Otago Provincial Council, and held the offices of Provincial Secretary, Secretary for Land and Works, and Secretary for the Goldh'elds in the Provincial Executive. Also, he was on Otago's first Education Board, and sat in the House of Representatives for Wakaia for eight years, besides holding minor public offices.

Mr Bastrings had the distinction of receiving one of the most handsome presentations ever made to a public man in New Zealand — a purse of 500 sovereigns and a. silver tea and coffee service from grateful Wakaia constituents for his activity in support of the Bill which authorised the constiuction of the Tapanui railway. This, however, was only one of his contributions to colonial development, for during a second term of residence in Australia he laid the first cable tramway at North Shore, Sydney, and constructed the Bacchus Marsh to Ballan railway in Victoria, at a cost of £225,000. Early in his New Zealand history, too, he owned the celebrated Cobb and Co. -lines of coaches for the whole of the South Island. By turns

Mr Bastings was a miner, storekeeper, builder, railway contractor, auctioneer — wielded the hammer in Auckland for a short period, twenty or thirty years ago — and engaged in various business enterprises, and in all his callings a man of energy. At one time he was Provincial Grand Master of the Ota«o Oddfellows, and prominent in Freemasonry. To the present generation of Aucklanders he was little known, for he had not lived here for more than three months at the time of his death.

Strange that Sir Joseph Ward, one of the most popular and approachable Premiers that New Zealand has ever known, should also be the Premier whom it is considered necessary to protect against the danger of personal attack. The mysterious ex-colonist whom Detective Cassells is said to have gone Home to watch for, is at least the third instance ot its kind in Sir Joseph's political career. First there was the case of one Moore, who was arrested at the Parliament Buildings in Wellington some years ago, because he was stated to have made certain threats. Then came the case of an Auckland citizen whose fiery criticism of the Premier in a letter to the "Herald" was taken to denote violent designs, and who was put for a period under sureties of the peace. If, however, the gravity of the danger in all cases is to be gauged by the probability of a lawless attack by the said Aucklander, Sir Joseph Ward's life may well be written down by the insurance agents as a safe risk. In any case, doesn't proverbial wisdom tell us that threatened men live long ?

Possibly Chairman of Directors E. W. Alison might be induced, with a little, persuasion, to deliver a lecture, say in aid of some local charity, recounting the way in which, as Admiralissimo of the Devonport Ferry Company, he brought the Eagle safely to shore in her exciting trip around the harbour during the storm of last Saturday morning. If so, it would make a more absorbing narrative than anything recorded in the annals of the Ferry Company in recent years, or any anecdote that he embalmed in " Hanaard " during his Parliamentary career. For E. VV. was in supreme command of the deck all through the thrilling experience. Under his calm directions, to say nothing of Brother Alec's, the steamer was successfully navigated through mountainous seas, and across baffling currents, chat might have puzzled Skipper Voole's unaided steersraanship. To hear how the feat was achieved it is necessary to have E. W.s own graphic description. No one else could tell it nearly so well.

Kawhia is sad, The Kawhians are weeping bitter tears into their hankies. Furthermore, the flags of Kawhia are flying lugubriously at half-mast. You naturally inquire : Why this thusness ? The reason is that Kawhia has lately lost two of its greatest and most energetic hustlers. One is J. Hustler, who is a hustler by nature as well as by name, and who has shifted his household camp to Giaborae. The other is Herbert Harrison Pettit, who, besides editing the Kawhia "Settler," also set it up in type, machined it, canvassed for the advertisements therein, and, in fact, ran the whole affair solus. But Mr Pettit did more than that. Besides running tihe " Settler," he was a member of the Town Board, ran a land agency, acted as secretary of about a dozen different societies, organised concerts and dances, and did various other things. Presumably, he slept sometimes, bat it is hard to say when. Mr Pettit has sold the "Settler," and will shortly be on his way to Australia. But Kawhia will be an aching void without him.

The Chinaman is beginning to count in New Zealand for something more than a humble fruiterer, vegetable vendor or laundryman. This doesn't mean merely that he is jogging elbows with the Caucasian patrons of the dress circle at His Majesty's at Chung Ling Soo's entertainments, though that may rank as an item. But he and his wife have become factors in " society" in Wellington. One of the papers there, in its "society" column, spread itself the other day over a "charming afternoon tea" given at the Consulate by Mrs Tung-liang Hwang, wife of the new Chinese Consul, with an interesting list of the "society" ladies who were present, and the usual particulars of the hostess's costume, and that of her little daughter. True, the Tung-liang Hwangs are educated people, but when their official status gives them the entree into " society," what is to prevent Mr Ting-lee-hee and his wife, when they make a fortune and retire from their vegetable shop or their laundry, as they could eaeily do, horn getting the san?e hall-mark of recognition from the elect ? Also, why shouldn't they have it, if they possess the worth that makes the man or woman ?

Tung - liang Hwang is in other respects a sought-after person in Weihngton. He is a dapper gentleman, who appears in public in tlje conventional bell-topper and ifcMjpachless ..jjailoring, and wears a baldilpot where most of his compatriots grow their Also, he has an excellent command of dictionary English, and can talk so interestingly on a variety of topics that he is in request ar« lecturer to church meetings and yqunl men's societies. Evidently, fromW' "charming tea" incident, he intends that he and his family shall be rep. koned with as a social force. Farther, it is recorded this week that another Chinaman is coming to Wellington to assist him at the Consulate. As this junior diplomatist also brings a wife with him we may look for some further developments in the CeleatUlUins of Wellington " society." ' \

QBAINU FROM DEVOKPO&T.