PARS ABOUT PEOPLE

Observer, Volume XXX, Issue 23, 19 February 1910, Page 4

PARS ABOUT PEOPLE

CAPTAIN COKNWALL, of the Kaipara, must have passed through manyanxious hours since '\ his vessel "discovered" the patch of ;'. rocks in Rangitoto Channel which is 1 going to cost his owners, their customers, and the insurance companies . something like £120,000. The climax in the Court of Inquiry last Saturday - must, however, have gone a long way towards compensating him ior allhw ■ worries. The judgment of Mr Kettle, S.M., and Captains Reed and Post was not a mere exoneration. It was a triumphant vindication of Captain Cornwall from even a scm- ' tilla ot blame, and even went the length of complimenting him and his officers upon the masterful manner in which they had y extricated their vessel from its awkward position. Considering how rareh it is that a shipmaster whose vesseJ . meets with a catastrophe is able tc come out of the inquiry without som« smirching of his professional reputa tion, Captain Cornwall is to be telici tated upon his triumphant emergency from an ordeal of quite extraordinarj severity. mm' • '

W. F. Massey, Leader of the Opposition, is watching with particular interest the winning record of the Soult gelding Straithmoire. There are reasons, for the horse is to him a memento of last year's Rangitikei byelection. <»n the evening of the second ballot, Mr Massey and the Hon. Timi Kara happened to be waiting in the same town for the election returns. In their company were one McManaway, a well-known hotelkeeper in the district, who was an active Oppositionist, and one Duncan, equally prominent among the Government workers. During the weary hours of waiting* the conversation turned upon the horseflesh of the respective parties. Mr Massey undertook to produce an Opposition colt which would knock spots -off anything that the Government side could produce, and to present it to* Mr McManaway to uphold the honour of his party. Mr Carroll waa equally ready to transfer to Mr Dnncan a steed that would, as the late lamented E. M. Smith used co put it, "hoist the Liberal banner high, and all the Opposition crew defy." • • • ■'••■■ In due course, the bargain was carried out. Mr Massey presented to Mr McManaway the colt Straithmoira, and Mr Carroll staked his faith upon a certain well-bred filly, which he transferred to Mr Duncan's ownership. The sequel is that the Opposition's four-footed champion is winning glory that her political sponsors have so far not been able to achieve. On the other hand, the Liberal filly has failed to distinguish herself so far. It would be unwise to draw any political inference from the equine augury, but at any rate it is clear that in this instance the Opposition chief has been backing the right horse.

In these days, when a pianoforte and a sewing machine form almost an v; essential part of the equipment of a modest cottage, it is odd to hark back to the period when musical instruments in Auckland province were a -/ rarity. One of the very earliest to find its way to the frontiers of civilisation in the Waikato was a small harmonium that belonged to the bandmaster of the 40th Regiment, and was purchased from him by Mr V. E. Rice, the late Secretary of the Auckland Education Board. The subseqnent history of that harmonium was extremely chequered. It came to be v requisitioned for every kind of occa* ■ion where music was required in what was then the wilderness of Auckland. , For some time it led the singing in it- .■■■■*. '• ,!■ ' ' ■'■'■■/ ,"■-•

the old church at.Te Awamutu, ana was alsqt placed at the disposal of all religious denominations.' Moreover, it was carried about to every part of the frontier where a concert' or dance was being held. So severe was the tax upon ' it that , in course of time the majority of - the reeds ceased to give forth any satisfactory sound, and Mr Bice, who was the principal performer upon it, found his repertoire limited co such tunes as he could produce by means of the black keys .:■■■■■/ # Another of Mr Bice's reminiscences relates to a singular meeting of the Education Board' which was carried through with duplicate Chairmen. In the year 1895 the late Richard Udy was Chairman of the Board, and a question arose as to whether his chairmanship did or did not expire with the renewal of his period: as a member of the Board. A section of the considered that it did, and elected the late Jameß Muir as his successor. Mr Udy, however, claimed to be still entitled to preside, and at the next meeting got to the Board room early, and took the chair. Mr Muir stood to his guns, and he also secured a seat at the head of the table. • • ' .' * The first real difficulty in the proceedings arose as to the confirmation of the minutes. Both chairmen claimed the right to sign them. As a ; matter of fact, both did sign. The game procedure was followed with each item of business that day. Every question put by'Mr Udy wbb echoed by Mr Muir and solemnly declared " carried. After the adjournment for luncheon, Mr Muir was the first of the pair to return, and he seized and held on to the official chair. For the rest : of the sitting Mr Udy took the second i seat, and it became his turn to act as echo to bis supplanter. It was ex- > pected that these farcical proceeedings would lead to legal complications

between the two rivals. Nothing came of it, however, and in due course Mr Muir succeeded to the undisputed chairmanship.

Frank Pullen is beginning to find out" that the country life has itß sorrows as well as its joys. On his Bayswater estate Frank built a palatial mansion measuring twelve by twelve, and purposed to pass his week-ends in peaceful meditation, far from madding crowds and from the atmosphere of the Police Court. In this eligible mansion he stored a choice assortment of canned eatables. Unfortunately for Frank, certain evil-minded pirates, as yet unknown, got wind of the fact that the provisions were there, and they swooped down upon them, and snavvled the lot. • • •

The result was that when Frank arrived at his palace on Saturday, he found, like the late Mrs Hubbard, that the cupboard was bare, and that starvation stared him in the face. The situation was particularly desperate,

because the ferry steamers have not yet started to run out that way, and communication with civilisation was practically cut off. Frank did not particularly wish to devour grass, like the late Nebuchadnezzar, nor did the fasting craze appeal to him, and still less was he inclined to get outside of his boots or his braces, after the manner of shipwrecked mariners.. He retired to rest fasting on Saturday night, but towards midday on Sunday the interior void became so aching that he was reduced to the necessity of rigging up a jury mast on the roof of his castle, and flying a signal of distress inthe shape of a certain article of attire. Luckily for Frank, the weird flag was noticed by the occupants of a passing launch, who were able-to come to the rescue with provisions sufficient to last until the following day. Frank has now sprinkled his estate with man traps and spring guns, so pirates had best beware.

Bishop Averill, the new prelate of Hawkes Bay, tells a good story concerning his early days as a cleric. Just after his ordination, when recovering from an attack of influenza, he accompanied a layman friend on a yachting cruise round Scotland. At oneofvthe islands, the weather being boisterous, the future bishop wore an unclerical ulster and a double-peaked cap. Out for a walk,,, he and his friend met a chatty old gentleman, who, when about to say good-bye, felt in his pockets and produced a bundle of tracts. Selecting One, he handed it to the owner of the yacht, and requested him to read it. He also looked hard at the parson, but did not offer him one.

However, he had another bundle, which he evidently considered more suitable to the Averillian case. Care- • fully picking out orie of these papers, he passed it to Mr AveriM, and asked, in a severe tone, "Young man, will yon read that?" Mr Averill promised to do so, but his feelings can be imagined when he opened the leaflet and found it to be headed "A Few Words on Drunkenness." "Thewind, you see," adds the bishop, in relating the anecdote, " had got at the tip of my nose." The point of the joke consists in the fact that Bishop Averill was, and is, a total abstainer, but he tells the yarn by way of suggesting that it is amistake to judge hastily.

It was a wrench to the good people of Ellerslie the other day when G. H. Matthews shook the dust of the fashionable suburb off his feet, to take up his new appointment of assistant master of the Grey Lynn school. For Mr Matthews had done sterling work on behalf ot the rising generation of Ellerslie, especially in teaching the young idea how to drill and shoot, in his capacity as promoter and captain. of the school cadets. Accordingly, both parents and lads turned out in enthusiastic muster at the public hall, to speed Mr and Mrs Matthews on their way. J. S. Dickson, who presided over the gathering, lubricated his tongue to its best eloquence for the eulogy of Mr Matthews's work in the school, and Messrs Skynner, Williams, and Mossman, and Frank Lawry, M.P., also spoke to like purpose, while the feeling of the parents was expressed in an illuminated address of farewell. El-. lerslie has lost a hustling dominie, but Grey Lynn has gained in proportion.

, John Murray, formerly Chief Inspector to ."the 8.N.Z., who was amongst the foremost of- those who helped to set the bank on its legs again after the 1 washing-up period of the nineties, is back in the Dominion again, after fourteen years spent in foreign ' parts, and has been patting both the Government and the Bank on the back upon the happy recovery that has been made since the time of disaster. When he reminds the farmers how muoh better off they are to-day, when they get £20 a bale for their wool as against ' £10 in the seventies, and talks of the time when sheep were down to 5s each, --he stands on pretty solid ground in calling New Zealand prosperous. The principal fly in our ointment, according to Mr Murray, is the price to which land- has been.boomed in the interval. Rather oddly, however, .he does not seem to have said anything about the boom in labour that has accompanied the rise in land. Yet the opinions of so astute a financier as Mr Murray upon the labour -boom ought to be really interesting.

. Thomas R. Roydhouse, the Sydney journalist who arrived in Auckland by the Malwa this week, is entitled to : some notice as one of the most distinguished of the New Zealand band of pressmen who are helping to brighten the columns of the Sydney metropolitan press. The names of Pat Nolan and Lewis WOolcott, form-

erly Auckland journalists, H. J. Taperell, Charles Marter, Arthur Adams and John, Barr will at once occur to those familiar with the inner workings of the press, as other graduates from Maoriland. • ,-■.-.• t

Mr Roydhouse went across to Sydney from Wellington fifteen or sixteen years ago, and, after a short period of service in the " Daily Telegraph " staff—which, by the way, was also the objective of all the other New Zealanders named—he was appointed editor of the " Sunday Times " and "Referee." Both these journals are now recognired powers in Australia, and Mr Roydhouse is their propelling force. Outside journalism, Mr Roydhouse finds time to take an active share in the work of the Boy Scouts and the Aerial League of Australia, of both of which he was a promoter in Sydney, and he is also a Councillor of the British Empire League. On his present mission, besides holidaying, he is keeping an eye on the interests of these three institutions.

There was more than met the eye in the chivalrous conduct of Sale on the cricket field last Saturday, in deliberately sacrificing 'himself because his own momentary inattention, or misjudgment of the value of his hit, whatever it was, had put Mason's wicket in jeopardy. It appears that prior to the match some admirers, designing to put Mason on his mettle, had promised him a bat and a couple of new. hats if he should contribute 50 runs to Auckland's score. Sale may or may not have been aware of this arrangement at the time. Possibly he only acted in a spirit- of simple justice to his comrade in walking out of his crease and giving Mason the wicket. At any rate, bis- action kept Mason on side for the'winning of the promised trophies. The fortunes of the game were, however, against Mason in another way. Just when one more bold hit would have gained him his half-century, he sent the ball into the hands'of a fieldsman. It was apiece of exceedingly hard luck, and Mason had no warmer sympathiser upon his misfortune than Sale.

Ex - Minister of Lands Robert McNab, lecturing at Aberdeen last month, referred to the Hon. James Carroll as the son of a Maori chief. Robert is quite at Bea about the pedigree of his former colleague. Timi Kara's sire was an Irish colonist, well known to the early settlers of Hawke's Bay. His Maori blood comes from his mother, who was a Maori chieftainess of high degree. He inherited a taste for oratory from both sides of hia house, but the genial humour belongs to Erin go Bragh.

Councillor Mennie is credited by the press reports with the utterance of a curious sentiment in the City Council's discussion over the Cox's Creek drainage nuisance. According to the " Herald," Mr Mennie declared that " it was all very well to talk a lot of clap-trap about human lives being lost; but the whole fact of the matter was the Council did not have the money." Tls Mr Mennie, then, pared to risk the 'sacrifice of even a few human lives for the sake of saving hundreds, or even thousands of pounds of city funds? In that case,-, why bother about any sanitation system at all, whether temporary or permanent ? If the Cox's Creek question really does jeopardise life, the question of finance should be merely a seconda.y consideration.

Parliament will have to drag through next session somehow without the sage advice of the philosophic F, E. Baume, K.C., M.P. When Mr Baume left Wellington towards the end of last session, it seemed doubtfuj whether he would ever be able to catch Mr Speaker's roving eye again. Since then his recovery has been marvellous, but he is still unfit to take an active part in public affairs, and his medical advisers have recommended a long rest, coupled with a change of' scene. Accordingly, Mr and Mrs Baume left Auckland by the s.s. Malwa this week, and will quit the vessel either at Port Said or Marseilles, according as he decides whether to travel through France or Italy.

Mr Baume's objective do in t is Nauheim, the famous Prussian watering place, where he purposes to spend several months, returning to Auckland about the end of the year. Nauheim, by the way, is also one of the favourite resorts of another famous man, Edoardus Rex of Great Britain and Ireland. If, now, it happens that His Majesty decides this year to winter abroad, who knows that one of his New Zealand King's Counsel may not come back, to Auckland with a hand that will rival in -distinction .the Royal jy caressed paw that George Tyler values so highly ?

John Kneen was virtuously indignant at this week's/meeting of the Harbour Board at the bare idea that the Board, should go outside its own fleet for a vessel to take Lord K. of K. round the harbour for his ' inspection" of' the fortifications. With a suppressed twinkle in his eye, John reviewed the available vessels. There'" was the tug-boat, -besides the two launches, the famous fire-float .and the various dredges. Why shouldn't the Board muster the whole lot of them, and exhibit- them for' the admiration Of Lord Kitchener and his gilded staff? Or why shouldn't the glorious fleet form a procession for his reception ?. Just at this stage John Kneen noted a glare in W. J. Napier's eye which plainly said "Drag x:in Admiralty House and my silt-punts, and I'll explode!" Rather than risk any such calamity, he dropped his raillery, and someone else took the floor.

R. F. Way delivered a lecture last Sunday on "Woman : As She Was; ''<" > As She Is ; As She Ought to Be." ;j Perhaps one of the ladies will now' % oblige by giving a lecture -on the .J subject of "R. F. Way, as He Ought ---£ to Be." It should prove entertaining. /f|

Mr Justice Edwards must be fer-fsl . vently thankful that none of the pig->|| lets that trespassed with their mothers%| upon Daniel Hayes's estate in the North were bowled over with a rifleJl shot. Had they met any such fate the||| problem in arithmetic that would havegi arisen would have been destructive tall the judicial hair. Under the ing Act, according to Thomas contention, a string of sucklings coun,t, with their mother as one animal.. 86JM that if two out of a litter'of been laid low, only two-thirds of al-Jf complete animal would have remainedss| and the question might then arise!! whether two-thirds of a pig couldjfi commit a trespass at all, .or at, rate more than two-thirds of a tresi|||!| pass. In asy case, his Honor' is fronted with a problem of "Plgiflljllw Clover," and it will be interesting/fc|i§9 see how he solvesjt.' ; : ~ ''-'/^H