KAISER WILHELM AS A FIGUREHEAD.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XV, Issue 832, 5 April 1882, Page 5

KAISER WILHELM AS A FIGUREHEAD.

Personally, the Emperor of Germany is a large-limbed, good-natured, not-too-quick-witted man, charming as a study of character. He is, in his warlike aspect a little more real than our lamented King George, who has so often described the event that he died in the unshaken belief that he had led a change of cavalry in the battle of Waterloo. The Emperor William has actually heard the distant roar of artillery, and has locked upon the smoke of battle when the Bring had ceased. We all remember the great knack he had of riding up to the great battlefields of 1870 just as all was over, and dating, from amidst the slain, blood-red telegrams to his " dear Augusta," praising God forthis new victory. I don't mean to say that he would not have joined in the fray had need boen or etiquitte permitted. He comes of a soldier family, and his sons showed, during the same campaign, the stuff of which the old tree was made. But. there being no need for him to draw his sword, he was kept out of the range of bullets, and his movements carefully timed, so that he might come in with the flourish of trumpets that announced a fresh and heavier defeat of the French. In war Von Moltke did the fighting and the Emperor wrote the telegrams from the battlefield. Similarly iv politics Bismarck plots and schemes, and often win*, and when all is ready, the old emperor is trotted out to "interviews" which take place in the face of the world, and whereat tho harmless old gentleman ponderously plays his puppet-part and thinks he is moving the world. The re il Emperor of Germany is the heavy-looking burly man who not so many years ago, in despair of his futnre, declared that heaven had intended him to be a farmer, and that when he left his country home to dabble in politics, he was flying iv the face of Providence. Bismarck has a profound and unfeigned reverence for his Imperial Master, as i 3 frequently shown in the volume of his "Early Letters," which with characteristic and amazing-frankness, he half a dozin years ago permitted the world to read. But he plays with him with the skill and cool nes3 th;it a marionete is haudled by its proprietor. Probably the last man in the worid to suspect the autocracy of Bismarck is the Emperor William. Yet every one else knows that in Germany the Emperor reigns and Bismarck governs. — " C-irdiff Times."

At a meeting of the East Christchurch Licensing Commissioners, a point of soma inte eat cropped up, writes an exchange. A firm, one of whos-i members held an. auctioneer's license, applied f->r a wholesale liceuse. The Committee wer3 disposed t<» stand by the Act which plainly forbids the issue of any license to the holder of an auctioneer's liceuse. Mr Stringer contended that the clause was clearly meant to apply to publican's licenses only, and the wording was a slip, quoting the old provincial Ordinance in support of this view. Eventually the Committee expressed an inclination to. take the same view, but feared they were bound by the strict letter of the law to refuse the license. It was then arranged that the Attorney-General should be' communicated with on the subject, and the case was adjourned. The Chamber of Commerce are in communication with the Government on this p tint also, which;; is manifestly of importance to a good many large firms.