DUNEDIN NOTES.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4819, 5 January 1901, Page 3

DUNEDIN NOTES.

[Own Cobbespondent.]

And the rain, it raineth every day. After all our good behaviour, the meekness and contentedness with which we submitted to the water-can for the three Christmas holidays, Jupiter Pluvius answered, or rather rewarded, our admirable conduct with a wet New Year's Eve, a wet New Year's morning, a fine afternoon and evening, and a gloriously wet Wednesday, Of course, the rain is nice. We cheerfully admit its utility, and we know that it will do more good than an ordinary M.H.R. or J:P., but then there are limits and times and seasons, and I am inclined, as a strictly impartial judge, to reluctantly affirm that some of the language, not generally used at mutual improvement societies, and recently indulged' in, was, if not justifiable, at least understandable. However, the Caledonian Society's sports were largely attended and went off most successfully, tbe takings being but little short, for the first day, of those for last year. Nor were these annual celebrations marred by any untoward events. They proved, from first to last, to be most enjoyable, alike from an athletic, social, and financial standpoint. The cricket match, Otago y. Auckland, turned out somewhat differently from that of the week before, when our province succumbed to Canterbury, On this oooasion we succeeded in giving the northerners a handsome dressing down — Otago winning by an innings and 50 odd runs. .For this we were indebted to the good all round batting of some of our men, the bowling of Downes, and the weakness of the Aucklanders' trundling. Tbe attendance was not great, which is merely repeating the story that has so often been told before.

Men ansious to earn an honest penny, and postage stamp cranks, rushed our small and strictly limited post office accommodation on New Year's morning in order to buy up the new and firßt issne of penny universal postage stamps. The job was not a difficult one. Dunedin only had £25 worth to sell and these we sold in shillings worths in less than an hour. Your gennine crank, however, was not content with getting tiis stamp ; he rnu.s.t have it pressed with the post office cancellation mark, " J,an. 1, pi," so he straightway commenced to 'write loving and affectionate opf.es to pim,se}f and then posted them, b'ia reward coming the next morning when the postman handed him his own letter and his own envelope with his own stamp duly cancelled. The one good thing about the business was that the officials, by restricting the quantity purchasable by

one person to a shilling, effectually killed any speculating on the part of the honest men whom I mentioned at the commencement of this paragraph. Church services were fairly general throughout Dunedin on New Year's and the New Century' Eye and were largely attonded. Personally I went to tho First* Church nud heard au excellent

fifteen minutes' address from the Eev.

Fairclough, of tbe Wosleyan Trinity Church. I had just come from the

theatre, but did not feel that there was anything incongruous in my action, and I was glad to recognise one or two others who had done tho same. Per-, haps one of the new developments of the twentieth century will be the introduction of a little commonsense into our manner of receiving amusements and their relation to religion. There is nothing incompatible in either rightly viewed.

By the way an elderly ftiend of mine on the Tuesday, and who had attended tho previous evening's watch night service that was not over till after 12 o'clock, went to a funeral iv the morning, a wedding in the afternoon, and the theatre in the evening. It's a pity, as I told him, that he couldn't have run a christening as well and so completed tho whole gamut of life's mystery in brief.

I was also puzzled ovor Mr Fairclough's address. He did not read it, having only a tiny note book to which he occasionally referred, nor were there any shorthand reporters present, and even had there been the address could hardly have been taken as printed. In fact it was supplied to the Pre^a. And yet he gave it word for word. How was it done ? I hardly think it was a case of learning by heart, for ministers haven't time for that kind of thing Good memory, perhaps.

The last day of the year brought us our big papers and long (summaries. Although I know as much about these last as most folks, I still tako upon myself to ask, in all simplicity : Do the public want big papers and do they read them ? And to both queries I calmly and without malice answer " no." .For one reason the public have not the time, and for another they can't be bothered. How many peoplo read tho 28 columns of nineteenth century, linked sweetness long drawn out supplied by one of our papers and over which much timo and money had been spent. nonmany P

I remember hearing a director of a paper, not 5,000 mileß from Dunedin, 'expatiating in a railway train upon the wonders they were going to do for the public when their linotypes, etc., were all " agoing." " Well, what aro you going to do ?" asked a very well-known Otago wool and grain man. " Well, we shall give the public bigger papers," answered the director proudly. " And we don't want bigger papers," was the reply amid a chorus of " Hear, hears," " they are too big already." "Oh ! nonsense, nonsense," said the director, and he smiled in a much superior style. But tbe wool and grain man was right. I know as much about big papers as most people in Dunedin and I affirm that the public neither want them nor read them. If a paper is not read through at a sitting it is rarely taken up again by townspeople and few of us eit more than half-an-hour over one. Managers may think what they like but they are making a huge blunder when they publish these big and many-sheeted dailies.

Nowaday tho " snapshot " paper is what people mostly demand. The heavy, humorless, solemn leader ? Ugh! We don't look at it. We must have lightness and fun even though it bo unconscious, I don t mind how the fun comes provided it is there. In fact some of the most serious of articles aro often, to me, the mosb amusing. If, for example, a London correspondent dovotes a couple of columns to warning us of France or Germany's intentions because he happens to have information that few prime ministers and potentates are in possession of, why then I grin, or if I read a chronological record which informs me that on May 30th, 1900, Mr T, B. Fairbairn was appointed town clerk of Dunedin and that Great Britain annexes the Free State, why I am devoutly thankful to my unconscious fan maker. In fact there aro many gems in these dry records, to wit- August 30. Bresci, the murderer of the King of Italy, is sentenced to imprisonment, and Miss JRattray wins the golf championship at Christchurch ; or (January 12) General Buller advances on Springfield, and wool at Dunedin wool sales fetches highest price ou record ; or (fifarch I—a1 — a wrong date by the way) Ladysmith relieved ; earthquake at Cromwell ; and I am sure ib is and will be most pleasant for us all to learn that tbe only event that happened in all the wide, wide world on September 23rd last was a trial run of the Kaikorai Valley tram ! Certainly give us humor no matter how we get it, but don't give us big papers.