DUNEDIN NOTES.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4851, 27 April 1901, Page 3

DUNEDIN NOTES.

[Own Cobbeßpondent.] Well we have had a fairly lively week in everything except mining, and that, like the poor, is always with us. Poor mining (not miners) men ! There was a time when they hustled along Princesstreet, flicking prospectuses nnder decent people's noses, and drinking quarts of champagne on Mafeking days. Now, none so poor as to do them reverence. The former chairman, who orated on patriotic days, has retired into the strictest privacy, and no longer mixes with the gay and the giddy. The reckless youths who wore wide-brimmed hats, smoked cigarettes, and supported the Stook Exchange with their shoulders and their intellects are hunting for a decent office boy's billet at 7s 6d a week and a half-holiday on Saturdays. As for the Magistrate's Court, it was never busier. Lists as long as your arm ofsummonses for unpaid calls meet the casual investigator (ijt. the reporter) in his search for truth, whilst the nightly meetings of annual meetings of, so called, gold dredging companies are of so monotonous a character that one could describe them in a couple of words. 11 Voluntary liquidation " are, perhaps, the most frequent twins that one meets on a cold morning in bis paper, or else some such fascinating item as " overdue calls £3,000 " in a £7,000 company. Of course, we all knew it, I knew it. In fact, my letters of twelve months ago will be found to contain such words of wisdom that, had they only been taken, I am disposed to think, such is my confiding trust in human nature, your readers would, 'ere this, have sent me down a handsome testimonial that would be sufficient to keep me from ever applying for the old age pension. The fact that I have not roceived " a purse of sovereigns " convinces me that my advice was not taken. That's just the way with good advice. Tell a man to spend his money and have a rare good spree and he calls you a brick (at first), but warn him not to put his trust in stock gamblers and he thinks that you are reflecting upon his business sagacity or else want to pick his pooket. Therefore the moral is : Don't give good advice, but if you can't help it and must, let it be bad. Many of your readers ask whether I followed my own admirable sermons. I shall simply decline to answer what I consider impertinent questions. It is sufficient to do as I say. Then let the matter rest in the interests of peace and humanity. And so the Tongariro makes Port Chalmers its first Port of call. Happy P.C ! Happier Dunedin ! Who wouldn't live here during the next two weeks t Mr Chisholm still in office and 300 troopers — all alive and kicking — coming home. Methinks I can hear those words of patriotic fervor rolling across the hats and bonnets of the assembled millions— l mean multitudes. In fancy I can see our Mayor — oor am Bobby Cheesholm — with his head poised and his mouth open speaking things that shall live in history. Truly fate has been kind to him. He opened his term of office with Magersfontein at the Agricultural Hall, and leaves it amid the cheers of the 300. For this last batch is not an orcinary 300. Please don't think that. In addition to their "being all seasoned veterans there is quite a galaxy of brilliant stars among them. We have our C.B.s, and C.M.G.'s, and D.S.O.'s, and, and -well, several other letters in the alphabet. Hitherto we have enly had these cabalistic signs at the end of the names of those who attend Masonic Lodge meetings No 37 we are getting something that we can all understand. I never could quite make out what a P.G.D.W.M. was. A " C.8." looks better as well as being shorter. Gradually, therefore, we are being broken in to gaze without fear upon that fierce light that beats upon a throne. By the time the Royal couple are here we shall, after associating with C.B.s and C.M.G.'s, be quite able to look upon a K.G. or a lord without a tremor. Thus it is that monarohy recaptures the strongholds of democracy. There was a time when you couldn't raise a cheer for the Royal family in Dunedin. Now everyone is- trying to outdo his neighbour. Even Mr A. R. Barclay would prefer to be a C.M.G. to an M.HR., and I am told that he is merely making his position as a committeeman on the Royal Route Committee a etepping stone to higher things. Some say that he dreams wild dreams and that Mr Seddon is not aware of the danger that threatens the Premiership. " No m-a-t-t-u-r-r-r the time will come " As for Royalty's reception committee they are an amusing body. The Governor having emphatically but courteously put his foot down upon the circus parade, round-the-town-in- 40 -minutes show, speechmaking and introduction tomfoolery the committee had the nerve — I should like to use another word -to say that his Excellency's ideas and the Committee's, with very slight amendments, were in harmony. Oh dear! how can people say their prayers and go to sleep contentedly beside the wife of their bosom with such things on their minds. Happy thought. Perhaps they haven't any minds, In any event such a quiok turn about) face, such a ready adaptability to the needs of the hour, indicate the true courtier spirit, and our Royalty committee will probably receive their reward when they pass in serried, smiling, smirking rank before that august presence. The week has been, as I have previously remarked, lively. School committee elections, children's demonstration conferences, mnnicipal addresses and the race for the mayoral chair have all helped to fill the paper with some of the driest and most deadly dull stuff that an unfortunate investor in the daily press (price Id) could ever hope to have. Mr Chapman read an original speech which the Press reported gratis (ahem !) at length. Mr Dawson replied with another original speech at twice the length, which an obliging Press also published gratis (ahem ! excuse my cold), whilst Mr Dennietoa contented

himself with chatty, flippant, and sar ; castic half columns that were too light to charge for, I felt sorry for Mr Denniston. Ab you know he seemed to have a dear field clean up to the day of nomination — barring Mr Chapman, whom we don't take quite so seriously as he takes himself. Then that chopping and ohangeful Mr Dawson came along and upset Mr Denniston's dream of municipal bliss. Even if he gets in he will have had to spend what he might have, under happier auspices, saved. You will observe I say "if he gets in." The reason for this is that 1 am writing be* fore the election. I don't intend to prophesy for some few hours yet. Later I shall go down and then come back and perhaps try to prove that I had predicted it all along. Having just returned from the declaration of the poll I am in a position to foretell the future with some little certainty, Mr Denniston has been elected Mayor of Dunedin for the next twelve months. I am not going to say, " I told you so," because I did not tell you anything of the kind. All I said waa that if Mr Denniston met with no opposition that he would certainly be elected. And I do not sob why T should apologise for having said so. There is little doubt, however, that tbe result was a surprise to a good many. Chapman's stook never was quoted at a very high figure, but Pawson's scrip was being boomed at a great rale right up to late in the day and Bellers were quoting his shares at a premium. Some bets were made, and from tbe confident tone of the man in the hotel bar everybody thought that the Brewery stood a chance of wiuning, Alas! poor Brewery. Nothing left it now but big bills and headaches. Personally I smiled. It is a way I have. But I do like to see impudonce thrashed, and Mr Dawson's pretty little way of acting during the laat ci jht weeks has received a well-merited knock. I don't think we shall hear mnch more about him : His day is o'er, his dream is past, He took the floor, but could not last. I earnestly hope the lesson will nofc be thrown away. As for " Charley," as we all affectionately oall him, I hardly think that he expected to welcome the Dook and Dookess, whilst there was a kind of melancholy foreboding of things to come when he handed one his £100 cheque for the Free Library. Unfortunately for him he attached no string to ii. He has given it absolutely. It will never go back. From the moment I took it and passed it on to tbe right party it was gone-for-ever-gone. Poor, dear, innocent, old Charley. As for the Mayor-elect I can only say that I have never yet heard a single person say that be or she liked him. He hasn't a nice way with him. He is snappy and tries to be smart. He merely succeeds in getting himself disliked. He has all his brother's (Justice Denniston) faults without the tatter's brains. And be will be apt, I think, to try and carry things with a high hand. His. dogmatic treatment of and answer to fche many requests that were made that he should stand aside and let Mr Chisholm reap the reward of his work during the last 18 months was the reverse of pleasant, and I am not yet reconciled to the idea of another person stepping in and reaping where another has sown. Some of us couldn't do it. But, then, some of us haven't such a thing as a conscience in stock.