DUNEDIN NOTES.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 4924, 11 January 1902, Page 3

DUNEDIN NOTES.

[Own Correspondent.] I was mentioning last week that we were in the height of the silly Beason — that season which, in the old country, cauaeß the great newspapers to devote their earnest attention to the biggest turnip, our old friend the Bea serpent and such silly topics as : "Is marriage a failure?" or "do you chew tobacco or smoke it?" Dunedin has, however, been particularly favored in having Mr A. B. Barclay, the junior misrepresentative for the city, among us. This gentleman, scorning ease and seaside excursion trips at half-rates, has considerately devoted a large portion of bis very valuable time and a still larger portion of the daily Press to enlightening the Empire at large on the origin, authors and conduct of the Boer war.

Personally I think this extremely kind of him. Anything that causes a genuine hearty laugh nowadays is worthy of commendation and its author deserving of our warmest thanks. Mr Barclay thinks it time that the world should know exactly' what the junior misrepresentative for Dunedin thinks of the fraDerial Government in general and that great statesman, Mr Joseph Chamberlain in particular. Well, now we all know ii. and, in time, doubtless, the J. G. and "Jo ' will know it, too, and then they (like us) .will be moved to gratitude for the honest truth he has unintentionally provoked.

It seems that we are all wrong and all very ignorant. There is not the least doubt about it — Mr Barclay says so. Tho wretched stuff published in the New Zealand papers for the last two years and a half is* fit only for the kiichen fire. Where we have all made a misti ke — 999 per cent, of us —is in not taking Mr Barclay's authorities. He alone knows where to get news, and, strangely" enough aa far as Pivedin is concerned, it is all to be found in the local othenasurn. Mr Barclay has bpen on an exploring expedition. He has come across the speeches and essays and opinions of a few politicians, writers and papers -of whom, of course, we were, every one of us, in total ignorance, and he has, with some comical comments and explanations of his own, gone to the trouble of copying them out and making the unfortunate daily papers reprint them ! Marvellous ! or as Dominie Sampson would say " Prodigious !"

He has'nt told us a single fucfc we did not already know ; he merely gives us^a bit of" Daily News," or poor Sir H.C.8., or Mr John JMorley, cr Mr Bowles, or Sir Somebody Reid, or Mr Oourtne}', or Sir W. V. Harcourf, and then cries, with one hand on his heart and the other raised in supplication to the ceiling : '* 'I here, now, are you all convinced ? " And, then, alas, that I tbould say it, we all lay back and laugh.

What is the net result of the junior member's enterprise ? Well, he has enlivened a dull week ; he has put himself on record as a very foolish person ; he has play.cd into the enemy's hands; he has killed any chance he ever had of going back to Wellington; and he has'nt changed the opinions of a single soul. A bad week's work Mr 8., but you're in the toils now, and may the Workers' Political Committee have mercy on your sorely tried soul !

Mr Wilson Barrett has done good business iv Dunedin, but his managers have made mistakes with the result that on two or three evenings the dress circle was poorly— very poorly— attended. Artistically the company are an all round lot of men and women of excellent abilities. We have got over our firstgush and are es'imating Mr Barrett at his correct worth. That estimate is not one which ranks him among the names of the great men of the stage nor one that places him as high as the advertising puffs, but, still, we Ijke him, and, co far, think him a talented and natural exponent of the ordinary cast of characters known to all theat.re-goers. We have not yet seen him in Shakespeare.

And this is where the managerial mistake came in. Had the company put on Virginius, Hamlet, and Othello twice and left that weak, out-of-date melodrama " The Silver King "severely alone they would have played to crowded houses all the time, JJut no, the managers knew so much better than we old stagers and actually put " The Silver King " on thre9 times and Hamlet, etc , etc., once each only. JEteault, nearly empty circle. Dunedin won't pay 5s for 20-year-old melodrama, and this the company will learn should they repeat the experiment in the other centres.

Mr Dixs manager tells the Press that his chief means to stick to variety even in Dunedin where the craze for it has fallen off, and where he cannot be making much, if any, money. Mr Dix has bought for £20,000 the Princess Theatre and Provincial Hotel and promises to reseat and renovate tne interior of the former. If he does this he will earn the gratitude of all theatre patrons. A sixpeuny bit of copper wire underneath the seat would suffice to hold a fellow's hat. It is not there. Ergo you must either carry it or sit on it. This is a spall but very important *nd cheap reform and one that I trust to see introduced^ We don't wani showy walls and drop scenes. We want comfort and a view of the stage. By the way Mr Dix says that he paid in salaries last year the sum of £33,000, in fares £3,450. in rent £4,250, in advertising and printing £2,210 (not enough of the former, Mr Dix), and in carting £620. That is, the people paid it, for if they didn't patronise Mr Dix he couldn'c pay out the money — could he? Anyway there is eyidently money in the burnt cork and acrobatic business. Two young men, respeotably connected, went out on the spree. They were such gay, giddy, fasoinating young bloods, don't you know, that they were not content to roar and shout at street corners they must go and buy or borrow a revolver and ask boys, men and women to *.* fork out " or they'd let " daylight " penetrate into their " inwards." Unfortunately a thickheaded public couldn't see the poipt of the joke. All they saw was the point of the revolver and they didn't like it at all at all. In faot they screamed, and one little bhap protested so vigorously that the gay young jokers ran away, but were followed and subsequently arrested by a jokeless police. When charged at the Court with an attempt to rob the evidence was found insufficient so the Magistrate gave them a good talking to and let them walk out of Court. I don't think they'll joke with a revolver again — they came aa near the criminal Court aad a jury as ever they are likely to— and with time and care may emerge from their lesson both sadder and wiser men.

. •• No Germans need apply " seems to be the nexfc cry that is to go the rounds. I hardly think: muqh will come of ife. Bo one can feel more fiery than yours respepfcfnlly at the villainous slanders disseminated by the German press, but I think we oan safoly leave the great importers in the old country to tackle this phase of the question. Personally, I never, knowingly, buy anything made in Germany, so my trade cuts no figure. Still many think otherwise, and 1 saw a letter the other day from the proprietor" of one of the largest retail houses in which be stated he had instructed his buyer to purchase no more German goods, "ft is a " bit stiff" when we have our army held up to European execra: tion as deliberate rayjshers of the yj omen and qhildren \n their charge, and one pan excuse almost a»y form of retaliatioD.