FUGITIVE NOTES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LXI, Issue 9699, 2 November 1909, Page 6

FUGITIVE NOTES.

(By "Peripatetic")

Very saddening to me was the news of Mr Robert Loftus Stanford's death, for it brought back to my mind some days of compauiouship loug passed away, wheu the deceased aud myself were colleagues on the contributing staff of a big Southern daily, in the days when dear old Bill Mnrison was editorial helmsman of the paper. Mr Stanford's house was then a rendezvous for some of the choicest intellectual spirits of Duuediu, and frequent supper parties brought them very pleasantly together. Mrs Stanford's charmiug hospitality made the home a very delightful retreat. Events like this bring us up suddenly and forces us to notice the headlong speed of time in our later years. The flowers of friendship die off and "from life's shining circle the gems drop away" all too quickly.

The back-blocks suspend judgmeut. Nothing of auy consequence has yet been done, and the land has not been "turned up" iv the House. When that subject comes up, the backblocker will bestir himself, aud dive into Hausard aud watch his own interest—aud his representatives.

Backblocks is getting rather weary of the professional politician; at the bottom he has regard for the House of Commons, mainly because of tbe party of country gentlemen who for so many centuries"formed the main-stay of the representative chamber. For it was the country party that organised and carried out all really great reforms. Conservative though they always were, by au instinct that abhors mere wauton destruction—an iustinct sharpened aud fed by companionship with Nature—they were possessed of a larger beuevolence, and more real altruism thau the towu party, whose thoughts aud aspirations are ail fixed upon busiuess and the circumvention of their neighbours. Hampden, the finest rebel England ever had, was a country gentleman ! And the thriving of land settlement in New Zealand will produce a class of yeomen, of country gentlemen, who will infuse iuto tiie community that true conservatism that alone preserves it from decay aud from destruction at the hands of political quacks. Therefore, though wo must lament that the Opposition —as far as they embrace real producers aud laud-owners—havo no policy, we readily grant that they have the "truth of the matter" in them, aud that their tfery presence, albeit only the presence of a querulous graud-dam, serves to check the riotous extravagance in which the "Great Liberal" party would indulge if it could have its own way unchecked. Aud New Zealaud owes its opposition some gratitude. This is not so apparent as it will be hereafter. It is only when people realise what a tvraut a" democratic State cau become that they will appreciate the constancy and conservatism of those who sit opposite the Treasury benches.

There is a certain humour iv the situation. Side by side with the suffragette movement in England (surely the acme of absurdity) the beauty-specialist flourishes. The paint, powder aud patches of the Georgian era are being replaced by lotious, washes, enamels, aud massage. But it is the same old vauity.

1 can not reconcile these opposite poles. II woman wants equal political rights, and the abrogation of her original honoured function; if sue no longer desires the support or guidance of man—why should she resort to the beauty-specialist? Surely die new woman has not still hidden away in the inuer recesses of her mentality a hankering after ttie old ideals'. In London, recently, a lady was beiug "shampooed " iv a fashionable West End coiffeur's establishment, wheu the preparation that coustitutes a "dry" shampoo ignited. The lady was burned to death aud two assistants were badly burned. Could folly further go? The simple shampoo with soap and water was good enough for our fathers—why not for us? No. ouly a highly iuflaminable gaseous thud will suit the daughters of progress. The poor victim paid for her folly with her life. Let us unite in farewell to the lady. She i? fading Irom our view, and au aggressive, athletic Amazonian, scieutifical, logical, commercial creature in hvbricl costume is fast darkening the doorway. Let us do homage to the vauishiug form of her whose gentleness, aud modesty, aud sweetness made life beautiful ; for she is making her fiual exit. No doubt we shall become reconciled to her successor, but at this stage of her development we, to fraukly speak, don't like her at all.

I call to mind a lady I once knew, with a masculine voice, who always carried a hunting-crop and was followed by a mastiff. I used to gaze upon her sometimes with devout thankfulness that somebody else possessed her. But I see, to-day, that "she was merely gborn before her tinip.