NEWS AND NOTES.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XX, Issue 5632, 30 May 1885, Page 2

NEWS AND NOTES.

(by sevkiul cynics)

I see the Oouncil wants to vote Captain Cummins, cf tho Wanganui Fire Brigade, a bonus for his 21 year's gratutious services as Lieutenant and Captain of that body. Mr Wellinsured says " it iH a shameful diversion of the people's money, sir !" (Note — Mr W. has drawn two b g dividends out of the companies as a solace for rotten buildings and dead stock • artully destroyed by fire, and which, he thinks, should have been left to burn out mate id of being partly salvaged). The case or '.he man Waters, sentenced to three months' imprisonment the other day by two J.P.'h for obtaining money by means of a valueless cheque, seems a very queer one to outsiders, who only know that Waters put a large number of these bogus cheques into circulation, and was only brought up fcr one, and that the smallest amount, a cheque, is usually drawn for, viz , £1. Why did not the police arraign him ou some of the £5 cheques Why this tenderness for a man who drank champagne by the bucket ; had it been colonial beer, and his clothes less fashionaby cut, I oxpecfc Mr Waters would have been committed for trial on about a dozen charges, and, if convicted, sentenced to a few years' imprisonment. As it is he gets less than a starving man would for stealing a penny loaf in some places.

Talking of penny loaves reminds me that we have uot such a thiug in Wanganui ; why is this thus, with flour less thau a penny a pound, why is bread so dear ? The butchers have reduced prices to meet the times, why can't the bakerß follow suit ? (" Meat and suet oh !" Printer's Devil.)

The first month during which the rota of attendances for Justices has been in force is past, and a comparison of the attendances with the nameß may prove instructive. The following gentlemen on the unpaid list attended on the dates assigned to them: — Messrs Bamber, Baker, Bryce, Dymock, Lomax, King, Morgan, Liffiton, Russell and Noike. The defaulters were Messrs Greenwood, Brassey, Handley, McNeil, *Montgomerie, McDonnell, Pharazyn, and MooreJ Messrs Churton, Handley, and Robertson each put in attendances when no other Justices could be hunted up. Of the de* fantera some are known to have been ill, otlhers away, but as there names were put rota they should have made arrangements with some one else to attend. The duty is not heavy, the call on each individual Justice being only once in each month, or rather for nine months of the year. The honor of being allowed to write J.P., after one's name should not be obtained for nothing, and the country has the right to expect their attendance when required, and as punctuality is the soul of business, they should not keep court officials, and the public waiting when they are due. What fascination is there in a Fancy dress ball, I wonder ? How we do like to trick ourselves out in grotesque costumes when* ever we get a chance, to be sure ! In my youthful days 1 once went to one of these affairs and saw a lady who represented the Press ; she wore a white Batin dress, on the different widths of which were printed exact fac similes of every newspaper in the colony, the illustrated ones having the front page of the dress. In her hand she carried a silver printing press, from which she drew a paper ribbon on which was printed, " Speed the Press." She had an extensive circulation, as she was a capital waltzer and did her " rounds " in a most graceful fashion 1

When the Continuous Ministry raised the grain tariff, they were not content with a simple increase of rates ; not a bit of it, they rose it to a high enough figute in all conscience, and then in a bye-law, or (something of the kind, they tacked two further additions on to an already too high a charge. For example, the freight on a ton of grain say, from Waverley to Wanganui, 33 miles, is, according to the printed tariff, 6s Bd, but to this must be added 25 per cent additional, as the grain is not for export, and a further charge of 6d per ton for some reason not exactly specified ; this ' swells the published rate of 6s 8d up to 8s 10d per ton. Whoever compiles these tariffs and the addenda thereto is a genius ; he never seems to think he has squeezed enough out of the public, and adds another little additional charge slyly into the labyrinth of instructions. Oh ! Mr Maxwell, you are a deep one and no mistake. No wonder you don't like your precious tariffs gazetted and light let in on your way of squeezing the public* I think the best the thing the country could do would be to get rid of Mr Maxwell and all his clan, and get some business men into their places who would work the lines on ordinary commercial principles. At one or two meetings of the Harbor Board lately, there have been complaints made by the natives as to the removal of drift-wood by Europeans from the foreshore and sea beach. The Maories are precluded from so doing, and naturally complain at pakehas doing so. There is a bye-law against this, and yet several parties in town may be seen hauling the wood into their back yards regularly. Why are not the pilot and harbormaster instructed to keep their eyea open, and catch these people ? Fair play all round is due to Maories and Europeans. That was a thunder-clap to the Gas Compauy Directors which his Worship the Mayor raised at the last council meeting. One city father, I understand, could hardly believe it, and had to study the document carefully before he could see that the Gaa Company had not the exclusive right to manufacture gas here. Whether they will reduce the price remains to be seen, though for the quality of it, it might well be— well half the price. Rumour has it, though rumour ia notalways correct, that Mr Timms intends watching the voting on the bonus question. He haa been requested to do so, 1 hear, by a large number of ratepayers. What the next step will be, I cannot say. but probably the large number of ratepayers will give him a seat on the council to see that none of the public money is wasted ! When is Wanganui ever to behold again a decent theatrical company. Although for months past a number of talented companies have been introduced to the colony, they, like the priest and the Levite, have passed by on the other side. " One-horse shows," of not the best description, have patronised this coast, while all the cream of the talent, from Chiarini's circus to the Silver King Company, included Napier on their list. Why is this ? It cannot be that legitimate talent is is not loyally supported here ; for in days gone by Wanganui was noted for the liberality of its patronage. The cause seems to lie rather in the want of suitable steam communication, and if the Union Steam Shipping Company, whose boats call at Napier on the way to Auckland by the East Coast, but have only New Plymouth as a stopping place on the West Coast, would put Wauganui on the list all would be right. What is Wanganui's loss in this respect is Napier's gain, and the question is — " Why should these things be?" Herr Bandman, with his wholesale murdering of Shakespeare, and his execrable temper had almost escaped from memory, when a newspaper notice of a book just published by him, brings up a fresh the visions of the past. In his capacity as author he has adopted the title of " Seventy thousand miles with Shakespeare," a libel on the face of it ! Had he said " from Shake* speare the world have believed him. Sydney and Melbourne treated him in a fashion he did not appreciate, and therefore the audiences, especially in the latter-mentioned are " stupid, ungenerous, and for the most past indifferent to the higher aims and ideas of art 1" New Zealand, however, reversed the judgment of the Australians, and Herr Bandman finds special praises for them in this work, and reports that " the legitimate drama is (here) an institution of daily edification and delight."

In Dunedin the preas give very full reportß of the proceedings of the Parliamentary Union, an institution which seems to increase in popularity, On Saturday last, the debate was a resumed one, the subject being the Reform of the Legislative CounciL A singular fact in connection with the debate is that all but one of the speakers intended voting with the opposition. The general opinion seemed to be in favor of " mending " the Lords by making them elective directly from the people, or " ending " the House by abolishing it altogether. What the Government proposed to do is not clear, but it seemß to have been some system of election by freeholders who held land to the value of £100. The debate was exceedingly interesting, and makes one wish that some of our leading townsmen, whoafdu^H

interest in political matters, would give the thinp a start here. Who'll be the man? Dcn't all speak at once 1 A chairman at a lecture or a tea-meeting, is always looked on aa the orthodox and proper thing, but I hear that the Rev. Mr Shackl ford does not approve of chairmen, at least, not at lectures. They are in the way of the loctur. r, and fancy that tln-y n us»t make a B|v clli beforehand Oh 1 those introductory npet ches, wh » cannot remember instanccfa ot ludicrous mistakes mad.: by wellintt'iitioued, but uut over well-i.iformed gentlemen, in introducing speakers. I remember once hearing -i chairman at a missionary meeting introduce a missionary who had bnen working on one of the South Sea Islands (I fcigct which) by statina that the rev gentleman had came from the United States, wbero the natives were rapid iy becoming Christiana !

The Mr Fred Fulton, who a short time ago offered to raiso 3.0 men for the Soudan, and who, if I mistake not, created a seusasation afterwards by the free use of a revolver, ha« eclipsed these efforts to gain notoriety. At a meeting of Booth's in Dunedin, he got up a big sensation by stepping on to the platform, making a speech, and taking the pledge. He said that he had been drinking whisky for 40 years, and Dunedin whisky was not what it should be. He asked the young men who had been witling to follow him to death to follow him in this step. It seems the public ball, as an innocent Bocial amusement, is going to the doga. People are beginniug to recognise the fact that

" The music of the many twinkling feet " is one of those relics of barbarism which should have been put on the shelf immediately on the advent of the waltz. The difficulty ho tar has been to find a substitute. 'J he ball had many uses— it played many parts. it was without doubt the best matrimonial machine ever invented — the matrimonial Bureau of tans not excepted. But now match-ma- ing mammis and ladies threatened with prolonged spiaatoi hood have discovered a new ageucy by whose means they can inveigle their victims into Hymen's net with greater ease than they could have done even under the most favorable cirou Distances in the best constructed ball-room. Lawn tenniH, with its dictiocar> of fasciuating " technical terms," haa shunted the ball into a shady place, whence it will be hard to extricate it. Proofs of this are handy, ihe Governor held no Birthday Ball this year ; our fancy dress ball wan a failure, and other " fixtures " in the bull line are spoken of with bated breath ; even the "select i' aLCf," that compound of draggle tailed servant girls and tobacco-smoking errand boys, gives but a faint sign of life, thus adding its mite, however, to m, argument that the ball is going to the dogs fast. And the faster the better.