ECHOES FROM THE CAFE.

Waikato Times, Volume XV, Issue 1322, 18 December 1880, Page 2

ECHOES FROM THE CAFE.

Tuekl appeared iv the Herald on Tuesday a letter from an unfortunate victim of the Mormon Eledera who have been preaching in New Zealand. He condemns in no measured terms the Saints of the Mormon Cotirch, sayiny that they are, as a rule, liars, debauchees and murderers. On Wednesday Elder Batfc had an innings, aa a letter from him appeared in the Herald denying the statements made in the letter which appeared on the previous day, and accusing Mr Lunnon, the writer of it, of having deserted his aged mother and little brothers and sisters. The Elder conchules his letter by offering to bet that Mormonism will go and prosper and gain converts, beranse it is not of man bat of God. No doubt Mormonism will gam converts, so long as some men are filled with carnal lust and cannot content themselves with one wife, and, when there are no such men, we will have the millennium. It Elder Batt were sincere in his belief in Mormonism as a pure and holy religion, of which I have very grave doubts, I do not think he would offer to make a bet about the continuance of his religion. I remember when I lived in Melbourne there were a number of Spiritualists at Castlemaine, one of the up-country towns in Victoria, and the newspapers contained an account of a spiritualistic seance, at which it was alleged a heavy griudstone, a bottle of wine and another article were brought into the room in which the sconce was held without mortal agency. The Daily Tclrqraph, the best paper in Melbourne, with the exception of the Art/ us, had a leading article on the subject, in which the editor said that he believed that if the articles mentioned had been brought into the I'oom they were so brought by human agency, and lie offered to bet £50 that if he were allowed to send a detective to a seance, he would be able to prove that hu-Tian agency was employed. The Spiricualists declined to take up the bet on the ground that Spiritualism was their religion, ami, therefore, not a fit subject for fhem to make bets about Elder Batt, however, does not seem to have a similar dulicicy about making bets about the religion he professes. Mr James Stewart, T>. E., to whose compulsory retirement from the services of an unsrr.iteful country I have already referred, will le^ve behind him a number of monuments of his skill and ability. The railway between Riverhead and Helensvitle, on which the gradients are so steop that, I have been credibly informed, it is necessary for the passengers to get out and push the train up the hills, is one of these, nnd there are a number of others which reflect as much credit on his skill. One of his latest and best achievements is the new railway statiou at Newmarket. I had occasion to go out by train to Newmarket the othpr eveninur, aud I could not IWp a' miring the skill with which the lines had been laid there. Wh»n I was there some months ago all the linps of r;iils were 1 lid ou the eastern Hide of the statiou, &o tint passengers going to or from th* 1 station had not to walk ucro«.jj them. Now, thanks to Mr Stewart, an alteration has been made, and there are •nt or beven lines of rails on the western wdH of the station, which must bo crowed by any one going: to or from it from Newmarket. When the dark winter niyhto coma asrain, some one, probably a nervous Lidv or tirnil child will certainly be knocked over by a train when crossing the rails, and be either killed or maimed for life. I draw attention to thia fie*-, not for the benefit of Mr Stewart, for he could not make any alteration new if he would, aud he would not if he could, but so that some of the powers that be might" draw the attention of his successor to the blunder (I beg Mr Stewarts par lon for using such a word with reference to any work of his) which lias been made, so that it may be rectified, without the necessity of a rider to that effect from a coroner's jury. Talking about juries. I am glad to see that the- jury empanelled to £ry Tuhi for the murder of Miss Dobi*, done its duty aud returned a tverdict of "guilty." The Judge also ifas done his duty, and sentenced him to be hung. I hope the Governor and the Executive Council will do their duty and issue the warrant for his execution. lam not of a blood-thirsty disposition, but I know that, if the murderer had been an European, and the victim a Maori, the law would be allowed to take its course, and as the Philo-maoris cry out for the s>ame law for the Maori as for the European, I bay amen. Mr. A. de Li-le Hammond, the Head Master of tho Church of England Grammir School, Paruell, appeared at the Police Court on Tuesday morning", charged with lnving struck a son of Mr. Aithur Ho'ither, on tin; leg with a cane, and lua uiq a ncrl tharoii. The case was adjourned till S'turday, so, as it is still »ib jufticc, it would not be right for me to siy anything about its merits. At the same time, I must s.iy that I think it is a ;rreat pit}' that parents .-hould interfere with fccliool masteib for inflecting chastisement on ••chool-boys, unle&s gross cruelty hats been practiced. Some people say that ;i school- master should bo able to keep boys m subjection without inflicting person il ohasti-emeut, but I do not believe it. "Boys will be boys," and, very often, bul boys, and a certain wise man, who lived two or three thousand years ago, expressed an opinion that he who spares tho rod spoils the child. I kuow that when I was, a boy I got a thrashing- when I deserved it, and I feel quite bure that those thrashings did me good. Man}' of tho readers of the Waikato Times will probably remember reading about a boy, who was at the " Blue-coat " School, committing suicide by hanging himself, in order to avoid a thrashing". The boy was a very bad boy, who never did rii^ht if he could manage to do wroug. He had been thrashed very often, but seemed to become worso instead of better. He had been misbehaving himself, so the master in whose care he was, told him he would thrash him the next morning, aud locked him up all night. Wh*n he opened the door of the room in which he had locked tho boy, the master was horrified to sea him h mtriiijr by the neck— quite dead. Of cour-e, there was a great outcry about the matter, the master was severely censured for having threatened to thresh the boy, and several other masters were summoned for having thrashed boys, and were fined. The thiuir was carried to such an extreme that whenever a boy got a thrashing he went home and told his father, who took out a summons against thf- master, who was brought up at the Police Court and fined. This soon worked its own cure, for the masters would not thrash the boys, but, if they misbehaved, as they did. expelled them. One master used to tell the boys that they deserved to be thrashed, but as giving them a thrashing would cost him a pound , or more, and would be no personal benefit to him, it was too expensive a luxury for him to indulge in. " L<' rot cst mort, vivc h roi /" Mr Peacock has retired into private life, and My Clark is now Mayor of Auckland. T^e ex-Mayor has been so \\a\\ bejau,deti

by the daily papers that 1 will spare his blushes and say nothing in his praise, and, as I have nothing to say in his dispraise, pass on to the new Mayor. He was installed on Wednesday and made a good practical speech. Although he has had no previous connecticn with municipal affairs, except paying a large sum every year in city rates, I believe he will be one of the best occupants of the Mayoral chair we have had, or will have. St. Mcxgo.