ECHOESFRO& THE CAFE.

Waikato Times, Volume XVI, Issue 1357, 12 March 1881, Page 2

ECHOES FRO& THE CAFE.

— .y ♦ Anotheh old colonist Sir Cracroft Wilson has gone to his long home. He was a judge in India in the time of the nmtiny, and he proved himself a brave man by remaining at hia post, when ninety-nine men iv a hundred would have Je|t, and doing his utmost to suppress the outbreak and to save the lives of Europeans, in which he was very successful. It was a great treat to hear him recount his adventures in those perilous $imes, as I heard him in two lectures which ho gave in the Mechanics* Institute, in 1866. He premised to give a third lecture the following year when he came up to the meeting of the (General Assembly, but- the Seat of Government was removed to Wellington so Sir Cracroft did not return to Auckland the following year and the lecture Mr as not given, and, of conrse, it cannot be given now. The lectures were exceedingly interesting and I hope that it will be found, that the deceased gentleman left among his papers memoranda for a book narrating his personal reminiscences of the Indian mutiny. An absurd mistake was made in a Melbourne telegram by which it appeared that the turret-sihp " Cerberus" bad been blown up through the accidental explosion of a torpedo and that four men had been killed, one man only been saved. I k»ew there must be some mistake as, if I remember rightly, the crew of the " Cerberus'' consists of about two hundred men. A subsequent telegram announced that there had been an error, and that it was one of the gigs of the " Cerberus that had been blown up. Unfortunately, the loss of life reported was only too true. I remember when I was in Melbourne there was a grand na7al demonstration in Hobsou's Bay in which the " Cerberus" took part. When the turret gnn was fired the vibration was so great that every article of crockery on board was broken by the first dischai'ge, the natural consequence being great consternation among the stewards, and great rejoicings among the crockery-dealers. There was an absurd lniftake made at that same naval demonstration. After the guns at the fort at Williamstown and the battery at Sandridge had been fired for a considerable time (with blank cartridge, fortunately) it was found that, if ball cartridge had been used, the shots fired at Williamstown would have struck the battery at Sanbridge, and that the shots from the battery would have struck the fort at Williamstcwn. In the Stur on Tuesday evening there appeared a London telegram to the effect that the proposal to hold an International Exhibition at New York in 1803 was likely to fall through for want of public support. What was the use of Bending a telegram to that effect? It is nearly eighty years since the date mentioned, and the people who would have been interested in holding an exhibition in 1803 must be all dead and gone, so what can be the benefit of telegraphing about it now ? So the vacancy in the Cabinet has been filled up, and a Wellington member has been chosen to fill it. I do not think that the Ministry could have acted better, though, of course, there are cavillers. Seeing that Wellington had no representative in the Cabinet, it was but fair that she should supply the "missing link" (of course, I am not writing in a Darwinian sense) and Mr Walter Johnston, the new minister, will, it is said by those capable of forming an opinion, be au excellent administrator aud departmental head. It is said by some people that Mr Johnston should not have been appointed because he is a Roman Catholic, and that, in consequence of his appointment, the present Educa» tion Act is in clanger. When are we to hear the last of ibis bigotry and religious intolerance P When will people learn to judge people by their principles and their actions, and not by their religious beliefs? With regard to the Education Act, I think that both fiiends and foes of that measure may rest assured thuc there will be no radical change iv the Act for some time at least, whoever may be in the Ministry. Even • though Mr Johnston, being an opponent of the Act, were to biing the other members of the Cabinet to his way of thinking, ho would still require to convert the majority of the General Assembly before he could effect any alteration. At present there is a diorama being exhibited at the Theatre Royal, which is witnessed by large crowds nightly. So far as I can learn, the diorama is not very good, and very few people would go to see it ; but there is a distribution of gifts, from a suite of furniture downwards, and it is that distribution of gifts which draws the people Talking about dioramas reminds me of an "antidote," as Mr Gdrrard, the champion of the unemployed, would call it. A diorama was being exhibited on an Australian goldfield, and one of the scenes was being explained to the audience by the lecturer. Why the man who describes a diorama should be called a lecturer, I do not know. However, it is so, so I must accept the inevitable and use the term. Well ! the lecturer was describing the scene to the audience, and, pointing with a stick to a part of the scene, he said, "That's a 'orse." A very quiet-looking Scotchman in the audience, said, " Where is the horse?" "There, stupid." said the lecturer, pointing in a vague way to somewhere near where he had pointed before. "I cannot see it," said the Scotchman. " Then you must be blind," replied the showman. "Yes," said the Scotchman, " I must be blind if there is a horse there, for I cannot see it. Can anyone else see it ?" A perfect chorus of "No" was the reply from the audience. " It's there all right, " said the lecturer, as he gave the sign to the scene-shifter to change the scene. "Wa.it a moment," said the Scotchman, "I want to see that horse before you go any further." There was a perfect chorus of "So do I" from the audience, as the scene began to move away, and there was every prospect of a row, as diggers strongly object to anything iv the way of a swindle. The showman saw that he must give in, so he gave the sism to the scene-shifter to stop the scene, and then explained that he had told the artist to put a horse there, that the artist had told him he had done so, that he believed the artist to be a truthful man, and so believed that there was a horse there, but as no one could see it, it must be an invisible horse. The ingenuity of the excuse "fetched" the diggers, and the scene was changed amid roare of laughter and applause, and for weeks) afterwards the standing joke among the diggers was, "Have you been to see the invisible horse?" The story was told far and wide, and wherever that diorama went the diggers flocked in crowds to see the " invisible horse ." The Purchase enquiry is »tUI attracting a good deal of public attention". A number of witnesses gare evidence, a good deal of .which was mainly, if "not totally, irrelevant to the subject of the enquiry, and the consequence is that, at the present rate of progress, the enquiry wfll probably end with the century. A number of the pupils who have beeu at the Grammer School have been examined, as well as the parents of those pupils, the result being, as far as the pupils were concerned an admission that their want of guccesg m their examination, was mainly duo to their own laziness. It seems to me to be very wrong to examine -pupils as to the , efficiency of their, teachers, and I am. glad.

to see that the (Governors coincide with my view, and have passed a resolution that, in future no boy, who is at present a pupil of the Grammer Sohool, be allowed to give evidence. The Town Clerk has advertised the regulations of the City Public Baths. In them there seems to rae an important orais•fan. , The time when gentlemen will be adtnitted is given, also the time when ifidjM will be admitted, but there is no time given for the admission of that large and rapidly increasing section of the community — the larrikins. This seems to me to be a serious omisson, and it is to be hoped that it will receive the early .attention of the City Council. St. Mraao.